I am fairly confident that the ground is like it is by design. From what I have seen of turf management, the science seems to be pretty developed. I like that there has been some anecdotal commentary about the AFL's 'range' of ground hardness - surely this would be something that could be referenced? "The AFL stipulates a minimum of 15 cushions of sponginess, and a maximum of five diamonds of hardness, we designed the ground to be 2 diamonds because..." If you were designing a new stadium, I reckon you'd shoot towards the harder side, because the ball will bounce and run better and that would make the game better to watch. Which I reckon it has been.