By Tara Murray
After years of pain and out in the conditions, Tullamarine cricketers and footballers now have a new place to call home at Leo Dineen Reserve.
Hume council announced in August 2021 a $1.4 million investment to upgrade the facilities at the reserve.
It included a new pavilion including accessible change rooms and public amenities, as well a new social room, canteen, bar and an external covered viewing area.
A number of issues arose and pushed back the completion date from mid-2022. In December, the rooms were finally opened.
Tullamarine Sporting Club president and cricket coach Peter Labbad said it was exciting to finally get to this point.
“We are stoked,” he said. “We had a pretty good opening held by the council.
“I said in my speech that what has gone on in the world has put things into perspective. The council didn’t know about things that were going to happen and cause delays.
“What they have delivered and what we have now, is outstanding. We have not one complaint about it.”
Labbad said both the cricket and football clubs had been hit hard financially during the delays unable to hold functions at the club and having to play games elsewhere.
He said the cricket club was lucky to get seven to eight people for meals after training while they had no rooms.
The new rooms have already changed that.
“Someone has been in at the club every day,” Laddad said. “We had a cricket function a couple of days after the opening and there were 120-130 people there.
“There were kids running around everywhere. Overnight it has changed, I didn’t believe that would happen.”
Labbad said they already had a number of functions booked for the rooms and would hold a whole cricket club presentation day later this year.
