Hockey Western Australia has had a GreenFields® TX artificial grass system installed in the Perth Stadium in Australia. This hockey system is identical to the one on which the 2014 World Cup will be played this summer in the Kyocera and GreenFields Stadiums in The Hague, the Netherlands. GreenFields® TX is the state-of-the-art, top-class hockey system specially developed for this World Cup by textile technology group TenCate and a large number of leading hockey players. GreenFields is the official supplier of this durable system.

Following the example of the Royal Netherlands Hockey Association (KNHB) and more than ten Dutch premier league hockey clubs, Hockey Australia also opted for the top-quality GreenFields® TX system. To prepare for the 2014 World Cup in The Hague, the Australians want to gain as much experience as possible of the official artificial grass system that will be used during the tournament. For this reason, the pitch in the Perth Hockey Stadium has been replaced. This is the facility where Australia’s national teams prepare for and play their most important matches.

Trish Heberle, Performance Director of Hockey Australia, states: “The GreenFields® TX hockey system is great and our athletes are enjoying training on the surface. The ball rolls straight and its behaviour is natural – two important characteristics. The fact that we are able to train on the same surface as the World Cup pitches is a major advantage”. The work in Perth, which was carried out for GreenFields by the Australian company HG Sports Turf, consisted of correcting the asphalt subsurface beneath the pitch, putting in a new E-layer (the elastic underlay) and then installing the GreenFields® TX hockey system while using a clamping system around the parameter of the pitch. By doing this, GreenFields avoids the use of glue directly between the artificial grass carpet and the elayer. This system being the first of its kind in Australia.

State-of-the-art artificial grass for hockey

GreenFields® TX builds on the success of the GreenFields® MX system used by professional football clubs in the Dutch Jupiler League, and stems from GreenFields’ ambition to develop a top-quality playing surface for hockey – a pitch that is ideal for playing modern fast hockey at the highest level. Dutch hockey internationals contributed their knowledge and experience to the design and development work. The result is a state-of-the-art, top-class hockey system. Ed Donkers, global brand manager of GreenFields, explains: “The Australian hockey teams have high ambitions. Experience in playing on GreenFields® TX will give Australia an excellent chance in the 2014 World Cup. The other countries competing in the tournament can also train and practise on a 2014 World Cup pitch because the same type of artificial grass has been installed at more than ten hockey grounds in the western part of the Netherlands.”