EFL 2019: Blackburn calls in helicopter to dry surface at Morton Park

When Blackburn Football Club officials turned up to their home ground and found it “like a swimming pool”, they knew they needed a quick fix. And after two phone calls and 15 minutes, this is the bizarre solution they came up with.

One suburban football club pulled out all stops to ensure its game went ahead on Saturday.

Blackburn called in a helicopter shortly before Saturday’s EFL Premier Division game against Norwood.

With surface water threatening, there was a chance the game would be moved.

The under-19s and reserves matches were played on the bottom oval at Morton Park and consideration was given to shifting the senior fixture.

“The temptation was to move all three games down the bottom but because of the sunny weather we thought there was a chance it might dry out,” Blackburn coach Brendan Allen said.

“If the ground had have had three games on it, it would have resembled a dairy farm.”

The chopper hovers above Morton Park.

Connections through Blackburn committee member Casey Johnson kicked in for the Burners.

Johnson made two phone calls and within 15 minutes a chopper was at the ground in a last-minute bid to clear the surface water.

“The rain last weekend against Noble Park, and then they had junior finals — they had five games on it on the Sunday — and it was just cooked,” Allen said.

“I rocked up at 10am and there was just surface water everywhere. It was like a swimming pool in some spots.”

Allen said the state of the surface at the clubrooms end had been a concern.

“I do suspect it’s got something to do with the drainage,” he said.

“It’s really created some hollows at that end and the water has just been sitting there and it’s not getting away.

“It’s right in the corridor where you want to be playing your football, so it makes it very difficult to even kick the ball.

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“The last thing I wanted was for either side to have a major injury based on the ground conditions.”

The helicopter hovered above the ground for 30 minutes just an hour before the game.

“After it left, everyone said, ‘Well that did a lot of good’, but it got rid of all the pooling surface water off the ground,” Allen said.

Well, that's one way to dry a soggy centre square 😂🚁 pic.twitter.com/1mgEzi9Bhn

— 3AW Breakfast (@RossAndJohn) August 18, 2019

“It didn’t dry it out but at least gave the sun a chance to do it’s thing just before the game and during the game.

“It was still pretty heavy. Both teams were pretty sore after the game and had heavy legs in the second half.

“It looked dry and sunny, but it was actually a wet weather game of footy.”

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