Maribyrnong Park Football Club’s home game to go ahead, but club thousands out of pocket

A VITAL home match that could see a Maribyrnong football club top the ladder will go ahead, after thieves ripped up their playing field to get at copper cable.

The Maribyrnong Park cable pit where copper cables were cut and wrenched out by thieves.

A VITAL home match that could see a Maribyrnong football club top the ladder will go ahead, after stolen copper cable was replaced on Thursday.

While Moonee Valley Council acting chief executive Steven Lambert confirmed on Thursday power had been restored and games would go ahead this weekend, the club remains thousands of dollars out pocket.

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Club president Doug Stevens found out about the vandalism when a player went to the Moonee Ponds clubrooms on Sunday and couldn’t turn on the lights.

“The scoreboard wasn’t working. None of the lights in the pavilion or on the grounds were working,” Mr Stevens said. “We had thousands of dollars worth of food and produce in the freezers and refrigerator that we’ve had to throw out.”

Two commercial fridges and a freezer contained meat trays to be raffled off, boxes of hamburgers, chips, scallops, potato cakes, dim sims, and chicken rolls.

The theft saw the club’s 25 teams unable to train for most of the week, and cast doubt over Saturday’s EDFL premier division home clash against Glenroy.

But Mr Stevens said players were back training on Thursday night.

Mr Lambert said the theft was similar to an incident at Strathnaver Reserve Pavilion in Strathmore in April.

“They stole over 500m of cable (in Strathmore), which cost over $20,000 to replace,” he said. “It’s hard to say (if the thefts are related) but they know what they’re doing. It’s not random. It’s organised.”

Tyre marks from the car that wrenched 60m of copper cable from underneath Maribyrnong Park.

Mr Lambert said the council would fill the cable pit, where the copper cable is accessed, with sand and concrete so it couldn’t be cut.

Senior Constable John Hugo said the theft happened around 1am on Sunday, when thieves drove a vehicle on to the oval, cut a cable at the switchboard for lighting and power for the club, tied the cable to the vehicle, and drove through the grounds ripping up 60 metres of underground copper cable.

Sen-Const. Hugo said the signal was lost at 12.50am, and meant the local footy club could not train.

Daylan Kempster of Maribyrnong Park marks strongly during the EDFL football match with Aberfeldie on June 2.

EDFL chief executive Craig Armstead said the league was planning to go ahead with the game at Maribyrnong Park on Saturday.

However, if the ground was not ready it would reverse the fixture with the match to take place at Glenroy’s home ground and the Round 18 match, scheduled for Sewell Reserve, to be shifted to Maribyrnong Park.

A final decision would need to be made by Friday morning, he said.

City Services director Steven Lambert said the theft followed a similar incident at Strathmore’s Strathnaver Reserve Pavilion in April.

Offenders cut copper cable at two cable pits (pictured), then tied one end to a car and drove through the oval pulling it out of the ground as they went.

“They stole over 500 metres of cable (in Strathmore), which cost over $20,000 to replace,” he said.

He wasn’t sure if the two thefts were related.

“It’s hard to say but they know exactly what they’re doing. It’s not random. These people know what they’re doing. It’s organised,” he said.

Stolen copper cable is usually sold as scrap for around $4 to $6 a kilogram or sold on the black market to building sites.

“This is the first time it’s happened in Moonee Valley. It happened in Brimbank and Melton in the last 12 months,” Mr Lambert said.

The council will fill the cable pit, where the copper cable is accessed, with sand and concrete so it can’t be cut.

The price of copper is currently sitting at three-month highs in Australia and spiked to a four-year high globally last week due to a weak US dollar and uncertainty over industrial action at the world’s largest copper mine in Chile.

Three years ago Metro was hit with a spate of copper thieves along its network, delaying half of Melbourne’s trains and impacting tens of thousands of commuters.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact Informant Senior Constable Allister Heintze on 93735200 or Crime Stoppers.