Roosters captain James Tedesco has led calls for the playing surface at the $828 million Allianz Stadium to be fixed amid fresh concerns over the ground ahead of an action-packed weekend of footy. Roosters teammate Lindsay Collins also insisted that there is ‘something wrong’ with the Allianz Stadium surface that has come under fire numerous times, and will play host to four games of footy over the coming weekend.
Players have described the playing surface as ‘slippery’ and ‘not too crash hot’, and ground staff have been working around the clock to get it right for an action-packed weekend of sport. The Sydney venue is bracing to host four rugby league games in just three days after weeks of heavy downpours that have raised fresh concerns around the state of the ground that has struggled to cope with rain in the past.
Sydney has been inundated with almost 200mm of rain over the last few weeks, although the forecast is clearing for the weekend and stadium officials are confident they can get the playing surface up to scratch. The Roosters host the Bulldogs on Friday night, meaning the ground will have had a 19-day break from the last NRL match played there between the Dogs and Manly in round 21.
On Monday morning, ground staff employed giant heat lamps to bake the grass and try to remove some of the water at the northern end of the venue. A sprinkler with a heat lamp was also set up over a bare patch of grass in the north-western corner.
Allianz Stadium has already been turned into a swimming pool several times since it reopened, with serious questions raised about whether the drainage at the ground is adequate. The first time it occurred was during last year’s NRL game between the Eels and Roosters, and officials insisted it wouldn’t be an ongoing issue. But the ground came under fire again during Game 2 of the women’s State of Origin series in May, as puddles of water pooled all over the field.
James Tedesco wants Allianz surface fixed amid new concerns
The recent downpours in Sydney have forced the Roosters to train elsewhere in the lead-up to Friday night’s game and Tedesco admits he’s more than a little worried about how Allianz will hold up this weekend. “I’m glad we’re playing the Friday game because I don’t know how the other games will go,” he told reporters on Monday.
“It’s tough because we’re meant to be training a lot of the time throughout the year, but most of the time we don’t because the surface isn’t good enough and there’s so much traffic on there with rugby, soccer and so many games in general.” And the Roosters captain called on officials to fix the playing surface ahead of next season.
“I think they’re doing something in the off-season to get the pitch better, but I feel like the surface in general hasn’t been beneficial for us,” he added. I’d love it to be re-turfed and be ready to go for us next year. I’d love a dry track because every time we play here, I feel like it’s slippery and it’s wet and it’s tough conditions.”
Roosters forward Collins also hit out at the surface and bemoaned the fact that original plans to have a roof over the stadium proved too cost-prohibitive. “There’s something wrong with this field, it’s not crash hot,” Collins said.
“We’ve just got to deal with it. You can only control the controllables, and this is something I can’t control. We were saying they should have put a roof on it, which I think was the original plan. With the money they’re going to invest to rip it all up, they probably could have put a roof on it.”
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