New home as Stars look to kick-start season

A RETURNING Italo Stars has entered two teams in the Football Far North Coast competition with the club set to play its home games at a new venue after moving away from Riverview Park.

The north Lismore club rejoined the competition for the first time since 2022 and entered teams in second and sixth division.

It will play the rest of its home games at Mortimer Oval after a rain-affected start to the season has restricted them to just a handful of games.

Until last weekend, the only competition game sixth division had played was at Ocean Shores when it was the only ground in the region open.

Club president Ben Perry said the move to Mortimer Oval should help them get the season back on track.

“The drainage has deteriorated at Riverview Park, so council has moved us to Mortimer Oval for the rest of the season,” Perry said.

“This will hopefully help us play more games and it has changerooms and better facilities.

“We’ve only trained properly a few times over six or seven weeks and we’re not sure what the rest of the season looks like.

“Everyone is in the same boat, I just hope we’re able to get in a bit of a groove and the worst of the weather is behind us.”

The club was hit hard with multiple floods and its merger with Sydney-based Club Marconi after financial struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It has managed to get a core group of players back together with hopes that both teams will be there at the end of the business season.

“We have a red-hot second division side,” Perry said.

“We managed to pick up a few handy recruits and all the old players have come back.

“It would be good to get everyone together after games so we can look after our major sponsor a bit more and get over to the Northern Rivers Hotel.”