Currently the Montrose Soccer Club has well over 90 senior members, playing and non playing, and fields 5 sides every week in the FFV & Bayside Leagues. Our juniors have over 180 members so as you can see we are a large club and we're growing every year!!
Our sides include FFV State League 5 Senior and Reserves, FFV State League Women, Bayside Div I, Bayside Veterans (Over 35's).
We also have an ever growing junior program competing in the FFV with nine teams. Over 35 Under 6 & 7 boys and girls participate in the Small Sided Football (SSF) Program with skill sessions and intraclub games on Saturday morning and monthly gala days competing with Boronia, Croydon, Mooroolbark and Ringwood junior soccer clubs.
History of the Montrose Soccer Club
Montrose Soccer Club was formed in 1974 by two chaps who worked at Tessa Furniture in Jersey Rd, Bayswater. Their names were Alan Dufton and Bill Masterson. They approached several players whoworked at Tessa along with players from Bowater Scott. Myself, Peter Scheurer and Mick Read knew Alan and wre asked to join the team too. We played several friendlies against local teams such as Bowater Scott and Fibremakers (now Croydon Ranges).
Alan approached the owner of Tessa for sponsorship and in 1975 we joined what was called the Industrial League and played our first game under the name of Tessa Town. From memory I beleive our first game was against fibremakers at there old ground on Bayswater Road which is now a Clive Peeters Warehouse.
Our ground was situated at Gracedale Park in Bayswater. It had no showers or change rooms, just a public toilet we used to change in until yours truly supplied an old 12' x 12' army tent as our first official clubroom. Even then we were a very social club, sometimes the tent wouldn't be pulled down until 10 o'clock at night after some games.
We stayed at Gracedale for about three years before we finally got a ground with facilities. The groung was at the back of the old Mooroolbark Garden Supplies (Fairhills Park). By this time Alan had changed jobs and was working for a chap called Mick Telly who ran Micron Cleaning, so we talked him into a small sponsorship and became Micron Soccer Club.
In the next few years we changed grounds a few times to Pembroke High School,Lilydale High School and Bargeong Reserve. Over that time we grew from one team to two and won a few championships. Some of the early players in the club today are Doug Colclough (yes he actualy played until he had a spleen removed in the late 70's), Steve Axon, Pete Scheurer, Alan Hardcastle and yours truly.After Micron, Doug obtained a new sponsor (by blackmail I think) by the coincidental name of Amicron who supplied weld rod for Boral Industries.
A few years later we then moved to Keith Hume Fraser Reserve, our present day ground and changed our name to Montrose Soccer Club (Amicron went broke).
We were only allocated one pitch by the council, the other (facing the clubroom) was used for Gridiron.
Just twelve months after we moved there the council told us we would have to vacate the ground to make way for a Lacrosse pitch. The Gridiron boys were kicked out for taking their early warm ups out on the change room walls, and the council told us the pitch would be used for footy.
Our committee got together and took the council on, we wrote to the Soccer Federation and local newspapers, including Fred Villiers (sports writer for the truth). Everyone rallied behind us and called the Lilydale Council prejudiced. Fred Villiers gave us a big write up and bagged the council as they didn't even have a Lacrosse or Football team lined up. We received an apology from the council and undertaking that both grounds could be used by Montrose Soccer Club indefinitely.
In 2011 our first team won the Bayside 1st Division and earned promotion to the Premier League. In 2009 our Legends team won the Bayside League Legendary Cup and won the Bayside League in 2010.
