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Rochdale Observer

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The Grass Was Greener: Dale groundsman Drew Duffy has ensured the quality of the pitch is amongst the best in the division

By Jonathan Beverley

Being a groundsman at Rochdale AFC isn’t an easy task, but it’s something that Drew Duffy embraces every morning as he goes to work.

The times where the pitch at Rochdale AFC resembled a quagmire is now a distant memory, as the fluid football categorised by manager Keith Hill is now entertained on a carpet-like surface.

Works on the pitch in 2004 highlighted the lack of a drainage system, but this was the first stepping stone taken to transform the pitch into what it is today, with another being the work of groundsmen Oli Makin and Drew Duffy.

The story of the latter is a story of chance, as an offer to help clear snow off the pitch one particularly blustery winter blossomed into a promising career in a dream job, and six years later, the dream is still very much a reality for Duffy.

“I’ve been a groundsman at Rochdale Football Club for six years now. I first started off as a volunteer and quickly moved on to being an apprentice to now being the assistant groundsman,” said Duffy. “I was doing gardening work before I started working at Rochdale and it was that what proved to be my inspiration, although I didn’t believe that it would eventually lead to me becoming a groundsman.”

“One day the football club had put up a call to fans on the website that they needed a hand removing the snow off the pitch, so I went down and I got talking to Phil Collinson, who was head groundsman at the club at the time. I gave him my number and said that I would be willing to come and help during half-term and the summer holidays from school, and this lead to where I am now. It feels a little bit like a ladder in which I have moved up on.”

In order to progress further than simply helping out in his spare time, Duffy has had to make sacrifices and go about taking his qualifications, as well as dedicating a lot of his time to the job: “I have taken and passed my NVQ level two in SportsTurf. After completing that, I set about taking my NVQ level three, which I am still undertaking. I’ve also completed my

chemical licence which allows me to apply chemicals to the pitch, for example any fertilisers that we may choose to use.”

The Spotland assistant acknowledges that it was a learning curve at first, with many technical terms and skills to be learned hastily, but this is something that the 20-year-old has taken in his stride in his six years at the club: “When I started, at first there was an awful lot to take in, especially with the pitch being used for both football and rugby.

It’s a hectic schedule, especially in the summer months during the pre-season for Duffy, who must work tirelessly to ensure that the pitch is in prime condition for the coming season: “My day to day work in the summer consists of cutting the pitch 5 or 6 times a week which encourages both growth and the thickening of the grass. There is also the fertiliser aspect which again encourages growth, as well as other jobs such as verti draining, which is good for root development. One of the main jobs in summer is keeping the pitch free from disease, and we apply products in order to stop this.”

“Coming to the end of the season, people think we put our feet up for six weeks, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The pitch gets ripped up and the work starts again. Contractors come in and do all the work, then we have six weeks to get the pitch back to what it should be for the coming season. There was one summer when I actually had to carry out the renovations myself, along with Tony Chew, the lad who was doing the stadium maintenance at the time. This was because the contractors didn’t do the best of jobs and it was very hard, but we got through it. This was a huge learning curve for me but in many ways it has helped me massively,” said Duffy.

Ensuring that the appropriate work was done to compensate for the contractors took meticulous planning from Duffy and his cohort, but combined with a great team ethic they managed to get the job done: “Before any work started, we marked out the pop up sprinklers with white paint so they didn’t get damaged. A week before the renovations started, Premier Pitches, who carried out the works, sent over all the risk assessment and health and safety documentation. This enabled them to be on site by the stadium manager. Work started in mid May and we had 7 weeks until the first game would take place on the new pitch,” explained Duffy.

“We initially started by

koroing off the existing surface, which removes the top inch of the old pitch and leaves a clean surface for us to mix in the fibre sand and seed. The reason we do this is to take out any organic build up that gets created throughout the season from all of the traffic and fertilising that takes place on the pitch. Ideally, this should be done every year to have a stable and consistent playing surface. Two passes were carried out over the surface to leave it as clean as possible.”

“175 tonnes of fibre sand is then spread evenly across the pitch. The reasoning behind so much fibre sand being used is to keep the fibre levels up to a suitable level for a dual usage pitch. The roots of the grass wrap themselves around the fibres to enable a trustworthy and divot free sWWurface. It also further improves the drainage which allows the club to keep the number of games postponed to a minimum.”

After such a flurry of activity at the ground, Duffy can then finally begin to start thinking about what is arguably the most important aspect of the playing surface, the pitch itself: “A pre-seed fertiliser was applied, with the final surface being sown on three passes made on the surface with a disc seeder. The seed bags were stored in the garage to ensure that they were kept dry until they were required for seeding. It developed quickly due to our irrigation system, as at the time the weather was very warm so we had the irrigation system on a lot. We set the timers for it so that it would come on in the middle of the night and in the early morning, as well as when the sun was setting so it was cooler. This prevented any scorching of the grass if we were to water it a midday. After 17 days, we do the first cut of the pitch with rotary mowers, which encourages the seed to develop and thicken up a lot quicker.”

A series of meeting then take place, focusing on the work that has already been carried out, and the work that is scheduled to carry out: “It’s fairly busy with the amount of meeting that take place and people that come down to look at the work that’s been carried out. Russell Latham from Premier Pitches discusses the works that we are going to undertake, whilst Karl Pass, also from Premier Pitches finalises the works. A meeting also takes place with both Mark Robinson from Mansfield Sands, to make sure the correct amount of fibre sand is ordered, and Rick Purser from Battersby sport ground supplies, the ensure that the correct amount of seed is ordered.”

“The waste was disposed of via the council a couple of days after the work was completed. Protection measures to stop people from going on to the pitch were made, such as fencing and signs, and all the gates around the ground were shut. We also made all staff at the club aware to stay off the pitch.”

It was a testing time for the ground staff, but Duffy can look back and be proud of what his work helped to achieve: “The surface was as good as ever after the renovations, and we can really tell that the work carried out has been of even more benefit, with more stability under play. The total cost of all the work, combined with the materials was around the £24000 mark. The work was a big success, as it allowed us to get the pitch to a better standard than what it was previously, and obviously

keep a true and consistent playing surface for both the football and the rugby.”

As the winter months approach with the promise of harsher weather, there is no respite for the assistant groundsman, as the struggle to battle against the elements and maintain the pitch becomes a constant struggle: “Going into winter, the grass slows down and doesn’t grow or repair itself. Mainly in these months after a game, we would clean the surface up, do a bit of devoting and then stay off the pitch in order to let it do its own thing. We are happy with the pitch at the moment, but there’s a lot of hard work that still goes on in the winter months.”

Just like when the manager’s and player’s hard work can pay off with the reward of a televised fixture, the groundman’s hard work

can pay off, as it would brought to the public eye and receive national recognition, and Duffy leaves nothing to chance: Match days are the most important days of the week, the public and the players come in and see your work, and it can also be shown on live televised games to an even bigger audience. It is important that everything is done to the best of our ability. On match days we would be in early to cut the pitch both ways, mark out the pitch markings and put the posts in; the main thing in this line of work is presentation. As soon as all this is done, the irrigation would be put on because the style of football that we play at Rochdale encourages a fast surface, and this would again happen at half time.”

It’s often a role that goes unnoticed, but a good pitch is just one of the key ingredients needed for a successful

team, and as assistant groundsman, Duffy certainly feels part of that team, with the club fully understanding the importance of a pitch in prime condition: “The club have a big part to play in maintaining the pitch, we have a lot of equipment for the size of the club.”

“Each piece of equipment that we use all plays an important part in the maintanence of the pitch. The Koro field top maker is used in the koroing of the pitch. There’s also similar specialist equipment that doesn’t come cheap, such as the power harrow, tractor-mounted sand spreader, fertiliser spreader and the tractors themselves. There’s also the simple everyday equipment that’s needed, such as the brushes, rakes, mowers, turf cutters, disc seeders and the rollers. The rollers have allowed us to keep many games on by absorbing the surface water

on the pitch. Combined with the drainage system in place, it means that the pitch doesn’t become sodden and waterlogged, and that only the surface water remains.

Although the pitch is regarded as one of the best in the leagues, both club and the Spotland assistant both believe there are ways in which the pitch could further be improved: “Obviously it could be better, but the funding required would simply be far too big for a club of our size. We rely on ground covers in the winter, which is fine if it remains around freezing level, but any lower than that into the minus numbers and the ground would be frozen solid. We’ve combated this in the past with help from the fans, setting oil drums up around the parts of the pitch that don’t recieve as much sunlight so won’t have as much chance to thaw out.

Whilst this worked one time, it’s not really a long-term answer, the only answer to ensure the pitch doesn’t fall foul of the cold weather would be to install undersoil heating.”

Being a boyhood Rochdale fan, making it onto the pitch is a dream come true for Duffy, although it’s not in the capacity that many would expect. Ensuring he continually hits his immaculate standards, it won’t be long before he finds himself on larger clubs’ radar’s: “I have had no offers from other clubs yet but you never know,” remarked Duffy. “My dream one day would be to go abroad to a club like Barcelona or Real Madrid.” A role at a club of that magnitude really would complete the fairy-tale story for someone who wanted to come to the aid of their local club in the winter months.”

SkyBet League One Table 2014/2015P 1

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Bristol City

Swindon

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Mk Dons

Preston

Sheffield Utd

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Notts C

Oldham

P’borough

Bradford

Fleetwood

Walsall

Chesterfield

Coventry

Barnsley

Port Vale

Doncaster

Gillingham

Scunthorpe

Crawley

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Yeovil

Leyton O

Colchester

Crewe

Pts

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GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

PAGE 4 ROCHDALE OBSERVER

Stars Of The Future: Jamie Allen is a product of the youth

Lifelong Rochdale fan, Alex Whitelegge has seen many transitional seasons and many players don the shirt of his beloved club, but the current crop is one of the best he’s seen.

With players such as Jamie Allen and Scott Tanser making the breakthrough from the youth team to the first team, a young Rochdale side is firing on all cylinders in League One, and the future looks bright.

It’s the trust in youth that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Rochdale faithful, with many predicting that the team would be fighting relegation for most of the season, but manager Keith Hill has masterminded his side to 6th in the table, and this has led some fans to dream of a first ever promotion to the Championship.

Whitelegge is one of those fans, with the 21-year-old believing that The Dale could achieve back to back promotions: “It would be massive and amazing to see it,’ explained Whitelegge. “Never in any fans’ lifetime have we seen Dale in the Championship, playing week in week out against former Premier League teams, it would be incredible.”

The Pearl Street Stand regular isn’t getting too carried away, however, as he knows that there is a long way to go in the season yet: “There is still a lot of football to be played yet in the season, so I’m not getting my hopes up too much, but you can’t not dream. Everyone wants their team to play at the highest level. It would be nice to see the stadium more full on a regular basis with much bigger teams having much bigger attendances.”

“I think a lot of fans are getting carried away, but if that’s got any pressure then it’s not got to the team. I’m just enjoying the football that we’re being treated to, getting relegated back to League Two a few seasons ago and not knowing when we were going to be back was disappointing, so I’m just enjoying our first season back in League One for now.”

The obvious comparisons have been made with what many fans regard to be the best Dale team of all time, the 2010 promotion team, but Whitelegge believes that this team has the potential to far

surpass those achievements: “I think the ceiling is much higher for this team. There were a lot of good players the last time we got promoted, with many now playing in the second or first tier. A lot of the players we have now are just as good, if not better, but also much younger and if they carry on progressing at the same rate, it’s not an exaggeration to say that one day they will play at the highest level.”

The fantastic work done by now assistant manager Chris Beech and youth coach Tony Ellis, both former players at Rochdale around the turn of the millennium, have resulted in promising set of youngsters eager to make the step up to the first team: “It’s great to hear about and they’re deservedly getting the recognition from the fans for their hard work,” said Whitelegge.

“I know we won the youth league a few seasons back when Beech was the youth manager, and Ellis has taken over brilliantly. When you hear rumours of the bigger clubs keeping tabs on our youth players before they’ve even kicked a ball for the first team, you know that they must be doing something right.”

This season has seen Andrew Cannon, Jonny Diba, Billy Hasler-Cregg and Nyal Bell all make their first team debuts, with manager Hill keen to gradually integrate them into the team: “It’s a win-win situation really. If they do well, they either become integral parts of the squad for many seasons, or they are sold for good money. It’s a pessimistic way of looking at it, but for a small club with small attendances, we’re always going to be a selling club. Whilst we’re producing good youth players, we can ensure the financial future of our club, you only have to look at Crewe over the years to see how it can be done properly.”

Rochdale are a club with great pedigree when it comes to youth team players making the step up the leagues, as well as players coming to the club and seeing it as a stepping stone to greater things: Sometimes it’s not always a good thing that the player wants o better themselves, sometimes it can bee viewed as the player almost being too big for the club. That’s something

that Hill won’t stand for, the player has to have the right mentality. You only have to glance at the Premier League in recent seasons to see the likes of Craig Dawson, Rickie Lambert, Grant Holt, Matt Gilks, Adam Le Fondre, Will Buckley and Glenn Murray frequently in starting line-ups. I doubt they’ll be the last to go on from Rochdale and make an appearance in the

top league.”

“It’s quite a good feeling to say that arguably, those players wouldn’t be where they are today without Rochdale, with most making their names at the club. Especially with the likes of Lambert gaining international recognition, and Dawson being in the 2012 Great

Britain Olympic squad, it’s hard not to feel proud when you say that these players came from Rochdale.”

Coupled with some shrewd signings by Hill, with additions such as goalkeeper Conrad Logan and midfielder Stephen Dawson, both with Championship experience, the Dale gaffer appears to have found the right formula

for success: “A lot of credit has to go to Keith Hill. There’s a lot of clubs and managers who only look to the short term, and short term success, but this isn’t the case with Hill. With the club looking to buy the stadium and take on the debt that’s associated with it, there is a real chance to secure the future of our club for a long time. It’s

definitely an exciting time and who knows where we’re going to end up.”

Given a 40-year stint in the basement division of the football league until their promotion in 2010, Rochdale fans can be forgiven for clutching at success with two hands. The return of what is arguably their greatest manager of all time, Keith Hill,

in the January of 2013 has sparked another upward turn in their fortunes and having learnt from previous mistakes when he first chose to leave the club for Barnsley in the summer of 2011, Hill looks to be staying put at Rochdale for the immediate future, and building something special once more at the club.