The St Johnstone players are joking about which of them will have to find a new club if an artificial pitch is laid at McDiarmid Park.
But manager Tommy Wright does not see that day coming any time soon, if at all.
Chairman Steve Brown said last week that the Perth club would “have to give serious consideration to getting an all-weather pitch and it’s something we’re thinking about.”
Wright is still a fan of grass and pointed out: “My thoughts haven’t changed.
“He has said there has been problems for grass pitches this season because of the weather – not just ours.
“We have had a freakish winter with the amount of rain.
“As a chairman he has to look at every possibility.
“And you have to be mindful that the chairman said it was something that could be considered.
“At no stage did he say he is putting the pitch in, and I think his first preference would be a hybrid pitch.
“But I can’t see it in the near future. We have players who can’t play on it, players who couldn’t play on it regularly.
“I see grass being very much at St Johnstone for the next few years.”
Wright added: “From a sporting point of view it’s wrong that Steven MacLean is not available for certain games for us on medical advice.
“The chairman has said he would consider it in the future and that makes him a responsible chairman. But it will not be in for next season because we’ve got MacLean and probably three or four other players who couldn’t play on it week in week out. In fact, the lads joked that six of them would be getting paid up if we put it down!”
Wright would like to see Scottish football approach the issue of new surfaces, or improved surfaces, as a collective.
“To improve grass pitches you need more investment,” he pointed out. “They have improved in the last 10 years in England because clubs have made a real investment and no one is complaining about pitches down there.
“It is something we should look at collectively. I know some clubs have lamps to help the grass grow over the winter and maybe we should be working together and sharing costs. “Maybe there should be funding to help teams put in a hybrid pitch.
“Say 10 clubs wanted to put a hybrid pitch in, why not all go along to a company and do a deal to buy it in bulk.
“But it’s easy to criticise the grass pitches this season but the weather has been horrendous. Hopefully we won’t have a winter like that again.
“I know the majority of managers don’t want them, I know the majority of players don’t want them, particularly at the top level. I fully understand those who do have them.
“But I know clubs have taken away from training on them because they are picking up injuries.
“If you go back to the PFA survey, they have to be listened to because they are the guys who need to play on it.
“Plastic serves a purpose for certain clubs. But if you look at top level Dutch football they are not used by the community and they seem to play a lot better. You have to look at the quality of the plastic pitch. No one seems to be complaining too much about Falkirk’s pitch which seems to be the best to have been put down.
“But before we right grass off let’s see what we can do to improve things.”