Wild weather over the past few weeks has brought competitive football in the Illawarra to a standstill.

What’s hurting a lot of clubs is poor drainage on the fields, meaning games are being postponed and teams are facing a congested fixture list or rescheduled games when the fields finally dry up.

Wests Illawarra FC and Unanderra Hearts have worked together to improve drainage at their ground and were afforded a $42,000 grant by Wollongong City Council to improve their field at Unanderra Oval.

Paul Boscaro, president of Wests Illawarra FC and life member of Unanderra Hearts is extremely impressed with the results of the upgrade and he says it’s been a great investment.

“In previous years, if we had copped the kind of rain we’ve had lately, we wouldn’t be setting foot on that ground for a month.

“Last week we were able to play Warilla in first grade on the Tuesday night and then play the youth grade game on the Wednesday night.

“We were actually surprised by how well the ground held up after playing games last week so it’s been good,” he said.

Unanderra is the Aboriginal word for ‘meeting place of creeks’ and it seemed as if Unanderra Oval was THAT meeting place as more often than not in previous seasons, Wests Illawarra home games would be called off during periods of wet weather whilst fixtures at other grounds still went ahead.

Wests Illawarra midfielder, Daniele Marsala recalls just how bad the pitch used to be.

“In past years, after 10 minutes of solid rain the pitch became a mud pit as it just couldn’t handle water.

"We’ve now had the drainage upgraded and the field is like Wembley in comparison to last year…it’s fantastic,” he said.

After being awarded the grant in 2013, the project commenced in January this year where trenches were dug across the field from sideline-to-sideline and ag pipes were installed as part of a five-day job. 

Gravel was then laid over the ag pipes and sand laid on top of that, which provided a way for water to seep down into the ag pipes, ensuring water wasn’t being held up on the surface of the pitch.

Boscaro believes provided the money is there, more clubs should be taking on projects to improve drainage at their fields.

“With a lot of grounds they should try to have them raised 50-60mL through the middle so water can run from the centre of the field to the outside of the field.

“I think clubs should definitely be taking it on,” he said

Story by Peter Prandalos