Sport
4 April, 2025
Maryborough Soccer Club excited for 2025 with boost to player numbers
The Maryborough Soccer Club will begin its 2025 season this Sunday at Bacchus Marsh, and an influx of numbers across all grades has generated some intrigue for the upcoming year.
The blue and whites will look to further improve from their 2024 campaign in the seniors, a season in which they proved they could hang in the Ballarat and District Soccer Association, registering two wins and a draw.
Maryborough has already hit the field this season, taking part in the prestigious Dockerty Cup in February in a losing effort to the non-A-League affiliated Melbourne City FC.
The club’s technical director Garry George said the club is optimistic about the season ahead, with noticeable expansion in their junior setup and the introduction of a reserves team for the first time.
“We have had a massive increase in numbers and gone from four teams (three juniors, one senior), to now looking at six or seven junior teams and two senior teams,” he said.
“We have got really good numbers in the juniors section, we are probably one coach short still if there is anyone out there interested but we are really excited about what they can do this year.
“We are trying to play out of one site this year all at Jubilee Oval which is also progress for us.
“It has been really hard operating at two sites, so we are going all-in on Jubilee and hoping to make it a home in the interim while council works on finding us a permanent home.”
George is particularly excited by the new reserves team, which will have the same fixtures as the division one senior team in division two.
A personal pet project, George said an integrated reserves side provides a more fluent roadmap for young players to succeed, a roadmap which currently doesn’t exist.
“Something we are struggling with now is we haven’t had that pathway for junior players,” he said.
“Generally we tend to lose a few kids in under 14 age group to football and that in the past has meant no under 17 teams and kids having to jump into the seniors.
“Because we haven’t had any reserves in the past, they have really had a baptism of fire into senior football from a young age and it’s turned them off the game.
“Having this strong base of numbers will ensure we are entering teams all the way through.
“I think we will see the benefits of this surge of numbers in our seniors and reserves results in five years.”
George said the reserves team won’t just benefit the future of the club, but provide current senior players with a chance to further enjoy their football.
“Our first team has been a mixture of players who want to play competitively and players who want to play socially,” he said.
“Now we can have a team that wants to train hard and push to be competitive and a reserve team which gives these young kids an opportunity to embed themselves into senior football and the old guys like me can have a runaround and enjoy the game.
“It makes our whole offerings much more engaging for all sections of the community.”
Both senior teams will start their season with a trip to the Bacchus Marsh Racecourse Reserve to take on the Scorpions.
The two teams faced each other once in 2024, with each taking one point after a 2-2 draw at Jubilee Oval in round five.