Illawarra was coming towards the end of a super long drought in 2019 when a campaign calling for more synthetic football pitches for the region was first mooted.
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Today those calls are deafening, as wet weather has seen the cancellation of "too many football matches, particular in the juniors".
Shellharbour Councillor Rob Petreski has had enough of the decimation of community sport across the region.
Spurred on by frustrated football club representatives, Cr Petreski and fellow councillor Maree Edwards have put in a Notice of Motion calling on Shellharbour Council to look at suitable sites in the city for future synthetic pitches.
"This is something the community has been talking about for several years now. When I first got onto council in 2017 looking at developing synthetic pitches for the region was one of the most popular requests that I had," he said.
"In 2019 we were in the midst of a super long drought and we were struggling to keep our fields green at that time. Because of the rain events, now we need synthetic pitches for the opposite end of the extreme.
"I had some initial conversations with Football South Coast representatives at the time to see if we could get something going. COVID put a spanner on this to a point and more than two years later no site for synthetic pitches has yet been identified.
"I thought we should put something formal into Council, so that is when we put together the notice of motion with my colleague Maree Edwards.
"We have about $20,000 allocated towards a study.............so we can resource it properly and get council officers to look at it properly.
"It could be a new site or it could be retrofitting an old site. I left it open on purpose because we want the experts to tell us what the best options are, instead of us telling them what we want."
Albion Park Soccer Club, Albion Park City, the White Eagles and Albion Park Cows FC have put up their hands to become only the Illawarra's second venue, alongside Ian McLennan Park, to feature synthetic football pitches.
But Shellharbour Junior Football Club president Yani Sekuloski said Myimbarr Sports Field, the home ground of the Illawarra's biggest junior football club, was the best choice for synthetic pitches.
"Myimbarr is perfect for synthetic pitches," he said. "It is a big complex, has a car park and is centrally in the Shellharbour area. The base is also sand already, so I think it will be ideal.
"There could be two pitches alongside each other....similar to Plume Park in Central Coast, which has got a similar set up to us."
Sekuloski agreed with Cr Petreski that more synthetic pitches in the region would alleviate many problems.
"It breaks my heart that so many games have been cancelled. COVID was terrible for kids and parents alike. To actually see parents and kids at games in recent weeks has been fantastic.
"Now more than ever we need to do all that we can to provide pitches to allow our kids to play the games they love."
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