A record-number of attendees turned up at the Morphettville Racecourse in Adelaide on Wednesday August 8 for the 2025 Turf Management SA Turf Seminar for a day of education, networking, trade and machinery displays.

More than 200 people attended the event, held in the iconic Adelaide Room where a range of guest speakers provided insightful, informative and engaging content throughout the morning and afternoon sessions, capping off with current Test cricketer and former Adelaide Oval groundsman Nathan Lyon as the day’s keynote speaker. 

Melissa Bradley from SA Water kicked off the morning session with an engaging presentation on integrated water management and the pathways to a secure water future. Commonwealth Golf Club superintendent and VGSCA president Adam Lamb spoke about the renaissance course restoration at Commonwealth, Professor Jim Brosnan from the University of Tennessee dialed in via Zoom to provide valuable insight into poa, crowsfoot and other grassy weed control issues and senior track development manager at Racing Queensland Marty Synan spoke about his four-decade career in race course management.

Representatives Adam Mitchell and Mark Burchell from Droneland Australia concluded the education sessions with a look at the value of drones in the new AI world of turf management.

An excellent day concluded with a captivating chat with Lyon - who recently returned from a tour to the West Indies with the Australian Test team - about his humble beginnings as an apprentice curator at Manuka Oval in Canberra for four years, to taking a job as a groundsman at Adelaide Oval under great mate Damian Hough before being plucked from obscurity to become the country’s greatest ever off-spin bowler.

Lyon, who was born and raised in Young before making the move to Canberra as a talented greenskeeper and cricketer before landing in South Australia , spoke with tremendous passion and humour about how his roots in the turf industry and how it all helped shape his perspective on life, cricket and how it still drives him to this day. 

With 562 wickets from 139 matches and counting, Lyon (otherwise known as the GOAT), is the seventh highest wicket taker in Test history, sits third overall for Australia and took the crowd through his cricketing journey, first wicket, greatest opponents and matches, his meteoric rise while working as a curator, relationship with the late Shane Warne and with the Ashes in Australia just around the corner, his thoughts on what taking on England meant for him personally.

Lyon interweaved his story with personal insights into how he has never forgotten where he has come from and how self-belief has been a driving factor in his success on the field. He urged anyone who wanted to chase a dream to follow it with passion, whether it’s as a greenskeeper, curator, superintendent or in any industry.

Keep your eyes open for an upcoming feature on Lyon’s journey from pitch curator to cricket legend in the Australian Turfgrass Management Journal ahead of The Ashes, which starts in Perth on November 21.

Story by Nick Creely/Pictures by Nick Creely and courtesy of the TMSA