Central Highlands football is facing a growing crisis, with playing surfaces failing to keep pace with rival leagues, placing game quality and potentially player safety at risk.
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While the Ballarat Football Netball League (BFNL) has been fortunate to experience recent ground upgrades within the City of Ballarat, the more popular highlands league which is based around many of the region's smaller towns has had grounds devastated by flooding and almost unplayable patches of mud.
It's nearly impossible to recruit players now; all the players are going to play on the good grounds
- Paul Ryan
The latest round of bad playing conditions comes on the back of a wet and wild past three months in the region, with more rain expected later this week.
Learmonth Oval has been the worst hit, with the beloved community ground in its worst shape in more than 50 years, according to club life member Paul Ryan.
See the mud at some of the CHFL grounds that hosted football on Saturday.
"It's nearly impossible to recruit players now; all the players are going to play on the good grounds in Ballarat, which really hurts our livelihood," Mr Ryan said.
City of Ballarat Councillor, Grant Tillett, attended last Saturday's game in Learmonth and said he was "disappointed" by the grounds facilities.
"It certainly didn't look very much like an oval, which to me is disappointing considering it used to be one of the best - but it's certainly not that at the moment, which is very disappointing," said Councillor Tillett.
I've been at the club 20 years and it's the worst I've ever seen it.
- Matt Hines
Learmonth coach Nick Willox revealed he struggled to recognise the difference between the Lakies and Buninyong jumpers during the senior clash, while club life member Paul Ryan said the surface at David A Baird Oval was "without a doubt" the worst it has been in 50 years.
"It's gone from one of the best grounds in the Central Highlands Football League to one of the worst," he said.
It wasn't pretty in Clunes at the weekend.
Lakies president Matt Hines said the ground was in a bad way.
"I've been at the club 20 years and it's the worst I've ever seen it," he said.
City of Ballarat Community Development Director, Neville Ivey, responded to the growing concern, releasing a statement acknowledging the sub-standard playing surfaces, while also outlining Learmonth's current priorities.
"Learmonth FNC has previously told us that lighting upgrades and extra netball facilities were the club's main priorities," it read.
"Although we have not had a request from the club to date around the playing surface, what would normally have been a good surface has this year, through heavy rain and use become less than ideal. Given its poor recent performance, we will give consideration to re-prioritising playing surface works."
While the Learmonth ground has long been Central Highlands Football League's pin-up ground, the Lakies' oval has been devastated by recent rain and reached crisis point in Saturday's round 13 fixture.
Learmonth is a regular finals venue for the CHFL and even hosted this season's AFL Victoria Community Championships clash. It was previously the league's grand final home.
"(Hosting) finals will be in doubt if winter keeps staying the way it is," Hines told The Courier.
And Learmonth is certainly not the only CHFL ground in trouble.
Creswick's much-maligned Doug Lindsay Reserve oval produced one of the lowest match totals in league history at the weekend.
Beaufort defeated the Wickers by three points despite kicking just one major for the afternoon.
In the end, the Crows prevailed 1.6 (12) to 1.3 (9).
Much of the Clunes surface was thick mud on Saturday, Snake Valley - one of the home venues for Carngham-Linton - also received terrible reports, while Rokewood was described as a "bog" by Grasshoppers joint-coach Damon Delaney.
Seven of the eight grounds that hosted matches on Saturday also held games when heavy rain fell two rounds prior on June 29.
The state of many CHFL venues are a stark contrast to those premier Ballarat Football League grounds that have undergone stunning redevelopments in recent years.
Those upgrades have been completed by the City of Ballarat.