Well mostly white, with some black.

They may not be the flattest fields to play on at Waramanga but I hope all are enjoying the white lines.  A wonderful change from the gutters we have had for many years!

Line marking commenced last season with the procurement of a marking machine and we now have several competent people putting in good effort to initially establish and now to refresh the lines each week

Thank you to the teams and players early on in the season.

Thank you to Nick and Brett who have volunteered up their time to walk the lines taking on the duties each week.  If you see them say hello.  They are out there amongst the school kids each Friday walking the machine around. They have done a really good job trying to keep straight lines on such an uneven surface.  The Disc system at least keeps the line a set width.  

By the way if you are wondering how wide we make the lines.  The laws of the game state; all line markings shall be the same width as the goal posts in use (check it for yourself )

It is rather cathartic being out in the winter sun for a couple of hours, something I would consider doing more often if work for me was less.

Our fields are some of the oldest in continuous use in the region. As I can fathom have not been refurbished at all. Consequently, we continue to contend with the infamous “Waramanga Bounce”.  Going from west to east, you can see the field dip and rise. If you lay on your belly and looked from ground level, the ball appears and disappears.  Some of the fields have settled in places but have also been worn and blown away during years of water restrictions and dry winters.  Those hollows fill with water and run off. When the heavy rains do come, they become boggy. 

Some areas get really compacted from use by the schools and from training loads. This makes any grass that may have been seeded fail to establish. With such a short window of non-use, not many of the seedlings have a chance of surviving!

Some of you may notice movement of turf with a few ‘suspect looking’ holes out beyond the playing areas mysteriously appearing.  You may catch ‘the culprit’, on a Saturday morning, shovel in hand, transposing clods of mud with strips of turf.  Now that I spend less time with the marking machine, I set myself a task to go around the fields seeking where I can efficiently replace mud for grass, lifting up pot holes to even up the surface. Corner areas are of most need.

Field 8 down the back next to Arawang has good grass coverage for use as 9v9 (U10 &U11) fields and I am working to fill holes across the area. However, the goal squares are well and truly worn out.  Over time, the field has been brought back into limited 11v11 use.  Typically the younger, and lighter, junior players will move their match will move from the smaller fields to Field 8 each weekend.  It has been marked up with black lines but is a tad narrow for any age above U16 Girls.

I am looking to get it as good as we can for the last round of Women’s matches, a cluster round at Waramanga.  The aim is that we can provide one more full length pitch and removing use of one of the shorter ones the ladies had to content with early in the season.

Having the Southern Region Sports Grounds Maintenance Workshop and Office right here gives us access to the staff. This means we continue the dialogue about plans for grounds work.  We also are able to easily identify any safety hazards, such as leaking or low sprinkler heads, and bring it to their attention.  If any players or supporters notice any safety hazards and can show us, we will address it on the spot or have ACT staff attend to them during the following week.

Juniors have a break for three weekends so the fields get a rest.

If Senior Men and Women wish to use Fields 1 or 3 instead of Field 7 then please ask me first.  If the field is ok to use, Capital Football would need to be advised of the change of field.

Have a good break Juniors!

See you on Saturdays.  Perhaps I’ll have a shovel in hand.

Rodger

WMFC Coach, VP and Player.