# Morwell Soccer Club

Morwell SC was a soccer club based in Morwell, Victoria, Australia. The earliest documented record of the club is from 1923 and they went on to compete in both the Central Gippsland Soccer Association from 1933 and the Latrobe Valley Soccer League from 1951.
The club is credited with starting football in Morwell and playing a key role in the formation of the Latrobe Valley Soccer League - which it won in 1954, 1955 and 1957 - before its dissolution at the end of the 1957 season.

## History

Despite early efforts to bring the game to the Latrobe Valley, largely spearheaded by local pastor Norman Minor, the only confirmed team to have been in the region was that belonging to Yallourn SC, who commenced playing in 1923. Minor was later awarded the very first life membership of the Latrobe Valley Soccer Association in 1953.
Mentions of a "Morwell United" team exist from 1923, but detail remains scant as to their consistency of matches, organisation and affiliation.
Victory to the nearby Wonthaggi Magpies in the 1931 Dockerty Cup – three years after the Magpies lost the final to Navy – spurred great curiosity soccer across Gippsland during the intra-war years.
Morwell Soccer Club began to grown in a more formal capacity from 1933 onwards, as interest in the game began to develop in the region. The club formally convened to enter two teams in the CGSA and also entered the statewide Dockerty Cup.
Ahead of a high-profile friendly match in 1934 against Navy – then one of the leading teams in Australia – Norman Minor (at that stage Morwell SC's treasurer) wrote a lengthy letter to the Morwell Advertiser, explaining the rules of the game to the expected large crowd. Navy had knocked Morwell out of the Dockerty Cup earlier that year with a 6–1 victory at the Crib Point Naval Depot.
The club was well-supported in its early years but suffered from finding suitable facilities, much to the chagrin of Minor, who believed the game was being deliberately excluded from town planning and that a small minority of Councillors do not want us to start.
However, a rent-free offering from one sympathetic local farmer, Reg Davey, gave the club its first home on Latrobe Rd, Morwell – despite the facility requiring plenty of "spade work" to be ready for matches.
With the development of the local power industry, including the development of the nearby Morwell Coal Mine and the Hazelwood Power Station, football began to grow in popularity as more immigrants arrived in the area, especially from post-war Europe.
Former Australian international Frank McIver moved to Morwell in 1948 and whilst initially playing and coaching at Yallourn SC, he would finish his career with Morwell SC in 1952 at the age of 48.
Arguably the club's most memorable season was 1952, when the senior side won their first Battle of Britain Cup, the Walter Ingram Cup and also defeating a talent-laden APM Maryvale side 5-0 in the final of the Advertiser Shield.
By 1954, 12% of Morwell's population was Dutch (increasing to 15% by 1961), and the club was effectively "taken over" by the local Dutch community, with all office bearers newly-arrived immigrants from the Netherlands and the coach, Kees van der Zalm, a former Dutch Olympian who represented the Netherlands in the 1928 Olympic Games.
The influence of such highly-talented players had an instant impact as Morwell claimed the LVSL championships in 1954, 1955 and 1957, as well as Advertisier Shield triumphs in 1955 (6-1 v Red Triangle Yallourn) and 1957 (3-2 v Newborough).
At the end of 1957, the Dutch diaspora decided to form Werkspoor, which entered into the LVSL Reserves in 1958 and then ultimately evolved into Fortuna '60 in 1960 - meaning Morwell's championship-winning 1957 season was its last in existence.

## Club colors and badge

The club decided in 1933 that its colours would be light blue shirts with white knicks – ironically would be the colour used by the Morwell Falcons (then known as Eastern Pride) in their final NSL season in 2000-1.

## Stadium

The club initially faced an ongoing struggle for a permanent place to play matches, sharing ovals with Australian Rules football teams – whose clubs did so reluctantly – and occasionally having to travel to Yallourn to play on designated soccer facilities.
In 1951, Morwell Councillor Reg Davey donated the use of farmland on his property at Latrobe Road for the clubs first two seasons in the Latrobe Valley Soccer League.
Later in 1951, the Morwell Shire Council also pledged to build a permanent soccer reserve fronting Maryvale Street, which would ultimately become Maryvale Reserve and is still in use by soccer teams today.
In 1953, the club was afforded land for use by the State Electricity Commission, who gave the club ...commission property sufficient for two pitches and situated at the south-west corner of the main railway line on the new Jeeralang West Rd.

## Club achievements

* Latrobe Valley Soccer League
    Champions (2): 1954, 1955.
* Battle of Britain Cup
    Champions (1): 1952
* Ingram Cup
    Champions (1): 1952.
* Advertiser Shield
    Champions (3): 1952, 1955, 1957.

## Notable former players

* Frank McIver
* Frans Cocu
* Alex van der Heuval