Altona City president Joe Tanti has defended his club’s decision to forfeit last Saturday’s FFA Cup clash with rival Hoppers Crossing.
Tanti was not satisfied with the state of the synthetic pitch at Grange Reserve and did not want to put his players in a situation he perceived to be a safety risk.
Tanti and the committee made the decision to forfeit the game after talking with other clubs that had played on the same pitch in the weeks prior and following a pitch inspection undertaken by committee members.
“When the game got fixtured, we had an idea that it would be played on that ground due to Hoppers Crossing’s main pitch not being ready,” Tanti said.
“We spoke to a couple of teams that had played on it the weeks before and word got back to us that a lot of boys had pulled up sore and didn’t go to training on the Tuesday.
“If you pull up sore enough that you can’t train on the Tuesday, three days after you’ve played, I dare say the players were more than just leg weary. We weren’t prepared to risk our boys on that surface.”
Hoppers Crossing’s main ground is currently unavailable to host matches due to re-surfacing works. An artificial ground at Grange Reserve is used for Hoppers Crossing training sessions, pre-season friendlies and FFA Cup games because of its all-weather surface and match-standard lighting.
Hoppers Crossing president Joel Gribben said he had received no complaints from his own players or the clubs that have used the venue.
“We train on it a minimum twice a week during the season and three times a week during pre-season,” Gribben said.
“We’ve hosted seven or eight games on it this pre-season, with no particular serious injury or anything along those lines associated with it.
“We’ve played an NPL team, state league 1 and other state league teams, none of which has expressed concerns. We would not put our players on any pitch that we believe would risk their safety or their ability to play the season out.”
But Tanti was not budging.
“It’s fairly old and worn out, a few patches have been put in where people have pinched artificial grass off it,” he said.
“The case was that this actual pitch is not up to standard as far as we are concerned. I spoke to Joel Gribben and we offered a facility, a neutral ground.
“We were willing to pay for a few things and would’ve helped them out financially, but they didn’t take it. They wanted to play at home and it was their right to do that.”
City has copped a barrage of abuse on social media about its decision. Players have been labelled precious, but Tanti said it was a decision that he and his committee made, not the players.
City forfeited its $120 entry fee into the FFA Cup and was eliminated from the competition.
