LOOKING BACK, FROM SKYE TO PENINSULA STRIKERS

History can play such an important part in our lives, dates remembered when this and that happened, sporting clubs are no exception to this. So people become interested in just where everything began in relating to their club, our club Peninsula Strikers is no exception to this and in years to come our story can be told to anybody who is interested.
To start at the beginning which was in 1978, a soccer league was formed by an old club member Tony Hall helped by Bill Morrey who became responsible for the start of another local club Seaford. Skye became a founder member of this league which took the name of the Bayside Soccer League, the ambitions of the two mentioned was to foster a growth in soccer on the Mornington Peninsula, those that have come after have continued to grow the competition and many thousands of adults and children have been able to enjoy the round ball sport over this time.
Tony Hall not only started Skye but also a club called Carrum (who played out of Seaford Nth Reserve), he had previously played for Frankston City which was one of the few clubs in this area at that time, he was thus able to draw on his old friends from that club who had retired and he asked them to put their boots on again for this inaugural season.
The league grew in strength as did Skye, Frankston City now a leading club in State League 1 suddenly had to withdraw from the VSF competition in the early 80’s due to bankruptcy, the fall of this club was to leave a void in soccer in the area which took years to overcome. Why did all this happen, the answer perhaps was in that some members of their committee left the area immediately and it was left to others to try and pick up the pieces.
A stalwart at the club John Smith known as Smudger seeing the situation was grave entered a team in the Bayside League (called Carrum Downs), he was able to gain permission to play out of the headquarters at McClelland Drive thus ensuring that the complex would not be taken over by another sport.
Skye had a junior section which played under the name of Skye Rovers this due to the fact that at the time the Bayside League was considered a rebel league, all the clubs senior and junior games were played out of the Ballarto Road complex, such was the growth of the junior section that an agreement was reached between the old Frankston City committee members still left to train and play junior games at their headquarters. Alan Parrot another previous player from the heyday at Frankston City began having some conversations with John Smith with an idea that perhaps Skye could form a new club that would play in the VSF and play at McClelland Drive. The idea of this was to give a future for juniors graduating from junior to senior status. Over weeks and after many meetings were held an agreement was reached and the following season (1986) would see the name of Skye play in one of the lower leagues in the second tier of competition the Provisional League (Division 4), the State League competition being the higher. Many new players came to the club in fact many who had only arrived in Australia months or even weeks prior. Off the field the club was becoming a happy and friendly place to be, results on the field always seemed to be a struggle, we did not set the league alight, better players from outside of the club would not entertain playing at the level of soccer we were playing in.
Here enters a future leader at the club John Washington by name he was associated with another Provisional League club called Dingley, he was a local person and realised that his club would benefit from a merger, they being able to play on a better ground we gaining a higher league status, they had a smaller junior section than Skye which had struggled to keep going financially and so part of the amalgamation resulted in a sum of money being paid into the old Dingley clubs treasury. A number of the Dingley players decided to join this new set up thus increasing our playing strength. The club was to have an amalgamation of names due to the merger and so we entered playing under the name of Dingley Skye United.
While changes were going ahead within the senior ranks the junior section was thriving, trying to accommodate all our Juniors at Ballarto Road was becoming a headache and negotiations with the Frankston council to find a new home for all our growing numbers was began in earnest. 1986 saw all the efforts prove successful as we left our old Ballarto Road ground for bigger grounds at Robinsons Park. Over the coming years our seniors became a competitive team but the elusive promotion to a higher league did not materialise, by this time all of the players from Dingley who had arrived at the club had either retired or had joined other clubs, the need to call ourselves by the amalgamation name seemed irrelevant, our juniors enjoyed their new home in the City of Frankston not Cranbourne any longer, a change in the club name seemed the way to go and Frankston United became the new name for the whole club, the year was 1989 Two seasons passed by without real success on the playing side but we were at least attracting some class players playing good soccer thus gaining loyal followers both at home and at away games. What the club had strived for over the years came into fruition in 1990 promotion to the Provisional League Division One. Nobody could have foreseen what the future of the club was going to be but in the latter part of the 1993 season talks of another amalgamation began, Karingal United Soccer Club who had become one of the leading teams in Frankston continually pushing for promotion were advised by the VSF that they would need ground improvements before they could gain promotion to any higher league, their ground was not considered good enough and Frankston council were not looking at spending any money on it soon. The master of amalgamations John Washington once again engaged in talks with Dick Jones, Karingal’s president, it was not long before members of both clubs were asked to vote yes or no, and it was an overwhelming Yes. Russell Black who had arrived at the club in previous years was appointed coach, Russell is the finest player to have ever played for the club and it was fitting that he had taken the reins.
What do we change our name to now the answer Frankston Strikers, within two seasons leagues had been won, the local council gave the McClelland Drive ground a complete makeover the pitch described as the best in the state, while this was happening the old Karingal ground at Ballam Park became the clubs headquarters. Our squad of players both firsts and reserves became the envy of all the other local clubs, it was usual to have crowds of nearly a thousand watching the games. Success continued until we found ourselves playing in State League Division 1 (2001).
This was to be the pinnacle of the clubs existence, unfortunately we fell back to the second tier the year after, players retired or left and Russell stepped down.
The next success to come the clubs way was when George Hughes was appointed coach, he put together a good squad of players and we tasted promotion again sadly only to last one season in the higher competition. All this time the juniors had fallen away until sadly we had none, the name Tony Hall once again is mentioned taking over the Presidency and took on the job of restarting a junior section, about sixty boys enjoyed their season of soccer. It was a case of déjà vu at the end of the year George had had meaningful talks with the Peninsula Junior Soccer Club, perhaps realising that juniors are the future of any club and currently the oldest team at Strikers was only under 10’s, a long time to wait for future reserve or first team players but Peninsula had a readymade set up, boys old enough to play senior soccer, and give Strikers a potential future, once again the vote from members was in favour. Peninsula Strikers was born in 2007 and to this date I say perhaps tongue in cheek we are still known by that name. Our years since the amalgamation have not altogether been worth remembering on several occasions we have been close to being relegated to State League 3, we have seen a turnover not only in players but coaches too, all this has caused problems for club officials however the current committee we can say are winning the battle and we predict a bright future for the club.
It might be interesting to note that since the original clubs inception the club colours have changed like the clubs name, in some cases due to the amalgamation and wanting to use neither clubs uniform, in the very beginning green was the colour of the shirts then we have seen blue, white, yellow, yellow and green and now and we hope finally a navy uniform.