Double Super Soccer Saturdays
Seniors and juniors are home this weekend against Springvale White Eagles and again the following weekend against Brunswick City and Langwarrin.
Entry to juniors games is free with canteen on site. Don't forget your GV Suns membership card for free entry to all U20 and seniors home games. Under 20s kick off at 5pm and seniors from 7pm with canteen and bar available.
Fixing up the fixture
From Nick Corbo GV Suns Operations Manager
In every season since our club was created we have seen substantial changes to the fixture - from one season to the next and during each season. Overall the changes have well and truly been in our favour, for example in our first years we travelled to Melbourne every second weekend and had to stay over for double headers.
In the seasons since, the double headers have gone and the number of games at home have steadily increased - this year we will play two-thirds of our games at home bringing 17 of Victoria's oldest and strongest soccer clubs, families and supporters to Shepparton. In making these changes the FFV is helping regional clubs create opportunities for local kids to play at the highest level and is building a stronger soccer base outside metro melbourne.
Our new facilities have given soccer in the Goulburn Valley another boost and I've lost count of the number of times visiting club parents and officials have stopped to tell me how impressed they are with our facilities ... it's certainly worth the drive they say. They are also enjoying the club and team bonding that comes with staying in Shepparton the night before or after their games which is great for our local businesses too.
We enjoy calling McEwen our home ground but it's important we recognise that the Sports Precinct is the home ground for three leagues - the SJSA with more than 1000 players from prep to year 12, Shepparton South and Shepparton United in the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League (BASL) and the GV Suns seniors and juniors. This means we need to talk and cooperate and yes, at times, we need to be prepared to compromise. Each of the competitions serves a different need with in our region and each has a right to expect fair use of largely rate-payer funded pitches and facilities.
As a NPL club we have some of the most stringent fixture, pitch, lighting, match official and facilities requirements that are detailed in our rules of competition and are set and enforced by FFV. We also have the longest season - we begin in late February and finish in September which means we start well before and finish well after our SJSA and BASL co-tenants.
With this in mind, in 2017 we provided the FFV with a 2018 fixture that proposed an increased number of Saturday rounds - with 10 rounds scheduled outside the SJSA and BASL seasons and on weekends during the season when these competitions had mid-season or school holiday breaks. We proposed a further three rounds we knew would clash with SJSA rounds but with some cooperation could work. The balance of our home rounds were scheduled for Sundays.
So after all of these careful calculations of what should, could and wouldn't work, we were obviously surprised when the FFV announced the 2018 fixture that scheduled every GV Suns junior home round on a Saturday.
Since the 2018 fixture was released we have been talking with council, our co-tenants and the FFV to address the number of clashes. Fixing up the fixture has required considerable good will, problem solving and attention to detail to ensure we meet our NPL licence requirements - and a general acceptance that no one wants to play on overused pitches.
 In the end we have shifted five Saturday rounds to Sundays with pitch allocations and game times designed to minimise clashes and to meet the NPL rules for pitches, kick off times and facilities - for example we must provide 2 change rooms for each game so if we have access to 2 or 3 pitches we must provide exclusive access to 4 or 6 change rooms at the same time.
The resulting fixture isn’t perfect and will not always give us access to the main pitches - but it is certainly closer to our first proposal. With this in mind we need to thank our co-tenants and council for helping us achieve this outcome.
*We agreed to switch our home and away rounds with Heidelberg which will see us away in August.
Can you help with photos?
If you have photos from our games that you would like to share with us please send them through. Some weekends our volunteers are away or can't make it to every game so if you can help out please email your photos to operations@gvsuns.com.au.
First SAP gala weekend postponed
Our youngest GV Suns will need to wait a few more weeks before they can take on their peers at the SAP Gala days. The gala day prposed for this weekend has been postponed and the revised schedule of SAP gala days is as follows - and are yet to be confirmed.
| Date |
Venue |
| Saturday 19 May |
Shepparton |
| Saturday 11 August |
Albury Wodonga (Murray Utd v GV Suns) |
| Saturday 18 August |
North Geelong |
| Saturday 8 September |
Albury - Wodonga |
Anything else you have always wanted to ask? Send us an email and we'll ask our resident experts to come up with an answer!
SJSA 2018 season begins this weekend
The SJSA competition kicks off this weekend for the senior school age groups with the primary age group competitions beginning a week later on 28 April. This will impact on parking at McEwen so make sure you allow extra time to park and get from your car to the grounds.
If you are involved in the SJSA competition as a player, referee or in another capacity make sure your team manager knows.
Junior coaching course - 4 May - 4-8 year olds
SJSA and FFV will run a Grassroots Coaching course on 4 May. This course is designed for those coaching 4-8 years olds, and all SJSA coaches are encouraged to participate.
Please share this information with your SJSA friends and let's encourage the development of all our local soccer talent. For futher information click here or contact Jodie on 0490838073.
2018 Country Championships in Shepparton
SJSA and Greater Shepparton City Council will host the 2018 CLFA Country Championships on Queens Birthday weekend (9 - 11 June). The championships comprise of Age Groups from and including U/11 to U/16 boys; U/12,U/14 and U/16 girls.
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U18s
