West Adelaide gets a $50,000 gift as the AFL prepares Richmond Oval for Crows/Power NAB Challenge match

RICHMOND Oval will challenge for the most pristine Oval in SA after an injection of $50,000 for Sunday’s NAB Challenge between Crows and Port.

City Mazda Stadium (Richmond Oval) gets a makeover in preparation for this week's NAB Challenge match between the Crows and P...

RICHMOND Oval will challenge for the most pristine oval in South Australia after an injection of $50,000 from the AFL and the West Torrens council ahead of Sunday’s NAB Challenge match between Adelaide and Port Adelaide.

The surface is looking like a billiard table after work began at the ground after the AFL’s selection process finished in October.

Key planks in the efforts to bring the ground up to AFL standard have included:

NEW, taller goalposts installed and old ones removed to a cost of $30,000, a bill picked up by the AFL

NEW interchange benches to accommodate the extended squads and additional AFL staff allowed in the NAB Challenge to a cost of $7000, also funded by the AFL

AIR conditioning, rewiring and a refurbishment of the coaches’ boxes and the commentary box worth $3000, funded by the AFL, and

TOP dressing for the oval, a Mt Compass Grey worth $8,800, which was funded by the West Torrens council.

It is an enormous boost for West Adelaide, which will also keep the catering profits from the match while the AFL keeps the gate takings.

AFL consultant Daryl Sellar, who also works as the superintendent at Glenelg Golf Club, likened the program implemented to perfect the ground to working with a giant green on a golf course.

The ground has been mowed three times a week and crews from the council and the football club have attended to the oval every day over the scorching summer.

But it hasn't been without incident: last weekend, a burst pipe meant the ground could not be watered for two days until a subsidiary of the council could find and alternative water source, understood to be in the shape of a fire hydrant.

Sellar said he had held fears on Monday morning the match would have to be moved.

“Two days in that heat without water ... Monday was my ‘oh sh**’ moment,’’ Sellar said.

The management of the turf at Richmond Oval has included, since the end of last season:

REGENERATING patches of grass and help it grow to have full and even coverage

DECOMPACTION work of the soil to loosen it up so that it takes irrigation and develops a consistent surface

MANAGING the amount of grass by scarifying to get rid off thatch, and

IMPLEMENTING a fertiliser program which includes wetting agents.

Sellar estimated the amount of work done over summer as being twice the amount that is normally expected to keep the oval in shape.

He rated Richmond Oval at an 8 our of 10 when he compared it to the AFL’s best grounds such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The tests the ground had to pass before being fit for AFL football included uniformity of grass cover, appropriate level of surface hardness, appropriate levels of stability and traction, moisture readings and other safety aspects, such as making sure there were no protruding sprinkler heads.