PILA customises goal posts for synthetic grass fields at Blackman Park

PILA group® customised their goal posts for installation on the synthetic surface playing fields at the recently upgraded Blackman Park in Lane Cove West.

The Blackman Park Project involved the upgrade of a former landfill site with new synthetic sporting fields installed by Team Sports. The brand new playing fields were officially opened recently with representatives from the Waratahs, Sydney Swans and GWS Giants, and the local community coming together to celebrate this landmark.

Team Sports were contracted to install a synthetic playing surface over a concrete support slab to stabilise the ground. The concrete was overlaid with synthetic surface ‘Hybrid 60’ with a shock pad meeting the requirements of the ‘One Turf’ concept comprising of FIFA, IRB and AFL/CA. The upgrade has resulted in two soccer/rugby fields and one AFL field spread over an area covering 18,600 square metres.

Team Sports turned to PILA for the goal posts as they did not want to compromise the integrity of the synthetic surface.

According to PILA’s National Sales Manager Shaun Groves, PILA has the capability to customise their goal posts to suit the surface and adapt to the logistical challenges within the site. For this particular installation, the footings, hinge bases and ground sleeves of the goal posts needed to work perfectly with the system used for the field to protect the synthetic surface.

Having worked with the turf industry on both natural and synthetic fields, PILA saw yet another opportunity in the Blackman Park project to demonstrate their versatility, providing 12m/8m competition level AFL goal posts, two sets of 12m competition level rugby union/league goal posts, and two sets of senior semi-permanent football goal posts with off-field storage.

A few sporting teams tried out the fields before their official opening including Lane Cove’s AFL9s joined by AFL legends Jude Bolton and Kevin Sheedy.

Kevin Sheedy AM, a Richmond Tigers legend and current director at GWS Giants praised the field, observing that it was one of the best venues he had ever seen for sport.

Deputy Mayor Deborah Hutchens and Wayne Rylands, Executive Manager for Open Space and Urban Services played a key role in the implementation of the project.