Ground update
By Nathan Weatherhead
This year was shaping up to be a tough one for the football and netball sides at Neerim South, with a new ground development getting underway leaving them without a place to call home this year.
However, things changed when the coronavirus pandemic came along, seeing the EDFL and EDNA seasons called off earlier this month, meaning Neerim South will return next year ready to play on their brand-new ground without missing a match.
Steve Vincent, secretary of the Neerim South Recreation Reserve Committee said that the oval refurbishment had been a long time coming.
Over the years, many footballers would know that Neerim South has been a notoriously tough to play at, often being greeted with cold and heavy conditions throughout the winter season.
“The ground used to get so boggy. The drainage wasn’t very good despite us trying different methods, but especially the north side, it was just so heavy,” Vincent said.
In 2014 the committee reached out to the Baw Baw Shire in order to begin working more closely with them, instead of always wondering when they would receive new facilities and projects.
They realised they needed to have a better working relationship together and began working closely with recreation staff Shane Paynter and Gabriel McBain.
The committee and club began working on upgrading the areas they could with the communities’ input, which included seats and shelters for the netball courts.
The group continued to campaign and managed to get the project to shovel ready stage, continually meeting with council to show why the ground needed to be redeveloped.
Despite meetings, the project continued to be pushed forward until it finally sat at a “2021 or later” stage.
However, in early 2019 they received a call that money had been attained from several areas, including the AFL and a total of $750,000 was available for the ground redevelopment.
“I remember they just said we had to be out at Nilma Darnum’s home ground where Harriet Shing had a pretty big cheque for us,” Vincent laughed.
The project was set to get underway in December however some disruptions saw the first soil turned over in March.
“Luckily we had a relatively dry autumn, but when June rolled around, we missed our window to sow the grass, so we decided to wait which will unfortunately mean the cricket team will not be able to use the ground again this season,” Vincent explained.
The redevelopment is well underway and close to completion, with the retaining wall, new interchange and coaches’ boxes now in place, with fencing also going in. The ground is now finished and in September the sandy base will go down, followed by the sprigging of Santa Ana couch and ryegrass to be ready for next year.
“It will be a total game changer. Now, we will have a ground that will be free flowing, big and wide. The ball won’t be bogged down in the mud and it will allow players to exhibit their skills and run a lot more. It will change the way footy is played up here,” Vincent said.
Before the upgrade the ground would continually come under heavy training loads, however with the renovation, the ground has been rated to withstand 20-25 hours of training as well as matches, making it a far more sustainable area for football teams and the local schools alike.
“The community is really proud of it. It’s the heart of town and a big part of the community who enjoy walking laps around the oval, it’s such a big focus and to have a brand new one is massive, it will be a fantastic experience for spectators and visiting clubs and gives us the incentives to move forward in redeveloping the change rooms as well, it’s really exciting,” Vincent said.