Etihad Stadium boss Ian Collins has hit back over criticism of the surface of his ground, saying players needed to make better choices over the type of boots they wear.
Asked on radio station SEN if he thought the surface at Etihad Stadium had contributed to recent injuries, including the ankle injury suffered by Bulldogs midfielder Shaun Higgins, Collins said that the ground was as safe, if not safer, than the MCG.
"To me, yes Shaun Higgins did his ankle, but the way he placed his foot on the ground, if it hadn't of divoted, he might have broken his ankle," Collins said this morning.
"He was out for one week ... If it had of been on a very hard ground he might have, as I say, broken his ankle, or suffered a more serious injury than he had."
Collins said that some players chose their boots for sponsorship reasons, rather than practical reasons and that was contributing to the amount of players slipping on the surface.
“We know what players are like, they either get sponsored by some company or they have their preferred boots, when they come and see the ground’s OK they probably don’t wear the right cleats or stops," he said.
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has been the latest critic of the surface of the ground, saying it represented an unsafe workplace.
"I'm very worried, extremely worried," he told The Age. ''I think the surface is an unsafe workplace. I understand the AFL and the people at Etihad have got a huge conflict of interest. I know they say they have the ground tested all the time, but the tests are an average test."
"A lot of people get concerned about the older turf, but they can be equally concerned about the newer turf, because it comes in and it's very moist, it gets put fundamentally on concrete, and it slips and slides."
However, Collins hit back at suggestions that the recent turf replacement work had made the ground more dangerous, saying it was of the same standard at other grounds.
"The surface is exactly the same as the MCG," Collins said.
"They do turf replacements at the MCG and so do we. It's the same turf, provided by the same producer, installed by the same people."
"When you say our ground is different to others, it's not. It's exactly the same at the MCG. The only difference is we have a roof and they don't."