Golden Grove football and cricket club development plans revealed

Fresh off an undefeated premiership victory, this booming amateur football club are already taking their next step up the ranks with a clubroom boost. See the plans.

Fresh off an undefeated premiership winning season, an emerging local football juggernaut has been handed a major $14m boost in the way of a council development.

Plans for the redevelopment of Harpers Field, the home of Golden Grove football and cricket clubs, have been submitted by the Tea Tree Gully Council to Plan SA.

The anticipated layout of the development showed the field’s main oval would be overlooked by a two-storey grandstand, bar, function space and four inclusive changing rooms.

The changing rooms were connected to the oval by a player’s race.

A secondary “community building” was slated to be constructed towards the lower oval, adjacent to a large parking area and straddled by a nature play area.

Plans for a new Golden Grove club rooms. Picture: TTG Council

The existing clubrooms. Picture: Matt Loxton

Golden Grove clubhouse before a $12m upgrade. Picture: Matt Loxton

The car park area would then be accessible from both Golden Grove and Crouch roads.

A $12m development was announced in April last year, but the finalised plans are a dramatic departure from what was initially proposed.

Those plans were released for community engagement by the council, who received the feedback earlier this year.

Several residents expressed concern about a cricket pitch being added to the main, top, oval, but the council forged on with the idea.

One football club player told the council his team was called the Kookaburras for a reason, and advocated for minimal removal of trees.

“The Kookaburras are our mascot for a reason,” they said.

“They can be heard from the big gum trees surrounding our ovals … We should push to maintain as many trees as possible.”

A grandstand, function centre, bar and community building are part of the plans. Picture: TTG Council

Footballers, Caden, 11, Nevaeh, 14, Jordan Woodards, Madi Koop, Ethan, 10 and Jake, 12 in-front of the current Golden Grove clubhouse. Picture: Matt Loxton

One significant tree – a River Red Gum – would be removed to make way for the development.

Half of the funding for the development will come from the council while the remaining $6m was from the state government local infrastructure program.

Council deputy mayor Lucas Jones said the new plans were integral to enable the football club to meet demand they were facing.

“Particularly since the increased popularity of women’s football, there has been huge demand to expand further,” he said.

“It’s wonderful to see this $14m project progress to the next stage, this is a great example of all levels of government working together to deliver some really great outcomes for the local community.”

When the idea of the development was floated last year Golden Grove Football Club president Kate Grandey told The Advertiser the upgrade was sorely needed to facilitate the player growth experienced since moving to Harper Field in 2008.

After being founded with six teams in 1995, by 2021 the club had 39 junior and senior teams and between 800 and 900 members.

The football club was a dominant and undefeated Adelaide Football League division three premier in 2022.

The victory came on the back of the recruitment of former AFL and SANFL players Lewis Johnston and Cam Shenton.

The cricket club narrowly missed on a grand final victory going down in a heartbreaking loss to Brighton.

The plans will be on public notice until October 6.