Canberra footy fans, who or what can we blame? Two of our star footballers, struck down with season-ending knee injuries at Canberra Stadium in the space of three days.
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Brumbies flyhalf Matt Toomua, 22, and Raiders prop Brett White, 30 tomorrow, had little in common until last weekend. Now both have ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments (ACLs) in their left knees and face at least nine months of rehabilitation.
Both injuries were non-contact and it looked like a double case of bad luck.
So what do we do, just kick the grass and curse the home turf? It's not as silly as it might sound.
A 2005 study of ACL injuries in the AFL, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found rye grass results in fewer non-contact ACL injuries than couch – or bermuda – grass.
Canberra Stadium uses couch grass in summer, with the thirstier rye grass seeded through it for winter. Most Australian sports grounds use a similar combination.
The result is non-contact ACL injuries are more likely to occur early on in the footy season, before the rye grass has taken over.
The authors of the study think the reason lies in the thatching of couch grass, which is more likely to 'trap' football boots, putting strain on the knees.
A 2007 Victorian Government report on ground conditions and injury recommends "promoting the use of rye grass in their grass mix and reducing the amount of thatch on grasses on all fields".
Canberra Stadium general manager Neale Guthrie said: "We seeded it with rye at the end of January, so it would now be mature – it takes about six weeks."
But there's still couch "providing the strength underneath", although the ground is dethatched thoroughly every six months.
Guthrie says the only requirement from football codes is the grass be a certain length. He says the flip side of the couch grass and all its knee-unfriendly thatching is it's more likely to hold up to the presure of a 1.6-tonne scrum.
So if that theory's given the boot, what about footwear? Gone are the days of props like White wearing ankle-high boots with metal studs. White was carted off on Monday in shiny cleated numbers.
The same Victorian report states: "It is likely that players will choose boots on a given day that maximise shoe-surface traction and therefore minimise the risk of slipping ... This is in direct contrast to what might be recommended for safety considerations."
So that's it – the boots are to blame!
But it goes on: "Strategies for changing the grass profiles on playing fields are more likely to be successful, in the long run, than requiring players to proactively change their boots in relation to the season stage."
So it's back to being the grass's fault.
But you're not Canberran if you can't curse the weather.
The AFL study also found "high water evaporation in the month before the injurious match and low rainfall in the year before the match was associated with a trend towards increase ACL injury risk".
There's been gutters full of rain this year. But, for the record, Canberra recorded 570mm of rain last year, compared to 960mm the year before.
But in this search for anwers and browsing through scientific theories, perhaps we just need to accept an element of bad luck.
"Most sporting teams, playing union or league, you expect one or two players to go down with an ACL rupture per year," says Raiders doctor Wilson Lo.
So football Gods, if you're listening, Canberra's had its quota in one weekend. Let us be.