The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Players drop like flies over the NRL tragic round

Autoplay in... 6 (Cancel)
Up Next No more videos! Playlist is empty -
Replay
Cancel
Next
Roar Guru
12th May, 2019
28
1263 Reads

This weekend we saw eight games all at Suncorp Stadium and I loved watching the feast of football.

Sadly, a lot of injuries happened and most of them occurred to the leg, including knees, ankles, groins and feet.

Ryan Papenhuyzen (concussion), Curtis Scott (fractured foot), Connor Watson (ankle), Edrick Lee (foot), Andrew Fifita (hamstring), Matthew Prior (neck/shoulder), Shannon Boyd (concussion), Jack Bird (knee), Moses Suli (finger), Toafofoa Sipley (leg), Apisai Koroisau (calf), Daniel Tupou (neck), Josh Papalii (concussion), Latrell Mitchell (groin) and Boyd Cordner (concussion) formed the long list of casualties from the Magic Weekend.

Fifteen injures, and eight involved the legs.

I’ve never seen this amount of injuries in one round. Players were dropping like flies.

My theory is that because the same ground was being used repeatedly, there wasn’t enough time to fix the grass in between games like they usually do after matches. This then made Suncorp Stadium an unsafe playing surface.

Sydney Roosters star Latrell Mitchell.

Star Rooster Latrell Mitchell limped off with a groin injury during the Magic Weekend. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

I like the idea of the Magic Round, but maybe next year, take some precautions.

Advertisement

If I was in charge of the NRL, for that round only, I would re-adjust the times for the games.

Keep the Thursday night game, of course, as well as the Friday 8pm encounter – but drop the 6pm Friday clash just for that round.

Have three games each on Saturday and Sunday with the first one kicking off at midday, the second at 3pm, and the last at 6pm.

With the one hour they have between games, make the ground a safe environment so we don’t have a repeat of this year’s disaster.

Another idea is to exchange games. In other words, as next year’s Magic Weekend is going to take place in Brisbane again, I’d just have four at Suncorp and four on the Gold Coast, and the matches alternate between the two. This will give much more time to fix the ground between games.

Of course, I loved the Magic concept as a fan, but player safety is something that every NRL supporter needs to care about – both for their own team and across the competition.

Advertisement

When a player is injured – even if they represent the opposition – fans always gasp and hope that it’s nothing serious.

Why?

At the end of the day, they’re human beings just like us.

What did you think about the Magic Round?

close