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The much-maligned Etihad Stadium surface received the thumbs-up on Sunday after a testing weekend of sport.
The ground held up well for Sunday’s AFL match as the Western Bulldogs beat North Melbourne by 71 points.
Stadium staff worked well into the early hours of Sunday morning after the Bledisloe Cup rugby match on Saturday night.
The stadium had also hosted the Friday night AFL match between Essendon and St Kilda.
Some players lost their footing on Sunday, but it was a vast improvement on the farcical conditions for the Friday night clash the previous weekend between Hawthorn and St Kilda.
The surface was far too slippery and it prompted a meeting last Monday between venue management, the AFL and the players association.
As a result, the stadium changed several aspects of the turf management.
“It seemed to hold up pretty well, I watched a bit of the rugby last night and you saw in the big scrums … the surface was certainly shifting,” said Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade.
“But it certainly held up well, a couple of guys slipped over at times.”
Stadium media manager Bill Lane said the venue management was pleased with how the surface fared through a busy weekend.
“Clearly there was some damage overnight and we worked through the early hours of the morning, we brought in some new turf, we replaced about 10 and a half square metres,” Lane said.
“The ground played well and we expected it would.
“A lot was done over the past week, we said we were going to do various things and we delivered on that, it stood up.”
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