There are serious safety concerns over the state of Perth’s Optus Stadium’s turf after photos of the ground were circulated on social media over the weekend. Questions were raised when shots emerged of stadium staff laying turf around the ground in a mismatched fashion, with fans and pundits worrying about injury concerns for players.
However, Laura Kane who is the AFL’s GM of competition management has full confidence in the surface after concerns were raised online. ‘It is (safe). We had our turf consultant out there the other day, so we are ready to go,’ Kane said on SEN’s Crunch Time.
‘Optus Stadium’s turf today. I hope no one is injured on this tomorrow night,’ posted an AFL fan. ‘Holy crap. That’s baaaaaaaaad,’ commented sports reporter Mark Gottlieb. The turf had to be replaced at Optus Stadium after popstar Ed Sheeran’s concert on March 12, which attracted 75,000 fans.
‘Confident absolutely. We would never play a game of football on a venue surface turf that wasn’t safe. And so very confident we are ready to go at all of our stadiums around for that matter.’ Cats coach Chris Scott was livid after his side’s 22-point loss to the Magpies, saying an ‘issue’ with the surface may have contributed to innocuous-looking injuries to Tom Stewart and Sam De Koenig.
Debate has raged in recent weeks about the safety of the turf at the MCG, which had to be ripped up and replaced after two Ed Sheeran concerts, that attracted more than 200,000 fans, just two weeks out from the AFL season opener between the Blues and Tigers.
Footy legend Garry Lyon said the AFL insisting that the MCG pitch was safe to play on for round one was ‘the greatest act of tokenism in world sport’. In light of the drama surrounding the MCG pitch, SEN’s Sam Edmund was worried for players competing at Optus Stadium.
Blues skipper Sam Docherty, who has done two ACLs, then put weight into the debate, saying he was ‘extremely nervous’ to play on the MCG when he walked out pre-game and ‘saw the differences in the turf’.
‘It probably looks, I would say, significantly worse to the eye than the MCG did. But as Laura says hopefully it plays safe for the guys who have to run out there,’ Edmund said. The West Coast Eagles will take on GWS Giants on Sunday at Optus Stadium.
