THE AFL has disputed the perception that Etihad Stadium's playing surface is harder than other venues in the competition.
With Carlton's Matthew Kreuzer and North Melbourne's Ben Brown suffering concussions after hitting their heads on the turf after tackles in the past two weeks, there have been questions over whether the indoor stadium's surface is contributing to injuries.
Patrick Dangerfield received a one-match ban for a dangerous tackle on Kreuzer, while Collingwood's Brodie Grundy has been offered a two-week sanction on the same charge for his tackle on Brown.
Interim AFL football operations boss Andrew Dillon said on Tuesday he had no reason to believe the Etihad surface was harder than any other League ground, or that it was contributing to injuries.
"I'm not sure that Etihad - when we're doing penetrometer readings - it is any harder," Dillon told SEN.
"There may be times when it's slightly harder than others when the other grounds have had rain on them.
"Statistically there is no over abundance of concussions at Etihad than any other stadium."
While he conceded feedback from players suggested the stadium's surface was harder than others, Dillon said the League was constantly testing playing surfaces at all venues to see if they met with safety standards.
"We have heard that feedback, and we take it on board, but all of the scientific measurements we’ve got don't show that (the Etihad surface is harder)," he said.
"We know there is that anecdotal feedback from the players.
"There is a range we consider as an acceptable range, and as long as the reading is within that we consider that safe.
"The grounds are checked all the through the week to make sure they're at the right level or within the acceptable range."
When asked why Grundy wasn't penalised for a tackle deemed dangerous and worthy of a suspension by the Match Review Panel, Dillon said the controlling umpire had an obscured view of the incident.
"When you look at it from where the umpire was, he didn't get to see the completion of the tackle because Brown turned away from the umpire's view by Grundy," he said.
"And there were also two players in his line of sight.
"That is where the confusion comes in."
