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Tuesday marked the changing of the seasons at UTAS Stadium, with the facility's three drop-in cricket wickets lifted out. Moving swiftly after the Greater Northern Raiders' two-day clash last weekend, the surface will next be used for A-League action next Friday night as Western United host Wellington Phoenix. Operations coordinator John Kedey explained what takes place over the next few days. "We grow our own turf at the turf farm in Dilston, which is there all year round that we take care of," he said. "Our process over the next couple of days is we're going to be rolling 50 10-metre rolls of turf once we backfill with sand and the whole purpose of doing that and growing our own turf is that theoretically the field to be fit for play the day after it's laid. "Our main purpose here now is once we've taken the pitches out, we backfill with sand to the right level, lay the turf and roll the turf in to make sure it's level with the existing playing surface and we'll mark up the soccer field for A-League. "On Monday morning, the goals are in and they'll be able to train from Tuesday onwards, so that's the whole idea of why we do what we do." READ MORE: Tasmania JackJumpers' Josh Magette set to have facial surgery Tuesday saw the first step of that process, with the pitches lifted by crane and transported by truck to their off-season home in between UTAS Stadium and Invermay Park. This cricket season marked the second time that all three of the drop-in pitches had been used from October through to February. During that time the ground hosted two Big Bash League matches, several Greater Northern Raiders men's and women's games, a junior representative match and for the first time, a Tasmanian Tigers one-day match-up. "Our middle pitch is always normally the Big Bash pitch that we use, purely we put it into place for TV purposes and it's centralised on the ground as well," Kedey said. "I think we've had a dozen games out here this season, some of which have been two-day games, so we've probably had about 18 days of cricket out on the oval during this summer, which is the most we've ever had." Despite the cricket pitches being removed, Tasmanian State League club North Launceston won't yet be able to use their home ground. With the A-League on February 17 and Hawthorn playing a pre-season match against Collingwood on March 2, North Launceston coach Brad Cox-Goodyer is hoping for a March 4 return as they have a practice game. "It's coming around pretty quick and the boys are pretty excited ... we are keen to get back on the best ground in Tasmania and get ready for what should be a pretty well-contested season I reckon," he said. In the meantime, the Northern Bombers have been hitting the track at Rocherlea and Cox-Goodyer is excited to see what his young group can do after missing the finals by just one win last season. READ MORE: Courtney Webb reflects on WNCL centuries for South Australia "I'm pretty excited about the group that we've got, it hasn't changed too much," he said. "In terms of the group we've got, they're all pretty committed and from last year to this year, you can see drastic changes and even their body shapes, they've turned into young men now. "Those guys are really driving the club and will be the next wave of senior players at our footy club." The TSL's rosters are yet to be released for the 2023 season, with Glenorchy reportedly set to make a decision on their future in the league in the coming days. The Magpies have recently appointed a new president in Tim Woodham and are said to have approached Gary Ablett Jr to play round one. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

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