Football Club administration set to become all in a days work.
In elite sporting clubs in modern times it’s common practice to employ a number of people to ensure the Organisation 
reaches its full potential on and off the field.
Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Membership Manager, Communications Officer the list rolls on and on without even mentioning the Football department.
In Country Football a very large percentage of a clubs expenditure is spent on footballers. Volunteers some with very little expertise in the position they within a Club administration body are asked to perform their role to a high standard.
This trend in Country Football is slowly starting to turn as Clubs search to be more Professional and gain an edge on opposition clubs on and off the field. It appears to be a trend full of merit as it seems short sighted to pay 12 to 20 senior footballers and not employ one person to oversee the working of the club. The days of having virtually all your locals play for incentives and players and supporters fill the committee were fantastic it was easy and it was the ideal world. The game even at grassroots level has grown above that and peoples value of time and money appears to be for ever increasing.
In the 1980’s & 90’s training for the majority of local clubs would commence in a casual fashion in late January of early February. Now clubs seem to have a minimum of four trainings runs before Christmas as they follow the trends of the elite game. The flow on effect to this is that the off field staff are asked to perform their role for a longer periods of time over the cycle of a year. The other hurdle the faces the traditional committee structure is technology and advances in bookkeeping methods and also the demands of paper work the Victorian Football Country League ask of their clubs.
One local club that has taken the step of employing an administrator is Bendigo Football League side Kangaroo Flat who have Leigh Stevens as their General Manager. The Roos have had lean time in terms of on field results and people to assist with administration duties in recent years which led to the Kangaroo Flat Football Netball Club taking this initiative. Leigh who was already a player and administrator at the club has been able to expand his work load and explore ideas to make the club more financial off the field and more competitive on the field. The early signs are already existent with the club financially sound and able to attract a coach with profile in Darryl Wilson from the Bendigo Bombers as Coach and further appointments of a Football Manager and Junior Development Officers.
The Barman along with the bloke who cooks with B.B.Q , the lady in the canteen and the kid in the scoreboard will always be needed in country football clubs although it may be those that put some professional expertise amongst them that flourish in years to come.
