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Nicholas Quinlan • May 3rd, 2025 12:15 pm
Melbourne’s General Manager of Football, Frank Ponissi has raised concerns about the potential slippage that may take place during Magic Round.
This comes as Suncorp Stadium management decided to rip up half of the existing turf and re-laid the surface a week before it played host to all 16 NRL teams this weekend.
This news and the chance of rain across the weekend in Brisbane have created speculation as to whether the playing surface will be safe enough.
Ponissi would confirm these suspicions noting that the Storm has had discussions on this issue internally given they will be the last side to play on the surface.
“That’s a concern, Dwayne I won’t lie to you,” Ponissi said earnestly on SEN 1116’s Dwayne’s World.
“It’s something we have discussed internally and we’re going to obviously bring every type of footwear up there.
“I just think they might have to have longer studs for this particular game, as we know, South East Queensland has had a lot of rain over the last few months and last few weeks.
“They’ve (Suncorp Stadium) re-laid the turf this week interestingly enough.
“We’ve watched the women’s game last night; they had the State of Origin game, it didn’t look too bad, I’ll be interested on the report from people who were there.”
Despite Ponissi’s concerns about the pitch, he still feels that it will be safe enough to play on for Sunday.
“I’m confident that from a safety point of view, they’ve (Suncorp Stadium management and NRL) ensured that it’s a safe field, so we're hopeful that is the case.”
It is not the first time that concerns have been raised around the playing surface of Suncorp Stadium leading into Magic Round.
Back in 2023, the NRL would get independent specialists on turf to review the playing surface and determine whether it was safe to play. The ground was deemed to be safe and proceeded to host the round.
Melbourne will look to finish Magic Round with a bang as they will play the Canberra Raiders on Sunday night to close out the round.
