The ACT government has shut Canberra's sports fields after two weeks of soggy weather, casting doubt about weekend play will go ahead this weekend.

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The forecast is set to clear a little, but fields are water-logged and the government has been facing increased pressure to preserve the quality of playing surfaces after revelations about poor facilities.

"Due to the recent wet weather, ACT government turf sportsgrounds are closed for training and match play today, Thursday 11 June 2026," the government said on Thursday.

"Today's closure will help protect fields for weekend sport."

The fields will be reassessed on Friday morning. And while the damage caused by hoons is a separate issue, the question mark about children playing on muddy fields has raised its head again.

Below is what we wrote about the muddy sports fields issue in 2021 and the sentiment may be still the same for many parents.

I am 100 per cent one of those parents who has thanked God when kids' winter sport has been cancelled because it's wet and dreary and we can hide back under the doona.

BUT, more recently, I am also one of the increasingly frustrated hordes of parents who has despaired as the ACT government has closed its sportsgrounds week after week because it's too wet and cold, preventing kids from training or playing sport. Once is fun; week after week is not.

Some of my best rants: Can't our kids get muddy? What is the problem playing a winter sport in winter conditions? Why are our kids being denied the pure pleasure of playing on a sodden ground, sliding over the tryline and getting proper muddy? Let's just wrap our kids in cotton wool and enjoy being the most risk-averse society possible.

Yet, it's true there has been a lot of rain this winter. And sport and society have moved on from memories of our free-range 1970s or 1980s childhoods playing in the slosh. For better or worse.

Local sports groups have been toeing the line but starting to become vocal about the need for better drainage on the sportsgrounds, considering the fees they pay to the government. There is also some questions around why the need for a blanket closure and why kids can't play when they are likely to do less damage to a muddy field than an adult.

The official line from the ACT government was that "with low winter temperatures and periods of heavy rainfall the muddy, slippery and boggy surfaces pose safety risks to the community and increase the risk of damage to sportsgrounds if used".

First to the rain. The Bureau of Meteorology says 60.4mm of rain fell in May at the........

© Canberra Times