On Saturday night it was time to go back to the Gabbie Stadium corporate box for the NPL 1 game between Blacktown City and Manly United. Blacktown were coming off an excellent away win against Sydney Olympic, but Manly had a much tougher schedule – this was their third game in six days, after a 3-3 draw with Rockdale the previous weekend, followed by an FFA Cup penalty shootout loss to Hakoah on Anzac Day. Despite the heavy workload, Warren Grieve did not rotate his squad too much, and seven outfield players started all three of these games. Before the game really got going Manly forward Matthew Fletcher suffered a very unfortunate injury when he appeared to injure his knee just before colliding with the fence, and had to be carried off the field. It took a few minutes for the stretcher to arrive (as Fletcher was on the opposite side of the field to the dressing rooms), which is nobody’s fault because at this level there isn’t anyone dedicated to that role. Sometimes I wonder if stretcher bearers could be made mandatory for NPL 1, as is the case with the A-League, W-League and National Youth League. [...]