RUTHERGLEN coach Mark Sarau has expressed his concern with the choice of venue for the Tallangatta and District Football League’s finals, labelling the Sandy Creek ground “sub-standard” ahead of the Cats elimination final with Kiewa-Sandy Creek on Sunday.
“It staggers me that they still play the finals there,” Sarau said.
“When you’ve got three or four quality grounds not being used in Albury and Wodonga ... it just doesn’t make any sense to me.
“Obviously the decision has been made and we can’t do anything about it now, but as a coach you want your players to play on the best possible surface.”
Sarau said the venue, which had hosted the majority of the league’s finals since 1945, was not up to scratch.
“It’s sub-standard,” he said.
“It is used as a grazing field for most of the year and so it’s going to be ridiculously heavy underfoot.”
Sarau’s opposite number this weekend, Kiewa-Sandy Creek coach Ryan Richardson, understood the concern surrounding the venue but is keen for the finals to stay where they are.
“I can understand people’s issues with it,” he said.
“But I’m a bit of a traditionalist, the ground has been a part of the competition for something like 80 years so I’m happy for it to stay there.
“It’s pretty much our second ground.”
Not surprisingly, Sarau’s club Rutherglen was one of four teams who voted in favour of moving the finals away from Sandy Creek at a delegates meeting earlier in the season.
Chiltern, Wahgunyah and fellow finals contender Thurgoona all joined Rutherglen in pushing for a relocation of the league’s finals series but were outnumbered by the remaining clubs.
Birallee Park and John Flower Oval have both been mooted as possible alternatives for the leagues finals series, but for now it seems the TDFL’s biggest day will remain at its spiritual home.
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