The NRL have confirmed Cronulla’s local derby clash with St George Illawarra will go ahead as planned on Sunday afternoon despite flooding inside and outside Shark Park.
Heavy rain over the past week, and ongoing drainage issues at the venue, has seen flooded areas emerge outside one of the entrances to Shark Park, and forced the closure of the Captain Cook playing fields’ car park across the street.
Video and pictures also emerged of a waterlogged Shark Park field, with flooded corners at both the northern and southern ends. The flooding could impact on the NRL fixture if the water is not adequately removed.
Sharks chief executive Dino Mezzatesta had an early morning trip to hardware store Bunnings to buy pumps and hoses to drain water from the field, but said the club were “on top of it”.
“More hands on deck, the more pumps working the better it is,” Mezzatesta said.
The NRL said they’d have their usual inspection of the ground before kick off, but at this point the game would still go ahead.
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The Shire has had about 69 mm of rain in the past 24 hours, with another 20-40 mm of rain expected throughout today. But Mezzatesta said the fans would brave the weather.
“Local derby so I’d imagine there are people that are diehards, a bit of rain won’t hurt them, they’ll still attend.”
More to come
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