Football coach grassed off: Four hours of DIY with weed-eater does the job which Auckland Council refused to do

Stephen Williams spent fours hours trimming Rosedale South Park with his weed-eater. Photo / Jason Oxenham

The coach of a children's football team on Auckland's North Shore has defied public parks rules with his DIY remedy for a local sports field's faults - personally mowing its long grass and filling in its mud holes.

With a few hours to go before his team's game yesterday, Stephen Williams said he was angered and ashamed of the playing state of the Albany field.

He said Auckland Council had refused to mow the grass on the soft ground before the game. "To have grass so high that you can't kick a ball on it was a joke and I'd had enough," said Mr Williams.

"So, instead of just moaning about it, I thought I would do something about it. I just cut the whole thing with my weed-eater and poured four bags of sand into the mud holes on the goal lines."

The Albany concrete contractor is coach of the Albany United Dream Team, which later played Te Atatu Raiders in an end-of-season 12th grade match at Rosedale South Park.

"The kids are happy to have played one game on their home ground," he said.

"I call them the Dream Team because you have to have dreams. To play at home was one of their dreams."

The council forbids the public to cut grass on sports fields due to health and safety reasons and the potential for damage to the grounds.

However, it will not prosecute Mr Williams.

Council northern local and sports parks manager Martin Van Jaarsveld said its parks contractors were specialists in the maintenance of parks and sportsfields and they followed specifications and had the right equipment.

Rosedale South is a soil field, which means the drainage is not as good as a sand carpet field.

Mr Van Jaarsveld said a significant amount of rain had fallen in recent weeks -- making the grass grow but the ground too soft to bear mowers without causing damage.

Mowing wet soil fields could cause significant damage and make them unplayable for even longer.

"Council made every effort to keep as many sports fields open on Saturday and Sunday for what was the last weekend of competition.

"However, some did have to be closed due to their condition.

"While we acknowledge Rosedale South wasn't in an ideal condition, we did believe that it could be played on."

Although the council had no immediate plans to improve the drainage at Rosedale South, it could be considered as part of the council's sports field capacity development programme in the longer term.

The field is used by clubs under the wing of the Northern Football Federation (NFF).

A federation spokesman said it was not aware of the specifics of Mr Williams' action.

However, the federation said it would like to note that regional councils made a significant investment in sports fields, in particular those for football. "As primary users of these public facilities, clubs, NFF and their representatives must act responsibly in their use and maintenance of facilities."