News

TIO Traeger Park is in tip-top shape for the upcom­ing finals series with Coun­cil Offi­cers hard at work to ensure our sport­ing crown jew­el is ready to go.

Athol Mitchell is the wick­et cura­tor at TIO Traeger Park and has been look­ing after the facil­i­ty for 35 years. 

The cen­tre wick­et is his dai­ly office and it’s his hard work, along with a team of ded­i­cat­ed employ­ees that see our facil­i­ties ready for the Red Centre’s top sports men and women each weekend.

The man him­self said TIO Traeger Park is ready for a heavy work­load in Sep­tem­ber, where some local ath­letes will realise their pre­mier­ship dreams.

“Peo­ple that come into town and pull up into town, they can’t believe (the oval) has green grass,” Mitchell laughs.

“It’s look­ing good, it helps that we’ve had a warm winter.

“That means you don’t get the frost. Most of this grass goes dor­mant dur­ing the win­ter so we com­pen­sate that with some rye grass which is a win­ter grass. That means it just doesn’t get knocked around as much.”

The warm weath­er may help but it’s Mitchell’s watch­ful eye and exper­tise, along with sup­port from his Coun­cil col­leagues, that see our facil­i­ties across town prosper. 

“I’ve been doing this since day one. We’ve had the West Indies play here, England’s (test team), Sheffield Shield finals. We’ve had the NAB Cup, AFL our local sport,” he said.

“Through the Coun­cil, I’ve done an appren­tice­ship, a Trade Cer­tifi­cate, I’ve gone to Ade­laide Oval and done a Turf Man­age­ment Course and a bunch of oth­er cours­es too. I’m not an office per­son, I don’t like that. I love being here in the open. We have major events here and I love that. 

“It’s real­ly a lot of work but it gives you real­ly good job satisfaction.” 

For a list of finals action this Sep­tem­ber, check out Sep­tem­ber’s edi­tion of Coun­cil Connects.