Bricklayer builds his club

A modest man, Cardinia United Soccer Club president Mark Dunn has gone from club volunteer to president in five years and has seen player numbers almost double in that time. Justin Robertson spoke to the sub-contract builder who spends his spare time with Pakenham’s junior soccer fraternity and is eyeing better equipped facilities for the club. GLANCING around the room one thing became apparent. Mark Dunn, the president of the Cardinia United Soccer Club loves what he does.
It’s a volunteer job, but he doesn’t complain.
A blue and yellow poster stands alone against a white barren wall.
On it reads “Cardinia Spirit”, surrounded by thumbnails of all the players that took the field in their inaugural season four years ago.
He’s kept it there for sentimental reason. A player calendar hangs on the opposing wall space with a litany of action shots; some in colour, some in black and white. He says it’s for the kids.
As we sit, my eyes are fixated on a 10 kilogram chocolate block and at the foot of it more than 50 player awards are scattered over the table like pieces to a jigsaw puzzle.
This is Mark’s work space during the time he spends listening to parent feedback and organising special club events with his loyal committee, events like the recent Call to Arms day.
Since moving to Pakenham five years ago with his wife Amanda and son Jordan, Mark has dived head first into his helping the club and his community.
“I can remember the first Yakkerboo festival. We sat there and didn’t know a soul, but we’d only been in the area two months,” he said.
“Now it’s got to the point when I go to Coles at 7am on Sunday to get supplies, I always bump into somebody that wants to have a chat – it’s great.”
The English-born sub-contractor casts his mind back to his home town Swindon, Wiltshire, in England’s south-west.
“The first steam engine in England went from Swindon to Bristol,” he said.
“Some of my favourite memories were of the Great Western Railway Museum because they had the first steam engine ever built there.”
To give it context, Mark says the town he grew up in is not far from Stonehenge.
“I used to climb the stones there, but it’s all roped off now,” he said. “Back then it was just a pile of stones in the middle of a field.”
In 1975 he moved to Australia with his mother, Ann, 68 and father, Roy, 74 and lived in Camberwell.
“The expectations were that every house had a swimming pool and there were kangaroos hopping around everywhere,” he says with deep laugh.
“I do remember a teacher talking about how Australia was set to pick a national anthem: Waltzing Matilda or Advance Australia Fair.
“We actually heard about that when I was still in school before we left.”
Sticking to his roots, Mark played soccer for the school team at Camberwell High and then for the Waverley City Soccer Club.
At 15, he left school to pursue a bricklaying apprenticeship and along the way learnt carpentry and has been sub-contracting ever since.
During a hard morning’s work on site, Mark took a smoko break and walked to Food Plus to get his daily bottle of milk and a pack of cigarettes. It’s there he met Amanda.
“Her mum and dad owned the store,” he said. “That was on a Wednesday. I asked her out on the Friday and we’ve been together every night since then.”
After years of working the “grind”, the birth of Jordan soon enriched their lives and a move to Pakenham followed.
It was at Nar Nar Goon Primary where Jordan started his education and came across a newsletter talking about a new soccer club in Pakenham.
“We went along to that, Jordan started playing and, of course, the club was in its real infancy then with only two coaches and 70 members,” Mark said.
“I could see the coaches battling and I just happen to mention I played as a kid in England and offered to help out.”
What started out as “little” help soon spiralled into larger responsibilities.
Mark tagged along to a committee meeting one night and three meetings later he was a committee member.
Five months on, he became the club’s vice president and today he is the president of the club and his wife Amanda is the treasurer.
The modest president chimes in “everyone who puts time into the club gets recognised for their efforts and we make sure everyone gets acknowledged”.
On training nights he’s there straight after work, helping out the coaches with drills, hearing parents concerns and looking ahead on how to accommodate the growing club. By 8pm, he heads home.
When the club hosts a big fundraiser, he puts in a 12-hour day.
“I’m not the only one out there, though, we get heaps of help from the council, parents and volunteers,” he said.
“As the club is growing, it’s taking more and more of my time. My wife, Amanda, understands that enough to allow me to do all that. And I’m just so grateful.”
Last year Mark said his gut had a wrench in it after seeing an under-11s team get belted week in, week out to the tune of 20 goals. Parents were crying foul and wanted out.
But, Mark, persisted and set small targets for the team.
“We started to see the scores come down and by the end of last year they had their first draw,” he said.
“This year, they are in third position. It’s that sort of thing I get a lot of reward from. Seeing them grow and develop.”
In four years the Cardinia United Soccer Club has grown from 70 to 165 members and Mark is looking to securing larger ground facilities to accommodate his “grand plans and grand dreams” for the future.