Just three months short of 40 years of service at the Melbourne Cricket Club, former MCG pitch curator and now environment and turf development manager, Tony Ware, has decided his time at the ‘G has come to an end.
The boy from Wonthaggi has been as much a part of the MCG as the turf itself since he arrived in February 1976 to work as a groundsman.
An aspiring young cricketer, Tony often ventured to the big smoke to train with MCC. Jack Lyons, net captain at the Albert Ground when Ware first came to Melbourne, alerted the youngster to the possibility of a job on the ground staff and he applied successfully.
So began a journey that has seen him embrace and conquer some of the country’s most challenging curatorial assignments.
After a period at MCC-controlled Old Scotch and Old Xaverian ovals, Tony returned to the ‘G in the mid-1980s, working under head curator Peter Semos.
When Semos departed in 1986, Tony successfully applied for the position of arenas supervisor and MCG curator, and was promoted to arenas manager in 1990, a role he held for nearly two decades.
In that time, Tony developed and implemented one of the finest turf maintenance and replacement systems in the world.
He has overseen many significant structural changes to the arena, most important of which was the 1992 reconstruction of the oval utilising a revolutionary sand-based profile. This boosted drainage capacity and introduced a more durable turf cover so more events could be scheduled at the MCG.
Tony also pioneered the world’s first successful portable cricket pitch technology in the late-1990s and the introduction of artificial lighting for the turf, which now has widespread acceptance in the industry.
He also managed the mountainous task of converting the MCG from cricket to athletics to Commonwealth Games to AFL in the 2005-06 period with aplomb.
In recent times, Tony has been a driving force behind major environmental initiatives at the MCG and in Yarra Park, most notably the installation of a water recycling facility and delivering on a master plan that will see the park thrive for generations to come.
