- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
While the Fury lived up to their nickname over the postponement of their A-League clash with Newcastle, Jets’ coach Branko Culina says laying blame is useless.
Wednesday night’s match at EnergyAustralia Stadium was called off by Football Federation Australia (FFA) late on Tuesday due to the poor state of the pitch, resulting from a motocross event at the venue 11 days ago.
The Fury had already begun their flight descent to Newcastle when they heard the news and the club’s CEO Rabieh Krayem was up in arms calling the situation “an absolute disgrace”.
“I can understand their frustration,” Culina told AAP on Wednesday.
“It was a bit similar last year, we travelled to Townsville and it rained for about three days and the game was called off.
“I can imagine them being frustrated having already started travelling down to Newcastle only to find out it was called off.
“But there’s no point in blaming anyone because that’s not going to resolve anything.”
Krayem laid the blame squarely with NRL club the Newcastle Knights who hold management rights at the state government-owned stadium, subleasing it to the Jets.
But Culina was reluctant to comment on the continuing turf wars between the Jets and the Knights saying: “I’m paid to coach and not to make judgment calls on the management of the stadium.”
Newcastle, who were set to play their first match on home soil in over a month, will now have to wait even longer for their home ground comeback.
“We were really looking forward to the match because we haven’t played a home game in about five weeks, so we were disappointed from that end,” Culina said.
“It’s not ideal for anyone.
“Not for the Fury, because they’ve got a game on Sunday and in our case it’s not ideal for us because we have to wait even longer to play this game.
“We planned and prepared for this match, both teams did and in the end not to play is disappointing.
“Particularly in our case, because we’ve played very little football in the last month or so.
“But I’d rather not play the game than risk injury to players.”
A date has yet to be determined for the rescheduled Jets’ match against the Fury, with Sunday’s match at EnergyAustralia Stadium against Melbourne Heart now moved to Port Macquarie.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.