Dome a danger: Tigers
By Caroline Wilson
June 10 2003
Two Richmond footballers, believed to be Matthew Richardson and Greg Stafford, alerted club doctor Chris Bradshaw to a series of danger areas on the Telstra Dome surface shortly before last Friday night's Tigers-Kangaroos clash.
While no stadium or AFL official was alerted before the game, Richmond now intends to join Brisbane and lodge an official complaint with the AFL Players Association over the surface, which many of its players regard as hard, uneven and unstable in parts.
The club's director of football, Greg Miller, refused to name the players but confirmed that two senior Tigers had been concerned enough by the state of the surface to alert the club's medicos.
Miller said yesterday that Richmond's player representive, Joel Bowden, had been instructed to speak with the players association about the poor condition of the ground.
Richmond centre half-back Darren Gaspar received a season-ending knee injury and midfielder Kane Johnson is unlikely to return until the end of the month after hurting his calf during the Kangaroos game.
"The AFL and Telstra (Dome) won't acknowledge it but it's not good enough," said Miller, who will also meet AFLPA chief executive Rob Kerr this week.
"Players are getting injured and it's becoming a massive issue at club level.
"I hate to imagine what it's doing to Essendon, who play so many games there, and now the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs. It doesn't matter what they say, the ground is much harder than any other surface in the AFL and it's uneven. It's much harder than any of the grounds we are training on."
Kerr said yesterday that he planned to hold talks with the stadium's chief executive, Ian Collins, and the AFL in a bid to solve the problem.
"It's disappointing that it hasn't improved," said Kerr. "We've discussed it at our executive meetings and the feeling at the start of the year was that the situation had shown some improvement. We didn't have pre-season rock concerts this year.
"But reading some of the comments over the weekend, obviously it's continuing to be a big concern with some players. I must say, the clubs have got to show more responsibility if we are going to identify and fix the problem."
Brisbane captain Michael Voss on Sunday slammed the playing surface at Telstra Dome, describing it as "by far the worst in the AFL". Voss's teammate, reigning Brownlow medallist Simon Black, was one of four other Lions to criticise the ground, describing it as "dangerous in certain parts". Martin Pike suggested that "they would shut another oval down if it was in that state".
The players' association is midway through a survey of all AFL playing surfaces in conjunction with independent researchers from Melbourne University who are being funded by the AFL and are testing movement at all grounds.
The players are being asked to fill in questionaires and to date have taken part in three surveys, which are being conducted in two-week blocks.
Kerr, whose association has spent more than $20,000 on its own equipment for testing surfaces, said he had not yet started to collate the data.
While Collins continues to hit back at player criticism - he told The Age on Sunday that footballers must lodge complaints through the appropriate channels and implied that the Lions' comments were, in part, sour grapes - even the victorious Saints coach, Grant Thomas, agreed the surface was a problem.
Eight players were injured in the St Kilda-Brisbane game, six of them receiving knee, ankle or foot complaints. St Kilda ruckman Trent Knobel, like Richmond's Mark Coughlan, who was mildly concussed the previous night, landed heavily on his head and both clubs indicated that the hardness of the surface posed an extra problem because of its lack of "give".
"The surface there is hard, there is no doubt," Thomas said. "There is no give in the ground whatsoever."
The Saints have played seven of their 11 matches so far this season at Telstra Dome and Thomas said the club had been forced to alter its training methods as a result. "There is no doubt the players have a joint soreness which is more significant than any other ground they play on," he said.
By Caroline Wilson
June 10 2003
Two Richmond footballers, believed to be Matthew Richardson and Greg Stafford, alerted club doctor Chris Bradshaw to a series of danger areas on the Telstra Dome surface shortly before last Friday night's Tigers-Kangaroos clash.
While no stadium or AFL official was alerted before the game, Richmond now intends to join Brisbane and lodge an official complaint with the AFL Players Association over the surface, which many of its players regard as hard, uneven and unstable in parts.
The club's director of football, Greg Miller, refused to name the players but confirmed that two senior Tigers had been concerned enough by the state of the surface to alert the club's medicos.
Miller said yesterday that Richmond's player representive, Joel Bowden, had been instructed to speak with the players association about the poor condition of the ground.
Richmond centre half-back Darren Gaspar received a season-ending knee injury and midfielder Kane Johnson is unlikely to return until the end of the month after hurting his calf during the Kangaroos game.
"The AFL and Telstra (Dome) won't acknowledge it but it's not good enough," said Miller, who will also meet AFLPA chief executive Rob Kerr this week.
"Players are getting injured and it's becoming a massive issue at club level.
"I hate to imagine what it's doing to Essendon, who play so many games there, and now the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs. It doesn't matter what they say, the ground is much harder than any other surface in the AFL and it's uneven. It's much harder than any of the grounds we are training on."
Kerr said yesterday that he planned to hold talks with the stadium's chief executive, Ian Collins, and the AFL in a bid to solve the problem.
"It's disappointing that it hasn't improved," said Kerr. "We've discussed it at our executive meetings and the feeling at the start of the year was that the situation had shown some improvement. We didn't have pre-season rock concerts this year.
"But reading some of the comments over the weekend, obviously it's continuing to be a big concern with some players. I must say, the clubs have got to show more responsibility if we are going to identify and fix the problem."
Brisbane captain Michael Voss on Sunday slammed the playing surface at Telstra Dome, describing it as "by far the worst in the AFL". Voss's teammate, reigning Brownlow medallist Simon Black, was one of four other Lions to criticise the ground, describing it as "dangerous in certain parts". Martin Pike suggested that "they would shut another oval down if it was in that state".
The players' association is midway through a survey of all AFL playing surfaces in conjunction with independent researchers from Melbourne University who are being funded by the AFL and are testing movement at all grounds.
The players are being asked to fill in questionaires and to date have taken part in three surveys, which are being conducted in two-week blocks.
Kerr, whose association has spent more than $20,000 on its own equipment for testing surfaces, said he had not yet started to collate the data.
While Collins continues to hit back at player criticism - he told The Age on Sunday that footballers must lodge complaints through the appropriate channels and implied that the Lions' comments were, in part, sour grapes - even the victorious Saints coach, Grant Thomas, agreed the surface was a problem.
Eight players were injured in the St Kilda-Brisbane game, six of them receiving knee, ankle or foot complaints. St Kilda ruckman Trent Knobel, like Richmond's Mark Coughlan, who was mildly concussed the previous night, landed heavily on his head and both clubs indicated that the hardness of the surface posed an extra problem because of its lack of "give".
"The surface there is hard, there is no doubt," Thomas said. "There is no give in the ground whatsoever."
The Saints have played seven of their 11 matches so far this season at Telstra Dome and Thomas said the club had been forced to alter its training methods as a result. "There is no doubt the players have a joint soreness which is more significant than any other ground they play on," he said.
