Before you reach for the herbicide, you should create conditions that favour the grass you want rather than winter grass. A healthy, thick turf cover that is not over-watered and not in shade will help prevent this weed from becoming established.
Several winter grass killers are available that either prevent the problem in the first place or remove it from desirable grass if it's already there.
The trick is knowing how to use these to get the best results. The key to this is timing your treatment. Timing is extremely important for pre-emergent applications. Our blog discusses the 7 factors that can impact the results of using pre-emergents, and one of the factors we discuss is timing.
However, inevitably winter grass will appear, and that's when post energent herbicides come into play.