Warriors Mt Smart league stadium third most dangerous in NRL, report shows

The Warriors home ground has been condemned as the third most dangerous ground for players in the NRL.

The NRL's Injury Surveillance Report for 2018 has come up with some surprising results, with Brisbane's revered Suncorp Stadium topping the list of dangerous grounds.

The NRL looked at data from the 16 NRL clubs and 439 players who took the field during the season, the Telegraph reported.

Brisbane's home ground carried an eight per cent risk of injury to players. On average there were a table topping 2.7 injures per game at Suncorp.

The Gold Coast Titans' home ground was next, with Auckland's Mt Smart Stadium rated the third most dangerous with a 6.4 per cent injury risk.

The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley, a former top referee, said there was complete faith in the Brisbane ground staff and he put the surprise result down to "bad luck".

There was no explanation given for why some grounds might be more dangerous than others but well-reported complaints about Manly's Brookvale Oval appear to be well founded. The survey found that nearly 10 per cent of all games missed through injury were a result of incidents at Brookvale.

In other key statistics, 88.6 per cent of NRL players suffered an injury during the season, with the most experienced by front rowers, followed by back rowers. Head injures were the most common at 23.5 per cent, a natural result of increased scrutiny.

"One of those reasons those numbers are as high as they are is that there is so much more observation of those things now and they're under so much more scrutiny than they ever were,'' Annesley told the Telegraph.

"We're already seeing that start to taper off and then hopefully then reduce because there's more things being done, particularly with HIA (head injury assessment) and next season we're introducing medical spotter's in the bunker.

"There's also more training and qualifications of on-field trainers and education from the NRL about the impact of head injuries.

"We're not so much concerned an increase in the numbers, as long as we are in identifying those incidents, we're actually providing a safer environment for the players.''

Any problems with the Brisbane ground will be highlighted in 2019, when the inaugural Magic Round involves every match in round nine being played at Suncorp.

The four day extravaganza will kick off with Warriors discard Shaun Johnson's Cronulla Sharks playing the Titans.