The one thing the grounds manager doesn’t want to see this weekend

All eyes will be on the pitch at the NRL Magic Round and Matt Oliver will be looking skyward with a total of 300 pairs of boots plucking the grass.

“I always look at the sky hoping it’s dry.”

Her job as Suncorp Stadium grounds manager isn’t often top of mind for punters ahead of the Women’s State of Origin Game 2 or the NRL Magic Round, but she is vital to the tournament’s success.

And unfortunately, his team’s success depends largely on weather forecasts.

“All it takes is a really wet weekend and that could undo a lot of our hard work and future plans,” he told this imprint as he walked the field on a sunny Tuesday.

“If it rains on the day of an event, we always pray it will happen either before or after the game.”

Oliver and his team have been preparing for next weekend since the NRL and NRLW draws were released in November; There will be nine matches over four days, including the second Women’s State of Origin match.

But the popularity of the stadium often works against them. Suncorp Stadium is the busiest rectangular stadium in the country and the only stadium to host four tenant clubs across three sporting codes: the Brisbane Broncos and Redcliffe Dolphins in the NRL, the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby and the Brisbane Roar in the A-League.

“[With that] Despite the activity program, you are not getting the full recovery you need. If we had only one tenant [it’d be a] “It’s a different story.”

This does not stop Oliver and his team from maintaining the high standards expected in professional sports gaming.

“We may never win a beauty pageant, especially when it’s really busy, but the players love playing here, they always know what to expect when they come here, it’s going to be a dry, solid, fast track for rugby league and that’s all we can really ask for.”

Oliver’s motto is simple: “Green is good”.

But producing this green isn’t just a matter of crossing some fingers and hoping for the best. It involves a lot of compost, mowing, and two pieces of equipment you wouldn’t expect to see at an outdoor stadium: grow lights and fans.

“We’re dealing with a lot of different microclimates here.”

When this masthead visited the stadium, four large portable turbine fans were installed on the north tryline and several grow lights stretching from sideline to sideline.

“[The grow lights] “It’s actually being brought in to replicate the sunlight on the part of the pitch that gets little to no sunlight at this time of year,” said Oliver, who has been in the business for 21 years and has been at Suncorp Stadium for five seasons.

Once pulled to the site, they are left in the same position for 48 hours to stimulate the growth of the grass and ensure that it not only survives but also thrives. Weighing 1.9 tonnes, these machines are moved by hand with “some human power” to prevent unnecessary machinery from trampling the grass.

“One of the little-known facts about these grow lights is that the soil temperature will increase by about 3 degrees… Considering that the south end gets six or seven hours of sunlight per day, 3 degrees here compared to the south end of the field is pretty remarkable.”

Fans work to dry the field after rainfall and prevent the growth of fungal pathogens.

“These have really revolutionized the way we manage this end of the field,” Oliver explained.

Throughout the tournament, Oliver and his team walk the field and fill in the gaps to make sure “there’s nothing wrong.” But time will be of the essence; They have a maximum of 15 minutes between matches to prepare the field for the game.

“As the games go on we always plan what to do after the game and we always have a set plan but it needs to be pretty fluid.”

Work continues after citizens gather and go home. The mowers come out and liquid fertilizer is applied to replant the leaves to get the field ready for the morning. In the morning they will mow again and re-mark all the lines.

An estimated 7 km of line will be laid during the four-day games.

This time last year, the grounds team hit a significant snag and had to replace more than half of the pitch ahead of the tournament. They finished it on the day of the first match.

This year’s preparation looked more predictable despite the bleak-looking forecasts.

“We’ve done this a few times. We know what to expect,” he said.

“We’re really confident in our preparation and the type of actual grass we use on the pitch. We’ve officiated a lot of high impact matches in the past.

“We hope we can be the canvas to put on some really great rugby league next weekend.”

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