Parramatta captain Clint Gutherson has labelled the Allianz Stadium surface as “one of the worst fields” he’s ever played on after the Eels and Roosters did battle on a waterlogged field.
The stadium’s drainage system has come under fire after it failed to properly drain water following a downpour thirty minutes before kick off which saw roughly eight millimetres of rain fall.
Puddles of water appeared across the pitch, notably pooling on the halfway line, with ground staff seen trying to manually create drainage by digging a pitchfork into the ground.
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The scenes have resulted in the state-of-the-art stadium, which only opened two years ago, to be criticised, especially considering the impressive drainage of Brookvale Oval earlier in the evening.
The Roosters handled the conditons far better than their opponents, running out 38-14 winners.
Gutherson was asked about the conditions in the post-match press conference, and the fullback was brutally honest.
“It was one of the worst fields I’ve played on for a while, especially with the fields these days as they’re normally pretty quick and I didn’t think it rained that much,” Gutherson said.
“It was hard to play in but there’s no excuse for letting some of those tries in.
“We didn’t know it was that bad until we got out there and your feet was fully underwater.
‘I don’t know what they can do about it, probably not much.”
Roosters captain James Tedesco also admitted conditions were “tough”.
“It was pretty crazy,” he said.
“I mean when we got here two hours before the game the field was looking great and then we got a bit of a downpour there and it was soaking wet.
“It sort of got drier as the game went on but in the middle (of the field) there wasn’t much bounce and it was pretty slippery.
“It was tough conditions but it was fun aas well.”
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According to Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson and Corey Parker, a stadium as new as Allianz, which cost $828 million to build, shouldn’t be having these problems.
“This is a state of the art stadium… Brookvale didn’t look like that,” Sampson commented at half-time.
“It’s certainly not the conditions that you would expect at a stadium like that after so much money was spent,” Parker said.
“I understand there was a fair downpour, but it looks diabolical.
“In forty minutes, that has not gone away whatsoever.”
Sampson added the conditions were “insane for a brand new stadium considering Brookvale suffered the same downfall and didn’t have water all over the surface.”
Bulldogs and Sharks legend Michael Ennis agreed the sight of a waterlogged Allianz Stadium pitch is concerning, especially because the “water didn’t disappear.”
“It didn’t drain throughout the whole half,” he said.
“Even 15, 20, 30 minutes into the game when balls were getting kicked into the in-goal and players were diving to collect the ball, huge amounts of water shot up.”
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