No idea that?s a question for them.Originally Posted by Zonal Marking
Look at a club like Wallsend who have had to hire out a venue for years on end as Newcastle Council are not supporters of the round ball game and will not upgrade venues.
Yes clubs can apply for grants but even if clubs had the funds to fix grounds council wouldn?t allow it.
Passmore or the one outside
Both are currently used for Union. Newcastle council aren’t about to evict Hamilton Rugby Club, especially given the improvements undertaken.
A share situation would raise issues around playing surface quality, given the obvious differences in the requirements for the respective sports. Driving past recently, Hawkins (the outside ground) looked horrible.
There’s clearly not enough inner city sports fields, this is a given…yet the previous council were keen to put a basketball centre on valuable green space in Lambton (god I hope it doesn’t go ahead there). As an outsider looking in, I’m not sure where Croatia go in the short term. Can they stay where they are and look to improve the surface while working with council on a sustainable venue?
Do they still play AFL on the outside one as well?
Anyone else take a look at ZFL socials last night to see the award winners as they mentioned they were doing only for a handful to be posted and rest will come tomorrow.
Poor form but should have known better
In the last week or two I've seen Council workers feverishly working on local grounds with cricket pitches in readiness for the coming Cricket season. Sure we have had little rain in recent weeks which has helped but it's obvious that Newcastle Council in contrast do the bare minimum during the Football season to maintain fields up to a reasonable standard.
Jesmond Park as one example was unplayable for weeks and weeks, the grass had grown up to a foot high at one stage and yet the surrounding Park area was mowed and tidied up.
Talking with people involved with a few local clubs, no one ever has anything positive to say about Newcastle Council.
I'd say all the Newcastle Football office staff are probably hungover. Professionalism and Newcastle Football don't go in the same sentence. Funny that most 'Volunteers' Club officials would have had that posted last night or early this morning, not paid Newcastle Football officials.
Yeah, I guess you can only comment on what you are seeing. What I have seen is a few grounds where council have jumped in at the conclusion of the season to do rehab on these fields that have had high traffic through the year. I was pleasantly surprised to see it as it is generally not expected. Kudos to them when it is deserved.
Don't understand why you say "kudos to them when it is deserved"? If they have done it at the conclusion of the season as you mentioned earlier than it only reinforces the point that I was making about the Cricket season being their No 1 priority.
How many clubs would be happy being told to stay off their fields for a week or two mid season while the council does repairs/let the fields rest?
Be nice if they jumped on at the conclusion of the cricket season and did some work as well
Wouldn?t be so bad if you had consecutive away matches during that period
Not sure when you expect them to do work that would make the field unplayable for a period of time. At one of the grounds, it didn?t look like much attention was given to the concrete cricket wicket.
It would mean that the whole club has to have away games for a couple of weeks, plus no training at all.
Not ideal but for the last few seasons every club has had at least a month or so where they have not played at all during the middle of the season so a few weeks where you are still playing but only away wont seem so bad.
Most clubs have alternative options for training grounds as well
No, haven’t for a long time now.
Current council are pushing the same project. It is madness
Cardiff making big announcements already. I'm sure there are no financial incentives to bring these players in.
2026 Prediction
Uni
Suns
Kotara
Olympic
WB
Crabs
Cardiff
Mayfield
Thornton
Stockton
Swansea
Westlake
Zone League is in a new era now. Every club is somewhat in the business of paying/incentivising players. We are getting contract wars between NL and ZL3 clubs to sign players. If clubs don't pay, they'll lag. It's a sign that Zone League is a serious competition now, no more interdistrict Sunday league BS.
It does beg the question that maybe Newcastle Football need to bring in some financial fair play rules soon... In my opinion it is still way too premature to do so but all of a sudden it is a topic that should be on the associations radar moving forward for a fair and respected competition.
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