As the rain continues to tumble in 2022, there have been several campaigns launched for new synthetic pitches to be built in the Illawarra. However, one local sporting administrator believes groups need to ease caution about the cause.
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Shellharbour Junior Football Club - with support from Shell Cove FC - in May began lobbying local council for all-weather fields to get the green light, Myimbarr Oval viewed as an ideal spot for construction. Those calls followed NSW National Premier League clubs Wollongong Wolves and Illawarra Stingrays being forced to look into booking grounds in Sydney earlier this year as the rain pelted down.
With the area only boasting one synthetic field, at Ian McLennan Park, Cricket Illawarra's Glenn Bridge sympathises. But the administrator also believes Myimbarr Oval may not be the answer.
"We understand and support the need for all-weather things, but it cannot come at the cost of an existing cricket field at a location," he said.
"For example, some people have been calling for Myimbarr to be turned into a synthetic football pitch, but that would mean the loss of a cricket field. And we struggle to get enough cricket fields for the amount of participants we have. So they've got to understand there is a summer and winter season, and in summer, we've got our sport to also look after and not just looking at an all-year-round football facility."
Ongoing wet weather has already caused some winter competitions to be extended in 2022, including Football South Coast lengthening the Illawarra Premier League by six weeks. This change means the IPL will now conclude in October, which Cricket Illawarra has helped make possible.
"We work well with other sporting groups, including Football South Coast and some of their clubs," Bridge said.
''To work together, we just need to make sure that nobody's disaffected by a decision that's made by the council or somebody outside of our control.
"Preparations are already under way for our next season. We learned a lot [with the rain] from last year, so we will just have to hope for the best and see what happens closer to the season."
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Joshua Bartlett
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
A sporting fanatic who is keen to promote all codes in the Illawarra and abroad. Mercury's chief football reporter.
