Traralgon Football Club on road to recovery after Gippsland floods

First there was Covid lockdown, then a flood. This is how long Traralgon Football Club expects it to be before it can return to its home ground.

Flood water from the Traralgon Creek over Franklin St in Traralgon on June 10. The local football club was among those affected by the flood. Picture: David Caird

Traralgon is unlikely to play at home until at least mid-July as the clean-up continues after the floods.

The Gippsland League club has been severely impacted by the flood that swept through the region two weeks ago and president Kevin Foley said it would be some time before the Maroons will be able to play at home.

While the netball courts were able to be cleaned, the football oval and some of the facilities sustained major damage.

“The ground (damage) is a bit more extensive than we first anticipated. It’s got a lot of silt, like really clayey, which, especially once it goes dry, it is really hard to get off,” Foley said.

“At the moment they are hosing and diluting it and pushing it off the ground, but that is going to take a fair bit of time. That is probably going to hold us up a bit more than we thought.”

The canteen has been gutted, and while he was waiting on an update on the status of the change rooms, Foley said it was possible the club could be without them for the rest of the season.

Traralgon was “on the road” when it came to training, Foley said. Thorpdale hosted Traralgon’s footballers in the lead-up to last week’s game, and last night they were headed to another oval in Morwell.

“At this time of year not too many clubs can afford to let an extra set of footy boots on their ground due to wet weather,” Foley said. “It makes it difficult, but the boys are pretty resilient and played pretty well.”

The Maroons travelled to Wonthaggi on Saturday to play the Power in the league’s first round since May 22 due to the Covid lockdown.

Wonthaggi Power led at every change, and held on to a 10-point win.

Traralgon should have been hosting Morwell this weekend, but Foley said the Tigers had been “extremely generous and offered us their ground and the ability to host the game”.

“It is going to impact us a fair bit in terms of being able to operate to the extent we’d normally operate,” Foley said of the damage.

“We are hoping in four weeks’ time we get back on the ground - that would make it July 17 - but the way the ground is looking it’s doubtful, so we will rely a little bit on the draw and try to swap home games and do all sorts of things to maybe get a bit of a run on the way home with some home games.”

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