Sutherland Hockey Club unveiled its state-of-the-art new synthetic pitch on Saturday morning that will help set the club up for a bright future.
The pristine $360,000 surface is the same as the Polytan playing surface used at the 2016 Rio Olympics and recent men’s and women’s World Cups.
The pitch is the fourth synthetic playing surface installed by Sutho at their Sylvania home, much advanced from the original sand-based synthetic field of 1990.
The project was largely funded by the club, a massive achievement for a volunteer run, community sports organisation. It took Sutho about a decade to raise the required money to complete the project.
Miranda MP Eleni Petinos, who acquired a $25,000 government grant, was there for the official opening alongside Tradies president Dennis McHugh, a long-time club sponsor.
Sutho gave their junior players a first look at the pitch on Saturday, holding hour-long skills clinics for under-11s and under-13s players with men and women players from across the grades putting the youngsters through their paces.
Sutherland fielded seven men's teams, four women's teams and 12 junior teams last season and are expected to field strong numbers again in 2019.
Sutherland will be looking to go one better this Sydney Premier Hockey League season having crashed out in the men's first grade preliminary final to University of NSW last year after barely missing out on the minor premiership to bitter rivals Moorebank-Liverpool.
