Grass Is Looking Greener For Sharks
Words: Michael Flynn
Image: Rob Morris/Palm Beach SC
Palm Beach SC officials are confident their Mallawa Complex home will prove a better playing surface in 2015 with new turf being laid this week.
Sharks’ home pitch noticeably suffered toward the end of the 2014 season as the club’s success and the resultant workload took its toll.
Gold Coast City Council, who own the Mallawa Complex, commenced laying the new turf on Monday following three weeks preparation work to prepare the ground.
Palm Beach General Manager Rob Morris said the club was mindful of the need to better manage the use of the main field next season.
“We acknowledge that Field One was overused this year,” Morris said.
“The state of the field is not something that we were pleased with and we were victims of our own success in many ways.”
Morris said the club was grateful for the support of council with not only maintaining the facilities, but upgrading them to deliver a better quality football experience for all Sharks’ senior and junior teams.
“With the number of teams we have playing out of Palm Beach the usage on all our fields cops a hiding so Council plan every year to do some upgrades in the off-season,” he explained.
“We’ve gotten some funding out of Council, who have committed to putting some additional lights over the back where Field Three and Field Four are; so by lighting that area we can take a lot of the traffic off Field One.”
Moriss said it was important for the club to recognise the main field as the showpiece surface as the club’s profile continues to grow through the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues and the Westfield FFA Cup.
“Everyone wants to play on Field One but there has to be a priority list there where we only allow our senior teams to play on it – that’s how we are going to manage it better,” Morris concluded.
Morris also said there will be additional upgrades within the clubhouse for next season.
“One thing we will be doing is adding a state-of-the-art coffee machine so our NPL parents can top up on their caffeine in the mornings,” he said.
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