Valley by Numbers!

Valley by numbers

It’s official! Moonee Valley Cricket Club’s phenomenal growth over the past few seasons has made us one of the four biggest clubs in Melbourne.

Cricket Victoria has advised us that the 24 teams we fielded in 2007/08 put us one rung below three other clubs which had 25 teams.

But our forward projections for 2008/09 indicate that we may well go ahead of the other teams – with a third Under 16 team, a fourth Under 12 team and a fifth Under 10 team on the drawing board.

In 2007/08 we fielded nine senior men’s teams, a senior women’s team, two Under 16 teams, four Under 14 teams, an Under 14 Girls, three Under 12 teams and four Under 10 teams.

A birthdate analysis of the juniors from the past season indicates that most of our Under 16s are still eligible for juniors, while the progression through the other age groups will strengthen our playing list and player numbers.

Cricket Victoria’s Stuart Clark advises us that while some clubs, particularly in the eastern suburbs have big junior lists due to strong Milo Have A Go programs, Moonee Valley would surely be the biggest senior club in town with our nine senior teams.

Our growth in senior teams – we’ve added one senior men’s team in each of the past five seasons – is due largely to our junior program.

As well as holding on to our young players coming into seniors through the junior ranks, we’ve been extremely successful in our secondary recruitment targeting – the parents of the players.

A detailed analysis of our senior playing list for 2007/08 shows that we had 192 players across our 10 senior teams – including our women’s team.

The list also showed 39 players still in juniors played one or more senior games during the season, including 24 who played their first senior game.

And a further 28 of our senior players have graduated through our junior ranks and have stayed on at Moonee Valley – enough players for more than two teams.

A lot of players are happy to be on the ‘if required’ list – 37 of our 192 players took to the field for only one game in 2007/08, including 12 who had played previously.

With these numbers, it’s no wonder we’re one of the four biggest clubs in Melbourne!