It's Time to Talk Turf!

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
#1

What is going on with the surface of THF??

The number of non-contact injuries that the field has claimed needs a closer look.

Why is this happening? It doesn’t appear to be happening at other stadiums in the CFL or NFL as frequently as it has happened recently here.

Saunders, Williams, Frey Jr., Masoli…and I know I’m missing several, including visiting players.

Is it the painted surfaces (different for Forge), or could it be something continually unrelated.

But it something I fell that needs to be looked at.

#2

Mr. Young, its time to seriously review the playing surface at THF.

How many more players need to go down before we take this issue seriously??

#3

Do we have any numbers vs other stadiums to discuss this or are we just emotional right now?

ACLs happen every year in the CFL.

#4

Already posted in the Witches thread but figured it’d belong here as well.

"Great win tonight for the boys, stadium was buzzing on that last drive.

It was hard to see the Masoli injury from my seats and they didn’t show a replay, but just wanted to point out Forge have no ads or logos on their field during games. They scrub off all the football stuff and paint on soccer lines that’s it. You can see the faint football lines during soccer broadcasts. I can attest that the seams around the old ads when I played on Ivor Wynne turf were ATROCIOUS. Pretty sure they were stitched into the actual turf it was a mess.

Feel for the grounds crew who’s gotta deal with the turf and really don’t think there’s a great solution, the turf was eating players long before soccer arrived at THF unfortunately … hybrid natural grass like BMO would be the solution I think, but unfortunately a very expensive solution. Ironically Winnipeg would also be dealing with the same transition with Valour now playing at IG, then Ottawa with the Fury and BC with the Whitecaps. I’m not sure what the safety protocol is but there’s been a few players I can remember during Forge games that have gone down awkwardly as well."

#5

I’m thinking the turf would be replaced Grey Cup year. Let’s move that up a year. It’s bad.

#6

I’ve wondered, over the almost 5 years it’s been in use, if something just isn’t right with that field.
There are many better memories contributing to this forum and I ask for confirmation, on mine telling me, that we’ve lost at least 4 star players to non-contact THF turf injuries – Collaros, Fantuz, Thomas-Erlington and, quite possibly now, Masoli. Am I right? Have there been others, as well? Is there something wrong with our field?

#7

Saunders

#8

If memory serves me correct you can add CJ Gable to the list and also definitely Chris Williams last year .

#9

If I recall, correctly, Saunders’ knee injury occurred on a hit and Williams’ suffered a torn Achilles, which can happen, at any time, on any surface. It’s those non-contact knee blowouts that I wonder about. I remember Gable, in his time here, being out over shoulder and, also, a foot injury, both of which I don’t believe were related to our turf.

#10

Chris Frey last week

#11

You may be right about Gable . As best as I can recall it was on the opening play of a game in 2014 against Edmonton when Gable went down . I remember that from where I sat in the stands you could clearly hear him screaming in agony on the turf . The game stands out for me though because of the fact that then Ti-Cat HC Austin had only Gable dressed at RB with no back-up available and we had to go with fullback CO Prime at RB the rest of the game .

#12

Right, you are, Doc. That backs up what I said about my memory. I guess short-term (i.e. 6 or 7 days) may be my issue.

#13

If it was the turf there would be a lot more injuries , these are just freak accidents specially the non contact one

#14

Fantuz

#15

We have multiple threads on the turf, started within hours of each other. Perhaps its time to merge the threads.

#16

STE was most definitely a contact injury

#17

It happens in other sports as well on different surfaces. Was anyone near Kay Thomson in the finals. Blew out his ACL on an innocent play.

Maybe the hits Masoli has been taking over time weakened his knees somehow and his planting it hard was the final straw to cause an injury. Who knows.

I don’t believe for one minute it’s the turf causing injuries.

#18

You’re absolutely right and his injury happened in Montreal, not on our turf. My, latest, mistake!

#19

Usually turf related injuries are rotational injuries.
Plant-rotate-turf monster eats your knee.

It didn’t look like the turf caused the Masoli injury but an expert i am not.

#20

It wasn’t just injuries. Watch the game again - the number of players slipping on the turf left me thinking it was either the equipment manager getting the wrong cleats out, or the turf itself is in major need of replacement.