IT has been a tumultuous year for the Hastings Club. Declining use of gaming machines coupled with soaring government charges and taxes had changed profits into losses post-covid. Attempts to negotiate with the state government failed the situation came to a head at a special general meeting on 2 April where members voted to place the organisation into liquidation.
Not all was lost, though. The committee resolved to continue and formed a new entity unencumbered by the burden the gaming machines had created. The Hastings Community and Sports Club Inc was born. The chair of the new community club, David Gibbs, acknowledged it would be a long and difficult road, and would be “a community effort requiring many to put their shoulder to the wheel.” Starting with no working capital created a cashflow crisis as the community club struggled to get back on its feet. This had a trickle down effect on the sporting clubs that have sat under the umbrella of the club for over half a century.
On 21 August an urgent call was put out for $50,000 in working capital to be raised to keep the doors of the club open and get through to the busy pre-Christmas period. “The club exceeded its target and secured the capital it needs to make the bistro viable,” said Gibbs. “We call on the community to continue their support.” But now a new crisis has emerged.
Last Tuesday, 3 September, a letter from the president of the Hastings Football Netball Club, Dan Lehmann, was posted to social media expressing their desire to become independent of the Hastings Community and Sports Club Inc. The letter stated “[HFNC] wishes to gain its own independence. Steps have already been put in place as the HFNC has incorporated itself.”
The football club struggled through 2024, no doubt adversely affected by the financial crisis of the community club. The senior and reserves football sides both ended up second last in division two of the MPFNL notching only three wins and two wins respectively. There were positives, though, with the A Grade netball winning their grand final on Saturday (7 September).
The letter to members stated “there is the opportunity for this club to be the greatest on the peninsula through hard work of volunteers with a passion for the success of HFNC. “Our club is amazing and at a point of change and transition both on and off field. Success can be immediate [and] with hard work, commitment and dedication… we will be okay”.
Lehmann, speaking to The News, said “We will still have a relationship with the social club. We just want to have our own financial independence.” “This year, with everything that has happened, it has been very difficult to run a football club.” Asked if HFNC was “jumping ship” now there are difficult times, after benefitting for so many years from gaming machine revenue, Lehmann said “of course, if something is going well, you’re not going to change it. If it isn’t, we have to look at it.”
It is not yet known how new arrangements would work. Potentially, one entity would control the operation of the football and netball, with another entity controlling the facilities required to operate functionally. “These things will need to be worked through,” said Lehmann. “We want to sit with the social club and discuss what it looks like moving forward”.
One person with a long-standing involvement in the club said “the football club is trying to divert energy away from the successful work plugging the leak in the Titanic, and are instead asking members to put their efforts into rearranging deck chairs”.
The HFNC have set a meeting date of 15 September where there will be “a discussion to action” the split, ironically to be held at the club they wish to break away from.
First published in the Western Port News – 11 September 2024
