pre-season games aside - are Councils and clubs calling games of too readily every time we get a few millimetres of rain?
unless it's dangerous to play or there will be damage to the fields that would render them unplayable - should we play, even if it's going to damage the grass?
what happens in other climates where it rains all the bloody time, all the bloody time, rather than just when La Nina turns up ever few years?
Usually im seeing games called off too easily but the last fortnight the grounds ive checked are shyte
I think it’s time councils and clubs came together and more synthetic pitches were built in the region. I know Adamstown is trying to raise funds for one and Myer park is also getting an upgradeOriginally Posted by boz-monaut
Not enough grounds is the issue, the amount of traffic on NPL grounds is a huge problem, youth , woman, men, it adds up
The last two weeks we have had a ridiculous amount of rain, why ruin the grounds for the year for a few games.
Conflicted.
The debates are different for NPL/NL1 clubs vs community clubs.
I’m okay with a conservative approach at the beginning of the season. If pitches are waterlogged, and played on, the damage that occurs often won’t have sufficient time to recover. As FR says, there’s either games the the next day, midweek, or next weekend to think about. Once damage is done, it’s hard to get time to get it right again. Then we get the complaints of how rubbish and bobbly the pitch is. But as the season goes on, I’d like to see clubs be a bit more lenient.
Elite clubs should have sufficient drainage in place for their fields by now, surely. Any club that’s repeatedly washed out, that hasn’t made efforts to improve their drainage should have questions asked of them. Sometimes it’s inevitable. But clubs that have done very little to address it, should be held accountable. Or give the away team the option of hosting and reversing the fixtures if possible.
Most clubs put a lot of effort, time and $$, into their grounds so I can understand why they are reluctant to open them up sometimes. More so true for community clubs who don’t have endless funds to patch and manicure their pitches.
As for artificial pitches, I can’t see it being overly beneficial for anybody but the elite clubs that will be able to access them. I can’t see it affecting community clubs and teams for some time.
It definitely makes sense as a region, to have say 4 artificial pitches to begin, operated by NNSW, HVF, NF and Macquarie football to help generate funds all year round. Other than that, it’d be up to clubs to come together and say okay, let’s split this venture between us and share the usage/funds but that seems like a political nightmare.
I agree this is a major contributor.
We have had a good amount of rain for a long time now. And the volume of games these grounds have to withstand is something grounds can't cope with when the weather is normal IMO.
The grounds deteriorate severely so quickly and as a result, the style of football plummets. Games become more direct because players do not faith in the pitch.
For me, this is lowering the development and quality of players in this area.
I'm generally in the "get on and play" camp, however when looking at the grounds for the club i'm involved in at the moment, there's absolutely no way they can be played/trained on.
Maybe more games scheduled mid week at LMRFF instead of it being an NPL / Jets training ground
"It is not that I am afraid to die; its just that I don't want to be there when it happens" - Woody Allen
Or....instead of Newcastle Football spending $1mil on a meeting room and Elands staff and their fleet of staff cars and new amenities, put that money into a couple of local all weather pitches at select locations. Encourage club sharing of these resources to get games played, 7 days a week. User pays like LMRFF. FFS it isnt hard.
or spread that $1,000,000 over 20 grounds - $50,000 of ground improvements can do a lot
I'm not entirely sure that synthetic pitches are appropriate for Australian conditions - at least not without shading or watering to keep temperatures down
We don't play the season over summer though. Surely theres enough synthetic pitches across the country now to know what works for our weather conditions. Also doesn't hurt them to play in the rain every now and then.
I've heard playing in the snow is fun. How do they manage in the middle of winter in Scotland in the snow but we can't manage a winter in AU?
Newcastle needs it's own synthetic complex.
Anything less is archaic and takes away from our ability to host and play regular comps and tournaments.
I don't believe that NPL(and associated comps) should be prioritised over community football on grounds that are shared by both clubs. At the end of the day, the fields are community fields, there's more community players than there are NPL etc. And community players fork out a lot of money to play too. If you want to talk about the different trigger levels for games being called off on grounds that are solely NPL that's different, but where co-location occurs, it should be up to the ground committee and the same standards should be applied to both. None of this "we'll cancel community football on Saturday so that NPL can play Sunday"
With regard to artificial turf, councils shouldn't be providing turfed facilities. Councils don't even provide NPL level facilities; council provides community level facilities. The upfront capital cost along with the ongoing maintenance costs for artificial is cost prohibitive and won't pass a business case when there's fields out there little better than cow paddocks. Any artificial courts would have to be part of a regional level facility and kept under lock and key, as opposed to all other fields out there which are (when not in paid use) fully available to the general public (e.g. everyone is entitled to go down to Lyle Peacock, Jack McLaughlin, Lakes field, etc. At any time and go and kick a ball around on it) because they would be too at risk of damage and vandalism and the ability to repair the courts would be significantly less and substantially more expensive than grass fields. So I think the only way it would work would be to have the associations save up and create the facilities. Unfortunately though a lot of that cost would go down to community football who would never get on to it.
In my opinion the best option would be to work on getting as many fields as possible sand slit and irrigated. It's around $100-$150k per field to do but it would substantially decrease washouts. It wouldn't stop all washouts, Allen Davis, Charlestown, etc. Are all sandslit and yet are totally saturated at the moment, but it would significantly reduce the risks of washouts and help the fields hold up better. I also think if you asked most players, at least at the community level, whether they'd prefer to have $2m spent fixing up their amenities building that they barely step foot in, or $150k spent on minimising washouts, I think I know what the answer would be.
Penrith council recently finished a multipurpose community artificial turf playing area.
https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/f...hetic-facility
It is fenced ( prevent cars and burnouts) but able to be accessed by anybody at any time providing there’s no “official booking”.
Nepean FC (NPL 3? They play in the Jets Youth comp) have hired it to get games on so far this season.
Edit: Over the summer in Penrith there’s been about 5 playing fields ripped up, and irrigation systems installed, and new turf laid.
Converting a grass athletics complex and football field into a Artificial turf and all weather athletics track.
Also installing irrigation system and turf upgrades and levelling to a 23 field Oz tag facility.
Prices they have quoted are here:
https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/f...ities-upgrades
Last edited by Bremsstrahlung; 15-04-2022 at 05:35 AM.
Nepean had washouts galore over the last month. Got them nowhere
Last edited by finzee; 15-04-2022 at 10:40 AM.
Some grounds already closed for Sunday. Seriously?!?
given how many grounds are closed this weekend after no rain this week (and not much the week before), I think people in charge of the grounds are being ridiculous
we're at the tail end of a La Nina event, it's not going to get any drier than this for several months - we'll have a mid week fixture pile up at the end of the season, with wet grounds anyway - the risk of injuries is going to be much higher than playing games on a slightly soft pitch
What ground is closed on a Sunday already
grounds closed this weekend at:
Beresfield FC, Bolwarra Lorn JSC, Cardiff City, Clarence Town FC, Dudley Redhead FC, Fletcher, Garden Suburb FC, Gresford Vacy FC, Greta Branxton FC, Kurri Kurri Junior, Maitland Juniors, Maryland Fletcher, Minmi, Morisset, Shortland, South Cardiff FC, South Maitland FC, South Wallsend, Southern Lakes, Tenambit Sharks FC, Thornton Junior FC, Valentine Eleebana, Wallsend
since the 16mm of rain last Sunday, we have had 3.8mm of rain mid week
if grounds can't be used after that little rain in a week then we need to address why
I suspect Councils are closing the grounds out of fear of litigation - which is ridiculous
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