Through much tireless effort from its hard-working committee, Melrose Football Club is on the verge of achieving that vision.

Rewind to 2009 and facilities in Albury were in poor shape with water-logged grounds, dilapidated change rooms, which were unable to accommodate women, poor public toilet facilities and lighting barely good enough for training.

These shortcomings were brought to Albury council's attention and it kicked off the Sports Review Working Party for Football (Soccer) of 2009-10, and little by little, improvements have been made.

The cricket pitch has been removed from the middle of the playing surface at Melrose Park, which has been levelled and had drainage applied.

Lighting has been completed to provide the club the ability to host night matches, which it has done frequently this season in both the league and the association's FA Cup competition.

The final piece of the puzzle is a brand new clubroom and changing facilities, with work set to commence in the not too distant future.

David Pye has been president of Melrose FC throughout the entirety of the sports review and said the committee made a concerted effort to improve facilities at the club for everybody's benefit.

"Times have changed with female participation in the sport. We're sharing changing rooms and we play in a club with quite a number of teams, so the facilities become inadequate," Pye said.

"We thought about it and we sort of lost pace with a few clubs player wise, but once we complete the improvements we will have very attractive facilities for all our members. To benefit everybody, that's the way we decided to go as a committee.

"It took a lot of energy out of looking after juniors and seniors and we've probably lost our way a little bit in that area, but when we get the facilities, I think we'll bounce back.

"Hopefully it attracts players and we can get back to strong numbers and a more competitive senior side for men and women."

Pye looks back on the work that's been done with enormous pride, and despite the enormous toll its taken on him personally, he's determined to see it through.

But he's the first to admit he couldn't have done it without the army of volunteers alongside him.

"If somebody said to me we'd have ex amount in the bank 10 years ago, the lights finished and the ground sorted, I would have called them a liar," Pye said.

"We seem to be there and we're into the last phase hopefully."

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While Melrose Park has undergone significant transformation, several soccer facilities across Albury have benefitted from the review.

Jelbart and Glen Parks also have lights good enough to run night games, fencing has been erected around Jelbart, Glen and Melrose Parks, significantly improving safety, while Aloysius Park in South Albury has had drainage works and Albury Hotspurs now have lights good enough to train under.

Councillor Henk van de Ven was one of three councillors who got behind the project at the time and spent a year to help develop a comprehensive development strategy for soccer in Albury.

"What happened to really set the whole thing off is we were getting requests from individual clubs about making improvements and saying they were having increasing numbers," Cr van de Ven said.

"Rather than making improvements to facilities on an on-off basis, we engaged with the association and therefore the clubs about what they thought the future of football in this area looked like in terms of increasing numbers.

"One of the issues that came up was the increasing number of females playing soccer and also juniors, so the numbers were burgeoning and that was causing a lot of stress and strain on the infrastructure they had to cope with that increase in demand.

"Rather than reacting to every request for funding to improve facilities, increase lighting or put in new dressing sheds, we went through this master planning process of what the future of football looked like."

Cr van de Ven added the soccer review was also a trailblazer for masterplans undertaken by Albury council for all its sporting facilities.

"We've had masterplans done for the majority of our sporting facilities in the Albury LGA with the likes of Thurgoona Oval, Lavington Oval and we're going through that process now with the North Albury sporting precinct," he said.

"We need to make decisions based on ageing infrastructure, but also the future needs of the sporting group that uses that facility.

"Every request comes back to that masterplan and what we see as priorities for a particular precinct.

"For example, some infrastructure might be at the end of its five year life, so let's replace it.

"The whole thing has been really good at not wasting money and directing money because we've got the masterplans and sport strategy in place."

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