The Australian Football League Players Association "has contacted players from across the league's 18 clubs to gauge views on Etihad Stadium's synthetic turf," according to Lerner & Cherny of THE AGE. The move comes as Geelong player Jimmy Bartel "likened the ground's controversial outer rim of astro turf to concrete and said the venue should seek a better alternative." The safety of the surface "came into sharp focus last weekend when Cats forward Daniel Menzel rolled his ankle on it while trying to stop himself from running into the fence." Bartel: "I don't think players should have to put up with it. In today's age we can find a better alternative that has a little bit more give in it than that style of astro turf. It is like concrete." Bartel suggested Etihad Stadium "should look to the NFL in America for solutions to their synthetic turf quandary." He said, "The NFL teams have indoor facilities with special astro turf. We're not asking for a whole field, just a small amount to replace the pretty hard stuff around the edges of Etihad and other stadiums in Australia" (THE AGE, 6/16).
