Nobody likes watching games like we saw at Wendouree Reserve on Saturday, where just five goals were kicked for the entire day. It’s not good for players to be playing in a game where all skill is virtually thrown out the window and it’s not a great advertisement for the league to have such games on display.

It was the obvious call to relocate to Eastern Oval, but East Point should still be commended for allowing it to occur.

The Roos face the bye next week and are not scheduled to play at Eastern Oval until round 16; more than three weeks away.

Eastern Oval is facing its own issues in terms of mud in the centre square, but the vast majority of the ground is in pristine condition. It really is the only option for the Lake Wendouree v Sebastopol clash, with Marty Busch Reserve itself extremely muddy.

The league and the Lakers always knew it was going to be difficult to play three consecutive home games on Wendouree Reserve in July.

Next week’s game was to be their last on Wendouree Reserve before the much-needed $1 million resurfacing commences, with the draw altered to allow them to get their home games out of the way.

This differs to previous years where the fixture was designed to actually keep the Lakers off their oval as much as possible in the depths of winter.

In the end, the strain proved too much and Wendouree Reserve simply was not up to the test. 

Let’s hope the resurfacing can rid Wendouree Reserve (and other Ballarat grounds in coming years) of  these issues long into the future.