Coronet City-Newlyn Cricket Club has opened its first permanent training nets since the establishment of the club, with the assistance of a federal government grant.
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The $140,000 nets were jointly paid for by the government and Hepburn Shire Council through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program.
Newlyn Recreation Reserve committee of management president Kevin Clohesy says the new nets are the product of years of community planning.
"It's been in the master plan for the committee of management here for a long time," Mr Clohesy says.
"We just keep addressing it when we can."
Club secretary and treasurer Shannon Slater says the last four or five years have seen the plan come to fruition, but long-serving Newlyn CC president Craig Slater says he's been involved at the club for 45 years and all that time the members were seeking a solution to the old nets, which were made of a metal frame on wheels and had to be rolled out to the centre of the ground for practice.
"The thing was the run-ups used to get destroyed through training, and we used to try and rotate the ends," Mr Slater says.
"The big problem came when preseason football started, there was a bit of a two-week crossover and it was hard to roll the nets out."
More importantly, a lack of permanent nets were a discouragement to potential young players who wanted to come down for a hit at odd times.
"Kids can come down here and play cricket now. The old net was flimsy for children to be around, winds used to blow it over. The school's bouncing back; I think they've got nine preps this year. Newlyn is recovering, houses are getting built."
MP Catherine King said she understood how vital community sport was to Newlyn, and how investment stimulated the local economy.
"Part of getting new members is making sure your facilities are up to speed and making sure they're actually available for people to train all the time," Ms King said.
