Australia's peak industry body for Sports Turf Management
Australia's peak industry body for Sports Turf Management
By Nick Creely
There’s a buzz across the Darwin sporting scene with two AFL matches at TIO Stadium (pictured right and below) across the next fortnight to light up the Northern Territory.
For Danny Griffiths of Green by Nature, who is the stadium’s turf manager, it is also a chance to showcase their elite facilities as the Gold Coast Suns play back-to-back home matches at the venue starting on Saturday night against the Western Bulldogs in what is billed as a potential top-eight clash.
The Suns will then host premiership hopeful Hawthorn at the same venue on Thursday May 15 in a blockbuster clash to launch the Sir Doug Nicholls Round.
Griffiths said from a turf management perspective it takes a lot of planning and preparation to get the stadium ready to host AFL football.
Otherwise known as Marrara Oval, TIO has hosted an AFL game every since 2004 and has a seating capacity of just over 12,000.
“I put all my programs in place probably a year in advance, it’s just a constant rotation and a couple of months out we’ve had the NRL as well so the field’s always in a pretty good condition,” he said.
“Over the last few weeks it’s just been about keeping the usual regime going, a little bit of aeration, getting some turf in place where goals have been dug out in the last few months.
“It’s just little bibs and bobs like that you’ve got to be mindful of. It’s more a case of keeping things topped up, the nutrients on the field and stuff like that.”
Griffiths said managing through Darwin’s wet season had provided some challenges with drainage but was confident that by maintaining a steady regime it’ll handle the increased workload in coming months.
“Say if you get 200 ml of rain in a day you’re going to have a pretty wet field, and that’s the key to this place, so there is a bit of work that does need to go into the drainage and that does come down to the government,” he said.
“It’s very important, especially coming out of the wet and into the dry to keep the calcium levels in the turf up because when we haven’t got the calcium right the other nutrients on the field aren’t going to do what they need to do.
“You basically need everything to work in conjunction with itself.”
He added it was always special to play elite sport on the TIO and the AFL was a major drawcard for the city.
“This is why I do it and I why love it. For the Territory, it’s our two biggest games of the year so for us it’s nice to showcase the place a bit,” he said.
“The Territory is more than capable of doing it and the ground’s looking pretty good at the moment.”
It’s going to be a busy year for the multi-purpose stadium, with international cricket returning to the Northern Territory for the first time in 17 years when Australia hosts South Africa for two Twenty20 internationals on August 10 and August 12.
The two fixtures at TIO - the first time men’s Twenty20s will be played at the venue - will open a blockbuster Australian cricket summer.
