St Mary’s Cricket Club, St John’s OC Football Club stripped in burglary

Two sporting clubs in Melbourne’s south-east have been left devastated after losing tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment in a burglary.

A cricket club with almost a century of history and a football club reeling after being booted out of the finals have been left devastated following the theft of property totalling tens of thousands of dollars.

St Mary’s Cricket Club, which competes in the Dandenong District Cricket Association, and VAFA football club St John’s OC, woke on Tuesday morning to find a combined estimate of more than $25,000 worth of property stolen.

Three shipping containers from the clubs’ home ground at Dandenong’s Carroll Reserve were reported missing, with the pair due to move into their new rooms “within days”, St Mary’s Cricket Club president Troy Cashman said.

The containers each housed equipment from the cricket club, Dandenong Council and St John’s OC ahead of the reopening of the club rooms.

“We were getting new rooms, they’re virtually finished, within days of moving in, and all three (containers) overnight have been taken away,” Cashman said.

“Covers, which are about $5000 … absolutely everything to do with cricket in there – stumps, scoreboards, rollers, apparel, marquees, cutlery and everything out of the kitchen, you name it, we’re estimating about $15,000, but we’re not sure.”

St John’s OC president Peter Kelly said the theft of more than $10,000 in property was a further blow after his club was disqualified from its VAFA Division 4 reserves grand final last month.

He added both clubs had battled without rooms for three years, and hoped the Dandenong Council would “get behind the clubs” in support.

“We’re quite stunned – we find it senseless,” Kelly said of the theft.

“There’s no commercial value … we’ve lost our history, honour boards, photos and in excess of 10 grand in property and we’re really hoping the council can work with us to make good on the losses.”

St Mary’s Cricket Club was established in 1928-29 and Cashman lamented the disappearance of decades of memorabilia.

“All our honour boards were in there … it’s sad with all our memorabilia ... we hope to get them back but we probably won’t,” he said.

With the local cricket season beginning last Saturday, Cashman said there was “huge doubt” on whether his club could take the field this weekend.

“We’re going to need a lot of assistance to try and get us up and going for this weekend … everything we’ve bought leading into the season is gone,” he said.

“It’s really put the cricket club in a precarious position … even new apparel for this season is gone.

“We’re going to be desperate for assistance.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au