AGCSA AWARDS
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AGCSA AWARDS
Above: Kurt Dillon with Shark Park curator and long-time mentor Steve Brassington Above right: A hard-hitting representative rugby league front rower, Dillon couldn’t have landed a better job than assistant curator at Shark Park, home ground of the NRL’s Cronulla Sharks
THE CLASS OF 2016 2016 AGCSA Graduate of the Year Award Finalists William Koopmans (Ballarat Golf Club, Vic), Trent Le Rossignol (Tasmania Golf Club, Tas), Caleb Swinbourn (Complete Turf & Landscape, ACT), Keenan Hutchings (The Grange Golf Club, SA), Mitchell Gibbs (Bankstown Golf Club, NSW), Steve Lindley (Meadow Springs G&CC) and Ashley Hill (Arundel Hills Golf Club, Qld). 2016 STA Graduate of the Year Award Finalists Kurt Dillon (Green Options, NSW), Beau McFarlane (Stadium Turf Management, ACT), James Stamatis (Landscape Solutions, Qld), Marcus Kightley (Adelaide Oval, SA), Matthew Pokorny (Danny O’Brien Racing, Vic) and Jayden Pickering (City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, WA). 46
including grooming greens and developing effective personal and organisational communication skills. After the UMASS experience, Koopmans will then take up a 6-12 month placement through The Ohio Program. “My life has changed a lot as a result of winning the AGCSA Graduate of the Year Award,” says Koopmans. “It has opened many doors for me so far and I hope it will continue to do so in the future. I want to use this award to grow myself as a turf manager but to mainly help others in the trade, especially apprentices. This award is a great stepping stone and could potentially guide me down a variety of different paths, whether it’s teaching the trade or moving further up in an organisation and becoming a course superintendent. “When I return to Australia I would love to step into a second in charge role and eventually work my way up and become a superintendent. Once I have gained an ample amount of experience I feel I would greatly enjoy a teaching role, sharing my experiences and what I’ve learnt with apprentices. Knowing how much I appreciated my teachers, I’d like to learn from my experiences with them and try and provide that for others.”
KICKING GOALS As a hard-hitting front rower, Kurt Dillon has seen plenty of turf up very close during his representative rugby league career, so it is little surprise that he has ended up in the turf management profession. Playing in the Holden Cup (rugby league’s national Under-20s competition) for the Cronulla Sharks, getting the chance to run out on NRL-level fields week in week out intrigued a then 17-year-old Dillon and as soon as he finished high school he sought out an apprenticeship. As luck would have it, he was offered one with Green Options, who just happened to maintain Shark Park (Southern Cross Group Stadium), the home ground of Dillon’s beloved Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. “When I was playing Holden Cup, every week I would get excited about running out on the really good NRL fields,” recalls Dillon, who currently plays reserve grade for Cronulla’s feeder club Newtown Jets. “I was always really intrigued and interested as to how these surfaces were in such impeccable condition all year round, so when I was offered the apprenticeship with Green Options I took the opportunity with both hands. I also think the fact that
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 18.5
I played all kinds of sport growing up gave me that invested interest in sports playing surfaces, which also made choosing a career in turf management really appealing.” Despite spending most of his apprenticeship at Shark Park, during his time with Green Options Dillon has also had the chance to work at a number of different sites including Cranbrook (a private boy’s college), Randwick Golf Course and Gymea Bowling Club. He is currently back at Shark Park where he is the second in charge under head curator Steve Brassington who has proven to be a key figure in Dillon’s development as a turf manager. “There have been a number of people who have been really influential in my career so far, especially my teachers at NSI Ryde TAFE,” says Dillon. “But the person that has helped me most is Steve who has been my supervisor/mentor since day one. We have worked closely together for four years now and the fact that I have had the opportunity to work with the head curator of an NRL stadium every day has really excelled my learning. “Steve has a wealth of knowledge and experience. The main thing that he has taught me is that no two situations are the same and that to be successful in this industry you have to be flexible and open-minded. He has also impressed upon me the fact that there is no set in stone way of being a successful turf manager and that you have to adopt practices and innovative ways that work best for you and your situation. “There are a number of different things that I enjoy about the turf industry and they are still the same areas that I enjoyed as an apprentice. Number one is being able to produce a surface to the best of your ability, which takes a real team effort. I find it really rewarding working in a team environment where every individual is working towards a common goal. And when it is achieved I gain a sense of accomplishment which I find really fulfilling and worthwhile.” Dillon says that winning the STA Graduate of the Year Award was a huge honour and really enjoyed spending the week in Melbourne for the annual conference. Networking with the other finalists as well as fellow industry colleagues proved to be an uplifting experience for Dillon who is looking forward to continuing to broaden his knowledge before eventually taking the next step up the career ladder. “My immediate goal and ambition in turf management is to travel overseas to work on a world class sports surface,” says Dillon. “Whether that is soccer, rugby or on a golf course, I really want to see what turf managers in different countries do to maintain and prepare their surfaces in comparison to how we do it in Australia. I’d love to be able to bring that knowledge back to Australia and apply it to my own work. Looking further ahead, my major goal is to one day manage or curate a first class sports surface, whether here in Australia or overseas.”