League’s dry weather plans

By Kath Gannaway
EIGHT YVMDFL clubs could find themselves sharing their grounds for the start of the season if the rains don’t come.
The Gembrook, Emerald, Yarra Junction, Woori Yallock, Healesville, Upwey, Alexandra and Thornton grounds are all being watered to ensure they are playable by 14 April when Division Two kicks off.
The league’s ground at Kilsyth is also being maintained.
Ben O’Brien, league CEO, may be underplaying the situation when he said: “It’s made life interesting”.
Nine of the league’s 19 grounds are being watered through exemptions or dams but the Shire of Yarra Ranges has banned pre-season games and training on all grounds until further notice.
Mr O’Brien said the shire’s insurers have declared the grounds just too hard to train or play on.
“What the shire is aiming to do by keeping traffic off them now is to have as many as possible in reasonable condition come round one,” Mr O’Brien explained.
“On the grounds that are not being watered we are heavily reliant on rain falling between now and then,” he said.
Clubs are using just about any soft surface they can find to do their training, including school ovals and grounds at Lilydale Lake, which is also being used by some Eastern Football League clubs.
While league officials are praying for rain, they are not relying on it.
They have two fixtures ready to go – a best case scenario 19 ground fixture and the “sharing and caring” nine ground arrangement with every ground doubling up and some home to three clubs.
The league is no stranger to dealing with grounds that are too wet – they had the problem late in the 2006 season of clubs being put off their grounds because they were too wet – but drought is a problem Mr O’Brien said presents a new challenge.
“Leagues in the sticks have been putting up with it for a while so they have had time to get things like bores, recycled water and dams in place,” he said.
“It’s leagues on the outer metropolitan fringes, and in Melbourne, where it’s a brand new situation so we don’t have those backstops.”
It will be of comfort to some players (perhaps less to others) to know that even in the very worst case scenario – that the worst drought in Australia’s history sees the end of Aussie Rules – the league has a plan B.
“We might just end up with the biggest blokes’ netball competition in Melbourne,” Mr O’Brien joked.