Manuka Oval curator Brad van Dam is confident the iconic Canberra venue can prove itself ''one of the big boys'' of Australian sport as its revamped surface reopens to a testing logjam of cricket and AFL fixtures.
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Just months after resembling a dirt pit with mountains of soil, the oval will undergo more transition as it hosts five top-level cricket matches and two AFL fixtures within three months.
It means van Dam will need to put the new multimillion-dollar surface through three quick transformations in its early stages, switching between cricket and AFL conditions.
Manuka has been closed for renovations since July, but will reopen for the Prime Minister's XI match against England on January 14.
The GWS Giants will sandwich two AFL matches in between the cricket season.
In the quickest turnaround, van Dam will have just 13 days between the ACT Cricket grand final and the Giants' first premiership match in Canberra - against the Bulldogs on April 12 - to soften the wicket square for AFL.
The AFL has a 14-day exclusion zone before cricket venues can host matches to ensure optimum conditions to protect players from injury.
But the AFL and cricket officials have agreed to relax guidelines to give Canberra 13 days for the transformation. The AFL will test the ground before the match to ensure it is safe.
''The schedule is jam-packed, but we've spoken to both sports and they know the oval is still young and immature,'' van Dam said.
''It is busy, but we're managing it so we know the ground will hold up in its growing period.
''Manuka's one of the big boys now. We've got the lights, we've got the surface and there are all the other upgrades going on.''
It's the first time the oval has been resurfaced since its construction in 1924. New grass has been laid and the finishing touches are being put on new seating, ground configuration and the boundary fence. Capacity will jump from 13,500 to more than 15,500.
The surface has been lowered by more than one metre and about 25,000 cubic metres of soil was removed.
The new lights and surface are part of a long-term, $35 million investment expected to be finished by the end of the decade.
Cricket officials have already moved two ACT Comets Futures League matches, which were scheduled for February and March, to ease the heavy load. Cricket ACT has also moved its one-day grand final from February 16 to February 2 to accommodate the AFL pre-season game.
''It's great that Manuka is going to get extensive use,'' Territory Venues general manager Neale Guthrie said.
''The Manuka Oval surface is state-of-the-art now. We've got dialogue open with Cricket Australia and the Sydney-based Twenty20 teams, so we're starting to explore more [fixture opportunities].''
