By John Harrington

It’s fair to say that there’s very little that Nowlan Park Groundsman John Coogan doesn’t know about grass.

He’s been responsible for making the Kilkenny county grounds pitch perfect for the last two years, but keeping grass green was his vocation long before that.

In total he has 26 years experience as a green-keeper, and in that time he worked at Castlecomer Golf club, the K Club, and Callan Golf Club.

He then maintained Kilkenny GAA’s Training Centre at Dunmore for two years before being appointed Nowlan Park Groundsman almost exactly two years ago.

If you’ve been to stadium this year you’ve surely appreciated the fruits of his labour.

The pitch is looking pristine, a brilliant green baize, and that’s thanks to the hard-work of Coogan with considerable help from stadium caretaker Kevin McGarry and legendary Nowlan Park volunteer, Mick O’Neill.

“When I came in here the pitch was 100 per cent meadow grass,” Coogan told GAA.ie.

“Then we had a problem with the root structure and I had to start incorporating Premier Ryegrass into it.

“That gives you a deeper root structure and a lot of aeration and that kind of thing. That alleviated that problem and we're definitely after turning a corner.

“We had an issue before with the sod just peeling off in the winter especially, it was just tearing away underneath the players.

“Last year every two months we put down 250kgs of Premier Ryegrass with different mixtures of species going through it. It's been very successful for us. It's after improving the pitch no end.

“Now there's a good anchor on the pitch. I have to say with the county board down here they leave no stone unturned to get the pitch right. Perfection is what they want. There's no pull-back on getting it right. Every corner of the pitch is looked after and maintained.”

Coogan’s work was recognised recently when Nowlan Park was one of six grounds short-listed for the 2018 GAA County Pitch of the Year Award along with reigning champions Semple Stadium in Thurles, Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow, Innovate Wexford Park in Wexford, Hyde Park in Roscommon, and McGovern Park in Ruislip, London.

On July 24, Croke Park pitch manager Stuart Wilson and Ian McClements of the Sports Turf Research Institute will carry out a detailed of the playing surface, and Coogan is hopeful they’ll like what they see.

“No matter where you go, once you get into the stand the pitch catches your eye,” he said. “They're (Kilkenny GAA) absolutely delighted with the way the pitch has turned around.

“We're going in the right direction and it's a fantastic achievement to get into the final of the pitch of the year. It's a nice reward for the hard work that we've put into the pitch.

“You can't beat a bit of competition in any walk of life. If you get the pitch to where you want it, you can’t just sit on your laurels, you need to keep pushing forward to make it better again.

“We're after bringing it to where it is, but we want to bring it further again. And the next step for us is drainage because at the moment we have no drain under the pitch.

“We’ll soon be taking the sod off, putting down a drainage system, and then replacing the sod so there’ll be as little disturbance as possible.

“We have to get some drainage into it for the winter because you’re obviously hurling here right up until Christmas with the club championships.”

In this current hot-spell, drainage is the least of Coogan’s problems. It’s been a year of weather extremes so far which has made for a hugely challenging few months for him and his team.

“It's challenging in every way,” said Coogan. “At the beginning of the year there was no growth and then we had the heavy snow. And when the snow went we had torrential rain.

“One weekend the pitch was just a blanket of snow and then the following weekend we had a League match on it. Trying to get the pitch right, especially with all that rain, you're squeegeeing off the areas that are holding the water.

“My headache that time was getting the pitch dry so it could be playable and we'd have as good a surface as possible for the players. Whereas now we're basically trying to keep it alive with water.”

His efforts are appreciated by the people that matter most to Coogan -  the Kilkenny hurlers and team manager Brian Cody.

They’re always to the forefront of his mind as he beavers away trying to make the pitch as perfect for hurling as possible, and the recent feedback has been hugely positive.

“I'd talk to Brian on and off and he'd have nothing but praise for the pitch,” said Coogan.

“He was raving about it. Even at training sessions here the lads are very complimentary about it. They're saying it's one of the best surfaces that's out there.

“They're very, very happy with what we're producing for them and to see them and Brian happy is the main thing. He's a gentleman, there's no question about it, he's a very reasonable man to work with.

“Whatever has to be done on the pitch he'll run with you, there's no question about it. He'll never put any obstacle in front of us. We have a great team down here and everyone is involved with it.”

Weeks coming up to high profile matches like Kilkenny’s crunch Leinster SHC clash with Wexford in Nowlan Park on Saturday are extremely big ones for Coogan.

Like most Groundsmen he’s a perfectionist, and it’s only when the ball is throw in on Saturday that he’ll relax, content in the knowledge that his job is done.

So if you’re travelling to Nowlan Park on Saturday take a moment to admire the fruits of his considerable labour - the perfect green sward that will give the Kilkenny and Wexford hurlers ever opportunity to play the game of their lives.