Lottoland surface adds two more victims as Manly defend their ground

Manly have defended the state of the turf at Lottoland after two more players suffered injuries on the contentious surface on Saturday night.

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One of Manly’s brightest young stars suffered a season-ending knee injury just an hour before Sydney Roosters winger Brett Morris went down hurt on the contentious surface at Lottoland.

Brookvale Oval has come under scrutiny after Morris suffered a likely MCL injury to his left knee when he landed awkwardly and a large piece of turf was ripped up in the process.

It can now be revealed that Luke Metcalf, an exciting former junior representative half who was pushing to make his NRL debut this year, was in tears after Blacktown’s Canterbury Cup game against North Sydney, with scans today expected to confirm his season is over.

It comes as The Daily Telegraph has obtained an independent report from ground assessor Labosport, which said surface was safe and in “good condition.”

Manly chief executive Lyall Gorman lamented the “unfortunate” injuries but said the Brookvale surface was not to blame.

Morris went down with an MCL injury.

“We commissioned an independent report last year in conjunction with council to have our ground tested and it came up incredibly positive on every scale, every level,” Gorman said.

“There was an ACL in AFL on Thursday night (Richmond star Alex Rance) on the MCG — it’s one of the best playing surfaces in the country. Sometimes these things happen. They are really unfortunate but how do you point at anyone or anything for these things? Or the ground?

“I felt for young Metcalf. He was sobbing the dressing room, God love him. He was shattered and you feel for him. He is a young kid trying to build his career. It’s frustrating and sad.”

A week of rain softened up the surface at Brookvale, with a thunderstorm hammering the ground during the Sea Eagles-Roosters game.

“The weather was ridiculous,” Gorman said.

“Your footing causes challenges in those conditions. Your balance. The ground was saturated, you can understand how injuries occur. For someone to start blaming a ground is probably a little left of centre.”

Luke Metcalf’s season is already over. Picture by Brett Costello.

The Labosport report into Brookvale was positive, citing its “adequate drainage performance”.

“From a player perspective tests showed the surface was within the recommended range for surface hardness, albeit on the softer side. Surface traction was very consistent and within the recommended range for NRL grounds,” the report stated.

Manly will take next week’s home game against New Zealand to Christchurch before returning to Brookvale on April 6 against South Sydney

The Sea Eagles shifted a trial game away from Brookvale last month due to the poor ground surface.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson said the NRL should adopt similar guidelines to the AFL for playing surfaces after his side’s 26-18 win over Manly.

“We need to make sure that the standard of the surface is consistent across all NRL teams. It’s not that hard, we’re a professional sport now. We just need to have professional standards across the surface,” Robinson said.

Trent Robinson savaged the Brookvale surface.

“The knee (of Morris) went into the turf and then a clump comes up. It digs right in and twists on that. It shouldn’t go in that far.

“The AFL has certain restrictions on the ground. If you’re not in that rating, you can’t hold your AFL games.”

NRL head of football Graham Annesley said the league was closely watching all grounds’ surfaces.

“As we saw recently at the SCG, the NRL obviously takes a very close interest in the standard of playing pitches and we will continue to do that,” Annesley said.

“We will also and continue to liaise with venue operators and local councils in an attempt to ensure pitches are in the best possible condition to protect player safety.

“However it is important to note that some pitches do get damaged by weather conditions, as we saw on Saturday night. I don’t want to public speculation about Brookvale Oval — we will continue to monitor all grounds and where there are concerns about safety, we will address those with the operators of those grounds.”