Young look to weather to fix sloppy Alfred Oval

The Cherrypickers slogged it out with Kangaroos in horrendous conditions on Saturday, the first of three consecutive home games to finish the regular season.

Young president Garry Lucas is hopeful the forecast and remedial works by the Hilltops Council can help improve the surface ahead of another important clash with Southcity on Sunday.

"Providing we don't get any more rain this week council will get the rollers on it which should help flatten it out," Lucas said.

"We will stay off it for a couple of days to help it dry out and hopefully, weather pending, it might be alright.

"There are supposed to be a couple of frosts which helps dry it out a bit quicker."

Kangaroos captain-coach Hayden Ashcroft was far from impressed by the surface, especially after four games had been played earlier in the day.

"It can be dangerous," Ashcroft said.

"It looked very wet, muddy and sloppy through areas but running out I was surprised by how much.

"Your foot like submerged within the oval.

"It goes for both sides but I don't think it is a proper game of football when the oval is that bad.

"You couldn't drop the ball out (for a restart), you couldn't kick off from the centre, it was hailing there at a point and I don't think it is a true result of the football.

"Those conditions were just ridiculous."

While the Riverina copped plenty of poor weather last week, other Group Nine games weren't nearly as affected.

Anzac Oval, even though Gundagai received more rainfall leading into Sunday's clash, was barely affected by the weather.

Tumut and Junee's clash was also played in far better conditions on Saturday with Laurie Daley Oval, which has generally struggled to deal with wet weather, benefiting from a drainage upgrade over the off-season.

Diesels captain-coach Trent Shubach believes it shows the value of the resources they have put into their ground.

Lucas said the drainage is something the club wants to address after admitting the ground was verging on being unplayable.

"Even though we had drainage put in a couple of years ago it doesn't seem to be working," he said.

"We will have to look into that."

New dressing rooms and club rooms have been added to the Alfred Oval but Ashcroft believes more attention could have been made on improving the surface.

"I know we had a lot of rain but I feel like a lot of other grounds would have been better," he said.

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