Roosters coach Trent Robinson believes the NRL need to take better care of their grounds, after Sydney veteran Brent Morris injured himself on the Brookvale turf on Saturday.

Morris sustained a partial ligament injury after kicking up a divot in the turf, with Robinson leaping to his aid after the match.

โ€œAs a coach you donโ€™t want to come here and complain about Brookvale Oval,โ€ Robinson said.

โ€œBut we need to make sure that the standard of the surface is consistent across all NRL teams.

โ€œItโ€™s not that hard, weโ€™re a professional sport now. We just need to have professional standards across the surface.

โ€œThe knee went into the turf and then a clump comes up. It digs right in and twists on that. It shouldnโ€™t go in that far, to be honest.

โ€œItโ€™s probably not right to bring up another code, but they do it well.

โ€œThe AFL has certain restrictions on the ground. It has to be tested to get to AFL standard about the hardness and the softness. Thereโ€™s a rating, and if youโ€™re not in that rating, you canโ€™t hold your AFL games. Weโ€™re not at that level.

โ€œWeโ€™ve got an amazing ground and an amazing stadium, but the surface varies. We need to look at that as a game to standardise our fields right across (the board) and make sure thereโ€™s a high-quality surface for the athletes weโ€™ve got playing.โ€

Morris joins a growing list of NRL stars to have injured themselves at the stadium, and just last month the Sea Eagles had to move their trial match against Cronulla to Shark Park because of pitch concerns.

The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley told news.com.au the league would inspect the ground as soon as possible following the latest injury.

โ€œWe will talk to the club and to the local council and schedule an inspection of the surface as soon as possible,โ€ Annesley said.

โ€œClearly there could be numerous contributing factors including the weather conditions but player welfare will be a major consideration for any course of action.โ€

19 COMMENTS

  1. “As a coach you donโ€™t want to come here and complain about Brookvale Oval,โ€ But I will anyway.

    Suck it up Princess Robo. Your soft rorters only play 1 game here every few years. Our super tough manly boys play 10 games here every year. No complaints. They love it. Best ground in Sydney. Only softies dont like it.

  2. Funny plenty of ex players at the ground or from what I hear all commentators walked the ground before and half time and all commented how good the surface held up, but hey a roosters player gets injured playing sport and lets blame the oval.

  3. Crappp ground๐Ÿ˜ต Rubbish grand stand behind the posts still looks like a bush town ground. IF and that is a massive IF. Manly should burn the grandstand down and take a leaf out of Parra’s book if they can ever stop cheating the cap and win a premiership, Then they might build you a decent ground. But we all know that won’t be happening to soon๐Ÿ˜ต๐Ÿ˜ฉ๐Ÿ™„๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿคฃ

  4. Taumalolo did his knee and is out for 5 times as long as sooky Morris but we dont hear paul Green calling for an investigation and blaming the turf at suncorp like the poor sooky easts bunch. Someone give them a box of bandaids please. And put one over Robos mouth!!!๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿค๐Ÿค๐Ÿค๐Ÿค

  5. WoodChook it all comes down to money. Brookvale is the only ground that hasnโ€™t had money committed by State and/or Federal funding. Itโ€™s a council owned facility. Maybe if NSW tax payers (including those on the Northern Beaches) didnโ€™t have to pay to fix your delinquent ground, weโ€™d be ok too. Until then, if your club is going to benefit by being parasites on the rest of us, at least have the good grace to shut up about others modest facilities

  6. Do you ever check your dribble before you press โ€œpost commentโ€
    It doesnโ€™t even make sense…
    Itโ€™s local grounds like Brookvale, Leichhardt and kogarah that keep people wanting to come through the gates.
    Who enjoys going to anz with 8000 people and having to sit 100 metres from the game??? I know you donโ€™t understand that as you donโ€™t go to games but for those of us who do, these suburban grounds are awesome to go and watch.

  7. I thought it was already earmarked for an upgrade anyway.
    Hasn’t the state govt pledged $20mil, with another $10 mil or so coming from other (private) sources, incl the club?

  8. It is scheduled for an upgrade, by I for 1 hope they donโ€™t destroy the whole place. Yes upgraded facilities and new surface if needed, but the suburban feel should never be taken away.
    Your more reasonable eels then chicken boy so I know you would agree with what Iโ€™m saying

  9. Yeah, I do agree with keeping the smaller surbunan grounds, and I even understand “Brookie” being special to Manly supporters.
    If a renovation can get it to a quality modern standard, for a reasonable (economic) period of time, bring it on.
    That said, it’s a balancing act (across all sports in general). You can’t have stadiums like ANZ being used a just for big games (rep games) due to economics, even surburan stadiums are expensive, so clubs will have to use ANZ for regular games, and clubs will have to share surbanan grounds, and economics will ultimately find the right balance.

  10. Morris should go play oztag, Kleenex hereโ€™s your opp for a TPA ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

  11. The guy is injury prone especially with multiple knee injuries in the past. Roosters signed a dud just like eels signed choc watmough who was on one leg. No point blaming the ground. He would hurt his knee doing pilates.

  12. That’s exactly what I said to WoodChuck when the chickens bought him.
    He thought Morris was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
    How good has Ferguson looked. Worth the money now.

  13. So Manly gets a centre of excellence paid for by the NRL & a stadium upgrade paid for mostly by the government
    Parramatta gets a whole new stadium. Roosters get a whole new stadium.
    When do St.George , Cronulla & Penrith etc get upgrades to their grounds?
    Penrith also paid for their own centre of excellence . No money back from the NRL for that either.

  14. Just on the ground Manly supporters. Wouldn’t be nice to have stadiums that held just 25,000 ? So if the teams do make any finals & deserve home ground advantage , thet can then actually play at home!

  15. Careful there drum stick, you do realise being so close to the bunnies you may just not fit Toddโ€™s โ€œcriteriaโ€ ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚ no juniors no fans

  16. Hows the SCG turf going?
    As for Brookie, i dont care about an upgrade to the stands, just give us some near by parking! the whole suburb comes to a stop on game day. Make it easier to get to and people might turn up. maybe put a cover over the hill or something.

  17. Manly have received squat from the NRL. we got $10m each from state and federal govts which was promised back 10 yrs ago. Its chicken feed compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars parra and roosters keep getting for new stadiums that had nothing wrong with them

  18. I agree with that , about the stadiums.
    Still Newcastle, Manly etc promised a centre of excellence paid for by the NRL. Penrith paid for their own & no money back from the NRL.
    Lots of other clubs would like an upgrade for their grounds , paid for by governments as well.

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