{"id":55874,"date":"2025-08-09T17:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T17:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55874\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T17:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T17:39:16","slug":"ex-afl-coach-snubs-casey-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55874\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-AFL coach snubs Casey Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

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by Cam Lucadou-Wells and AAP<\/p>\n

The tyranny of distance \u2013 it\u2019s why Casey Council is calling for the AFL to bring more elite footy closer to its suburban fans in the growing South East.<\/p>\n

But a 10-word parting shot by terminated Melbourne AFL coach Simon Goodwin on 5 August that \u201cprobably what I won\u2019t miss is driving down to Casey\u201d shows that distance argument runs two ways.<\/p>\n

Goodwin was referring to the Demons\u2019 training base at Casey Fields in Cranbourne East \u2013 about 50 kilometres from the MCG by car.<\/p>\n

He hoped that a touted permanent base at inner-suburban Caulfield Racecourse would be \u201cup and running soon\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last week, Casey mayor Stefan Koomen pleaded the case for more AFL \u201cin the suburbs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is hard for residents in Casey to see their heroes play, which I fear is fast becoming a thing of the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking about the journey for a Casey resident to see their team play\u2014because from some parts of our municipality, it can take up to two hours to get to the MCG.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not just inconvenient\u2014it\u2019s a barrier to participation. We want our kids to grow up with access to elite sport in their own backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the AFL has recently purchased Waverley Park and continues to push for a team in Tasmania, Mayor Cr Koomen said it\u2019s time to look closer to home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently have the population of Canberra living in Casey, and in 15 years we will be the size of Tasmania,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t we expect the AFL to seriously consider what they can do for this region? They did it for Ballarat, and that\u2019s been a success. Casey is next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Greater Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti called for an AFL stadium in the South East to boost the dwindled ranks of local Aussie Rules juniors. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the AFL are serious, they\u2019d look at building a stadium in the South East,\u201d Cr Memeti said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the kids are going to games, they\u2019ll want to play and this will increase participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need a stadium to attract the 1.5 million people in the South East \u2013 we don\u2019t go to games of footy often because it\u2019s now too far away.\u201d<\/p>\n

However Cr Koomen said Casey wasn\u2019t asking for a new stadium but to \u201cbuild on what we already have\u201d.<\/p>\n

Located in Cranbourne East, the multi-sport precinct Casey Fields is home to the Melbourne Football Club\u2019s elite AFLW team and serves as their key training base. <\/p>\n

Casey Fields hosts regular-season VFL and VFLW Casey Demons and Melbourne Football Club AFLW games, as well as pre-season AFL matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelbourne Football Club and the Casey Demons have been incredible partners\u2014but they can\u2019t do it alone,\u201d Cr Koomen said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time for the AFL to step up and bring elite footy back to the suburbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Casey\u2019s key advocacy points is to improve access to Casey Fields by extending the Cranbourne railway line to Clyde.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Cam Lucadou-Wells and AAP The tyranny of distance \u2013 it\u2019s why Casey Council is calling for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-55874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}