Why the grounds get closed
SPECIAL REPORT BY JOHN MACDONALD
PENRITH Panthers chairman Don Feltis remembers youthful sporting days in the wet: "You'd slip and slide everywhere in the mud. You'd never have a ground closed."
Not any more.
Weekend closures are common, even though the sun may be shining and the sky is blue.
Penrith Panthers legend and now junior coach Mark Geyer had a spray about the closures after June 18-19 matches were cancelled en masse.
Geyer said he'd never had a junior or senior match cancelled in his playing career.
New Panthers supremo Phil Gould said neither had he.
But then nor would any former player of Geyer-Gould-Feltis's vintage.
Closures lead to banked-up games and schedules.
The numbers tell the story.
The Penrith junior soccer association has 14,000 players; there are more than 250 Penrith association junior rugby league games a weekend.
Numbers should grow commensurate with projected population increases.
One effect of cancellations is obvious, apart from rescheduling logistics.
"The kids say they are bored," said Penrith junior rugby league association secretary Yvonne Purtell.
Another effect mightn't be so obvious.
Food and drink sales are clubs' main source of income.
Said Penrith junior soccer association secretary Linda Cerone: "The smaller clubs feel the loss of revenue particularly, when ground hire can be $1000."
All agree there were two main reasons for cancellations: preventing damage to grounds and the threat of litigation, and grounds absorbed more traffic than in the Geyer-Gould-Feltis playing days.
Ground damage affected soccer particularly.
Cerone said consistency of bounce was essential.
Said Feltis: "If you play rugby league and soccer on wet grounds, you bugger them up for the summer."
The Penrith junior soccer association traverses four council areas. Hawkesbury Council rules on ground availability but the others leave it up to the association.
Blacktown Council makes the cancellation decisions for Blacktown District Soccer Association games, and also for Penrith junior rugby league games that overlap into its area.
The rugby league also traverses four council areas, of which only Penrith leaves decisions to the league.
The sports groups were loathe to criticise councils.
Penrith junior rugby league secretary Purtell said aggrieved clubs often misunderstood decisions.
"Even though Penrith do not make a blanket rule that all fields are closed during wet weather, many clubs make the decision to close their fields," she said.
"On the June 18-19 weekend, four clubs had advised me that should football go ahead their fields would not be playable and their scheduled games would need to be moved.
"Looking at the draw for June 18-19, 134 games were scheduled in Penrith, 79 in Blacktown, 23 in Hawkesbury and 17 in the Mountains.
"Based on these figures alone, we would need to reschedule 79 games from Blacktown fields to other council fields, but there would not be enough fields available.
"The question is also asked 'Why don't we play the games scheduled in Penrith when Blacktown grounds are closed, and catch the others up?
"How do you catch up 156 games? There are limited venues with lights and the maximum number of games we can schedule at night during the week at any one venue is three.
"If your team misses a game due to wet weather and other teams play, will you be happy that the competition isn't even and some teams may have played more games than others . . is this fair? No, that is why we go ahead with all or no games.
"If games are played and someone is injured, the council, district and junior club face the possibility of legal action and this is a serious matter.
"Also if a ground is damaged due to games being played when fields are too wet, the junior league club is liable for costs of repair, which could put the club under serious financial strain."
Said Feltis of the problem: "I don't know how you get around it."
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