READY TO RUMBLE
STADIUM PRIMED TO WELCOME BACK COWBOYS IN HISTORIC SECOND MATCH
BRUCE Fouracre does his best work inside an empty stadium, and the veteran groundsman has backed the Cowboys to do the same.
Mr Fouracre is the curator at Queensland Country Bank Stadium, and while many industries ground to a halt during the coronavirus shutdown, it was full steam ahead for the grass artist.
After having little time to prepare the grass surface at the state-of-the-art facility before an Elton John concert and the Cowboys’ season opener, the rugby league hiatus came as a blessing for him.
Mr Fouracre worked tirelessly, putting in more than 50 hours each week of fertilising, watering and mowing to get the surface up to scratch.
“To tell the truth, (the shutdown) has been really good,” Mr Fouracre said.
“I have had the ground to myself, I haven’t had any interruptions. I haven’t had any training or any football. The grass is looking really good, it has had a real good chance to grow, basically.
“It wasn’t really thriving to start with, but now it has had a chance to get the roots down and established, and now it is looking quite impressive. This month or so has really let me get on top of it.”
Mr Fouracre has been adding organic matter to the surface while also aerating it daily to help promote a better bedding of roots under the surface.
While it has helped the grass take, it has had the added benefit of making it softer for the players.
“It was very firm for the first game. That is to be expected for a new stadium,” Mr Fouracre said.
“The players have not been on it since the Broncos game, so I will have a chat to a few of them after the captain’s run and see how it is all going. I have to run it by them, they are playing on it and they give me the feedback.
“Your ground hardness can relate to injuries and concussions, so you talk to the physios as well.”
The curator admitted while he finds a level of tranquillity in the empty 20,000-seat stadium, it might have an eerie feeling for the players.
But he knows that they are professionals and once the hits start coming in the game they will quickly warm into the situation.
Mr Fouracre will be one of few game day staff allowed in the stadium for tonight’s clash with the Titans and said it was a privilege to witness.
“It is something to look back on in 20 years’ time as a cool memory,” he said. “The thing is you will be able to hear the impact. That will be really good for the people at home. They hit each other really hard those boys and that will echo right the way around the ground. A lot of that is drowned out by the crowd most of the time, this will be something different. “As long as we have football back, the ground is getting used for what it is for, and people can watch along from home. “It is a release for a lot of people.”