Bankwest Stadium to relay 5000 square metres of turf after injury carnage
It was the location of two season-ending injuries and now Bankwest Stadium is undergoing a vital makeover to repair 5000 square metres of its surface.
NRL
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A $500,000 turf makeover is being undertaken at Bankwest Stadium in the wake of round seven’s horror injury toll.
The Sydney Roosters lost Victor Radley and Sam Verrills to season ending ACL injuries during last Friday night’s game against St George Illawarra, raising questions about the quality of the playing surface.
Parramatta’s Mitchell Moses also suffered a calf injury on Saturday against the Canberra Raiders and could miss up to four weeks of football.
The normally lush green turf at Bankwest Stadium is now looking worse for wear after the premier venue hosted 11 NRL games in the space of 22 days.
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The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Stadium has taken the step of moving forward an already scheduled returfing of the playing surface.
Work on the replacement turf started on Monday morning and a total of 5000 square metres of turf is expected to be laid. The new surface will be laid on the field’s ‘central corridor, where all the high traffic areas are’ and the work should be completed by Wednesday morning.
The NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley told The Daily Telegraph the turf is being laid down as a maintenance measure rather than anything to do with the player safety concerns.
“It was scheduled for after next weekend but they [Bankwest Stadium] said to us they could bring it forward if we thought that was a good idea and we said if you could bring it forward then why not. It’s not because of any safety concerns, if they were going to do it anyway, they may as well do it this week rather than next week,” he said.
“We had it tested on Saturday morning by a completely independent turf expert and they took readings right across the field for things like stability and traction and hardness, which are things they always test. The experts said it was in the acceptable range for all of those measures.”
The work on the surface will not force any upcoming round eight matches to be moved away from Bankwest Stadium.
The venue uses a type of turf that can be played on as soon as it is laid down meaning Friday night’s match between the Eels and Cowboys will go ahead as scheduled.
“The type of turf they use is called ‘ready to play’ turf and it comes in on massive pallets that each weigh over a tonne and they need a tractor to push it into place and when they push it into place it doesn’t move at all. You can put it down today and play on it tomorrow,” Annesley said.
In March, the surface was replaced after an Elton John concert on a Saturday night and by Wednesday, the Eels were already back training on the field.
A Bankwest Stadium spokesman told News Corp while the increase in NRL matches has led to some wear and tear, the grass on the pitch is actually discoloured as a opposed to bare.
“We re-turf every winter, the summer couch grass dies off and the winter rye grass has got to come through but if you have all these games the rye grass doesn’t get a chance to grow. What you see on the weekend on TV that looks bare patched, the grass is still there it’s just discoloured,” they said.