Eltham North Soccer Club

Eltham North Soccer Club, nicknamed the Redbacks, is a soccer club located in the suburb of Eltham North, north-east of Melbourne, Victoria. The club features men's and women's senior teams as well as juniors and sub-juniors. In 2007 the club supported roughly 350 players. The team colours are red and black - notable for being Eltham's colours, also featured in their Australian Rules Football team, Cricket team and Basketball team.
Women's team
ENSC has a particularly strong (2007) women's team, who currently play in the Victorian Women's Premier League.
The women's team trained and played 'home' games at Partington's Flats in 2006 - sharing the facilities with Diamond Valley football club. The reason for this is that the Cedar Ave facilities are not up to Premier League standard. Partington's Flats boasts a superb high quality ground, clubrooms and kiosk - but no stadium seating.
In 2007 the women's team was unable to use the Partington's Flats facility, and so played their 'home' games at Darebin International Sports Complex which has many full-sized false-turf soccer pitches.
Men's team
The ENSC men's team, coached by Murray Ovens from 2006 to 2009, currently competes in the Football Federation of Victoria (FFV) Provisional League 3 South-East competition. In seasons 2005-2007 the men's team finished middle to lower table.
In 2008 the Prov 3SE team finished on the bottom of the league which meant that according to the rules the team was automatically relegated. However, because Prov. 3 is the lowest of the Provisional Leagues, relegation means expulsion from that system. Therefore Eltham had the opportunity (along with 16 other clubs that applied) to re-apply to enter the league.
The reapplication process included writing a report to the FFV about the state of the club including facilities, junior development and finances, which was then followed by a panel interview which was attended by three Eltham committee members and three senior FFV managers.
The Redbacks' reapplication was successful, and the club went on to finish 9th (out of 12) in the 2009 season.
Facilities
The senior men's team train at Cedar Ave in Eltham North (off Wattletree Rd), where all the junior teams currently train as well. There are two soccer grounds available at Cedar Ave - both are full-sized to FIFA specifications, however one ground is used predominantly for junior players. Currently only one ground has lights, but lighting for the top ground is set to be installed late 2008.

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