Tara Murray
It’s been years in the making, but Tarneit United will finally have a FV state league’s men’s team this year.
Having formed in 2014, the club has fielded sides in the lower metropolitan leagues along with having a junior program.
Now with some extra players in their program, Tarneit has been successful in its application to have a side in the state league 5 west competition.
Tarneit president Burhan Farah said they were excited to have finally reached this milestone in the club’s history.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “We’ve had metro sides the last few years, but now we’ve finally been accepted.
“You need to have a lot of numbers to have both seniors and reserves and we’ve been able to build the numbers up.”
Farah said the main reason for wanting to move into the state league competition was to provide a pathway for their juniors.
He said down the track they wanted to have a women’s side as well.
“We wanted to have something for the juniors,” he said.
“Our 16 and 17-year-old kids, we’ve had to tell them to go to other places. Now we have a program for them.
“Our under-16s won the north-west last season, they are doing really well.
“They’ll want to play seniors in the next few years.”
With the club fielding an under-17 team, Farah said most of the young players would still play in that side.
He said some might get an opportunity in the reserves.
The club was set to play a practice match on Saturday, while their first official match is in the first round of the Australia Cup this week.
The club has been drawn to face Doreen United in the first round.
There’s mixed emotions for Farah and the club ahead of the moment they’ve been waiting for, for so long.
“We’re pretty excited, but also a bit nervous,” he said. “It’s a big commitment.
“Anything can happen with the magic of football. We want to get them out there. We don’t want to have a senior program for only one year, it’s about the future as well.
“We can’t wait.”
Farah said the club was still looking for volunteers along with coaches. He said the club was still growing.
In other round one matches in the Australia Cup, West Point, which knocked off a state league 1 side on the way to the fourth round, will face the Waverley Wanderers.
Wyndham will play the Glenroy Lions and the Truganina Hornets will play Boronia.
