Countdown on for Queensland Country Bank Stadium to be in top-top shape
There has been a mad dash to add all the finishing touches at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in time for the first North Queensland Cowboy’s home game. The man behind it tells the story.
Townsville
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There has been a mad dash to add all the finishing touches at Queensland Country Bank Stadium in time for the first North Queensland Cowboys home game.
The Cowboys will play the Brisbane Broncos tomorrow night in front of a sellout crowd of 25,000 fans.
The match marks the first football game played at the new $290 million Townsville stadium.
Grounds manager Bruce Fouracre has been busy all week preparing the field for the thump of 52 footy boots tomorrow.
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His last-minute tasks included laying the turf at the northern end of the stadium and marking the initial field lines.
Measuring and painting the field lines and numbers took Mr Fouracre a day to complete, going through more than 100 litres of paint. He said the opportunity to mark the fresh field was not something that happened every day.
“Three years ago this was just all scrub and the try line was marked out and myself and Malcolm Turnbull walked along that line on a media day,” he said.
“Today, I actually got to mark it out for real so that is surreal. Not a lot of blokes get to do this, it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am rapt. It looks magnificent.”
Mr Fouracre said the new markings had held up after the Cowboys’ first training run on Tuesday and would only require minimal maintenance after every game. Stadium gates open at 5pm with kick-off at 7.05pm.
Originally published as Countdown on for Queensland Country Bank Stadium to be in top-top shape