Waverley Park
Encyclopedia
Waverley Park was an Australian rules football
stadium
in Mulgrave, Victoria
, Australia
. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian based Victorian Football League/Australian Football League
clubs. However, during the 1990s it became the home ground of both the Hawthorn
and St Kilda football clubs. It was later replaced by Docklands Stadium. It is currently used as a training venue by Hawthorn, while St Kilda has moved to Moorabbin Oval
. The main grandstand and oval are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register
. The seating capacity is 2,000, down from a peak of 78,000.
clubs requested the league to find land that was suitable for the building of a new stadium. In September 1962, the VFL had secured a 212 acre (860,000 m²) block of grazing and market garden land at Mulgrave
. This area was chosen because it was believed that with the effects of urban sprawl
, and the proposed building of the South-Eastern (later called Monash
) freeway, the area would become the demographic centre of Melbourne
. The VFL reportedly lobbied the state government to construct a train connection to the stadium but, but this never occurred so the stadium was abandoned.
The original plans were for a stadium catering for up to 157,000 patrons, which would have made it one of the biggest stadiums in the world. To accommodate the large number of patrons the members' stand was to be extended around the whole ground. However, in 1982/1983, when the extensions were due to commence, the Government of Victoria refused to approve the plans for the upgrade because the upgrade would have threatened the Melbourne Cricket Ground
's right to host the AFL Grand Final
. Hence, no further development ever occurred and the capacity was set at just over 100,000 patrons.
The playing surface of 200 metres long and 160 metres wide would be the biggest in the league. This caused some controversy and the boundary lines were repainted and goals were relocated to make the playing area more similar to other AFL grounds.
The foundations for the K.G. Luke stand were laid in 1969 and more than 20 kilometers of solid concrete terracing was laid around the ground.
Finally, on 18 April 1970, Fitzroy
and Geelong
played the first game at Waverley Park, to a crowd of 25,887. However, the stadium was far from completed. In fact the only section of the actual grandstand that was built was the first level of the K.G. Luke Stand. The rest of the stadium had only been completed on the ground level.
The Public Reserve Stands encircling the rest of the stadium were finished at a cost of $4.5 million in 1974 and the car parking was extended to fit a total of 25,000 cars. Lighting was added in May 1977, at a cost of $1.2 million, for the first of the 1977 night series televised matches.
In 1982 a monochrome video matrix scoreboard was in operation at Waverley Park for the first time in VFL history, displaying instant replay highlights. In 1984 the arena was returfed and the drainage system upgraded. Two years later a mosaic mural perpetuating many great names of VFL football was installed on the grandstand facade above the members' entrance. During the 1988 season automatic turnstiles were introduced at the members' entrance.
During the 1973 season, 42,610 attended the first interstate match at the ground (between Victoria and Western Australia) and a record 60,072 attended the second semi-final between Carlton
and Collingwood
.
Essendon and Carlton contested a once-off match on Anzac Day
in 1975 (which Essendon won) in front of a crowd of 77,770.
The record attendance was 92,935 for Collingwood versus Hawthorn in 1981.
In 1977 Fitzroy played North Melbourne
in the first night match at the stadium in the Amco-Herald Cup (now the NAB Cup). The game started 55 minutes late after the State Electricity Commission's supply to the $1 million lighting system failed just ten minutes before the game was due to begin. A fuse was thought to have blown in in the feeder pole to the ground. All power to the ground was turned off for 18 minutes while it was repaired.
In 1987 Fitzroy played North Melbourne
in the first night match at the stadium for premiership points in the major competition. A total of 183,383 people watched the three finals games at VFL Park and the preliminary final attendance of 71,298 was the largest since 1984. The game was between Melbourne
and Hawthorn and the game was described as the most epic played at VFL Park, with Hawthorn winning from a goal kicked after the siren, by Gary Buckenara
.
The ground hosted its first and only AFL Grand Final
in 1991, which was contested by Hawthorn and the West Coast Eagles
because the Melbourne Cricket Ground
at the time was undergoing construction of the Great Southern Stand. Hawthorn defeated West Coast by 53 points in front of a crowd of 75,230.
In 1996 an unexpected pitch invasion
occurred when the lights went out at the stadium in a night game between Essendon and St Kilda, during the third quarter . After declaring the match finished for the evening the AFL commission held an emergency meeting to decide what should happen as there was no provision in the official rules for an event like this. They decided to continue the match three days later. Essendon kept their winning position comfortably, starting with a 20 point lead and winning with a 22 point margin. Controversially, the Bombers made five changes to their line-up between the two parts of the match. One of Essendon players, James Hird, managed to pick up match votes in some of the media awards. Prior to the match, St Kilda coach Stan Alves complained about the situation and stated that his team is "not going to go kamikaze" and risk an injury when they don't have much chance of winning.
The AFL subsequently decided on a set of rules to be applied for incidents of this kind, those being that if a game is not started, the league in control of the match shall determine the result. Games that start but are interrupted prior to half time are deemed to be drawn if the game can not recommence within 30 minutes, while if the game is interrupted after half time, the scores at the time are deemed to be final.
) and the aforementioned lack of covering over most of the seating. Leaving the stadium's car park was chaotic at best, with near gridlock in the car park itself and little improvement on reaching Wellington Road or Jacksons Road, the only two access routes to the ground.
The stadium's demise was made official on 31 October 1996 after the AFL confirmed that a new stadium would be built as a replacement for Waverley Park. http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=927
The last official AFL game was played in 1999 between Hawthorn
and Sydney
in front of a sell-out crowd of 72,130.
In 2000, AFL pre-season cup matches were played at the venue, and Victorian Football League games also took place there, including finals and the grand final. Melbourne's Eastern Football League also played division 1 and division 2 grand finals at the venue at the conclusion of the 2000 season. The 2000 VFL Grand Final was the last official game of football played at the venue.
After the 2000 VFL Grand Final, Waverley Park did not appear to be maintained and vandals smashed windows and trashed the super boxes. The playing surface became covered in weeds. Victorian MP Mary Delahunty
called on the AFL to mow the dilapidated stadium, because it was still under their control.
On 10 December 2001 the AFL confirmed that the land was sold to housing developer Mirvac to assist the Australian Football League to finance the construction of the now complete Docklands Stadium. The ground was demolished starting on 11 December 2002.
While often seen as something of a failure, Waverley Park actually served an important purpose for the VFL/AFL, providing a critical bargaining chip in negotiations with the Melbourne Cricket Club
over MCG
access. The existence of Waverley as a viable alternative venue for the grand final and other events presumably led to a considerably more favourable bargaining position for the AFL.
.
Successful lobbying saw Heritage Victoria grant legislative protection to the site and, beginning in December 2002, the entire stadium was demolished except for the members' stand and the members' stand mural. The surrounding parking lot has been replaced by suburban housing, including 1400 new dwellings for 3500 people. The members' stand is visible from the nearby Monash Freeway
.
The oval itself and the remaining section of the members stand have been redeveloped into a state-of-the-art training and administrative facility for the Hawthorn Football Club
and the community. The facility incorporates an MCG-dimension oval (the size of the playing arena having been reduced from its original size), includes a 25 metre heated indoor swimming pool, four refrigerated ice tanks, a gymnasium with a 60 metre running track and a warm-up area with projection and screen facilities to simulate match-day conditions. The grandstand has seating for around 2000 patrons with seating in the top level of the grandstand having been retained.
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
in Mulgrave, Victoria
Mulgrave, Victoria
Mulgrave is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 21 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Monash. At the 2006 Census, Mulgrave had a population of 16,280....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian based Victorian Football League/Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
clubs. However, during the 1990s it became the home ground of both the Hawthorn
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
and St Kilda football clubs. It was later replaced by Docklands Stadium. It is currently used as a training venue by Hawthorn, while St Kilda has moved to Moorabbin Oval
Moorabbin Oval
Moorabbin Oval, also known by its sponsorship name of Linen House Oval, is an Australian Rules Football ground in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia at Linton Street in the suburb of Moorabbin....
. The main grandstand and oval are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...
. The seating capacity is 2,000, down from a peak of 78,000.
Origins
Waverley Park (then VFL Park) was first conceived in 1959 when delegates from the 12 VFLAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
clubs requested the league to find land that was suitable for the building of a new stadium. In September 1962, the VFL had secured a 212 acre (860,000 m²) block of grazing and market garden land at Mulgrave
Mulgrave, Victoria
Mulgrave is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 21 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Monash. At the 2006 Census, Mulgrave had a population of 16,280....
. This area was chosen because it was believed that with the effects of urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
, and the proposed building of the South-Eastern (later called Monash
Monash Freeway
Monash Freeway is an urban freeway in Victoria, Australia linking Melbourne's CBD to its southeastern suburbs and the Gippsland region. The entire stretch of the Monash Freeway bears the designation...
) freeway, the area would become the demographic centre of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. The VFL reportedly lobbied the state government to construct a train connection to the stadium but, but this never occurred so the stadium was abandoned.
The original plans were for a stadium catering for up to 157,000 patrons, which would have made it one of the biggest stadiums in the world. To accommodate the large number of patrons the members' stand was to be extended around the whole ground. However, in 1982/1983, when the extensions were due to commence, the Government of Victoria refused to approve the plans for the upgrade because the upgrade would have threatened the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
's right to host the AFL Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
. Hence, no further development ever occurred and the capacity was set at just over 100,000 patrons.
The playing surface of 200 metres long and 160 metres wide would be the biggest in the league. This caused some controversy and the boundary lines were repainted and goals were relocated to make the playing area more similar to other AFL grounds.
Construction
Under the direction of architect Reginald E. Padey, work was started at the site on 5 January 1966 when the VFL President Sir Kenneth Luke turned the first sod. On construction of the stadium, a total of 378,000 cubic yards (289,000 m³) of topsoil was excavated and the surface of the oval was lowered to a depth of 10 metres from the surrounding area. The soil was used to form the banks for some sections of the stadium.The foundations for the K.G. Luke stand were laid in 1969 and more than 20 kilometers of solid concrete terracing was laid around the ground.
Finally, on 18 April 1970, Fitzroy
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...
and Geelong
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
played the first game at Waverley Park, to a crowd of 25,887. However, the stadium was far from completed. In fact the only section of the actual grandstand that was built was the first level of the K.G. Luke Stand. The rest of the stadium had only been completed on the ground level.
The Public Reserve Stands encircling the rest of the stadium were finished at a cost of $4.5 million in 1974 and the car parking was extended to fit a total of 25,000 cars. Lighting was added in May 1977, at a cost of $1.2 million, for the first of the 1977 night series televised matches.
In 1982 a monochrome video matrix scoreboard was in operation at Waverley Park for the first time in VFL history, displaying instant replay highlights. In 1984 the arena was returfed and the drainage system upgraded. Two years later a mosaic mural perpetuating many great names of VFL football was installed on the grandstand facade above the members' entrance. During the 1988 season automatic turnstiles were introduced at the members' entrance.
Memorable events
The first ever final played at the ground was also the first ever elimination final played in AFL history, played between St Kilda and Essendon in 1972. In 1989 a match was played for premiership points on a Sunday at VFL Park for the first time.During the 1973 season, 42,610 attended the first interstate match at the ground (between Victoria and Western Australia) and a record 60,072 attended the second semi-final between Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
and Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
.
Essendon and Carlton contested a once-off match on Anzac Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
in 1975 (which Essendon won) in front of a crowd of 77,770.
The record attendance was 92,935 for Collingwood versus Hawthorn in 1981.
In 1977 Fitzroy played North Melbourne
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
in the first night match at the stadium in the Amco-Herald Cup (now the NAB Cup). The game started 55 minutes late after the State Electricity Commission's supply to the $1 million lighting system failed just ten minutes before the game was due to begin. A fuse was thought to have blown in in the feeder pole to the ground. All power to the ground was turned off for 18 minutes while it was repaired.
In 1987 Fitzroy played North Melbourne
North Melbourne Football Club
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
in the first night match at the stadium for premiership points in the major competition. A total of 183,383 people watched the three finals games at VFL Park and the preliminary final attendance of 71,298 was the largest since 1984. The game was between Melbourne
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
and Hawthorn and the game was described as the most epic played at VFL Park, with Hawthorn winning from a goal kicked after the siren, by Gary Buckenara
Gary Buckenara
Gary Buckenara played Australian rules football for the Hawthorn Football Club in the VFL during the 1980s.Buckenara first played senior football for Subiaco in the WAFL from 1979 to 1981. Subiaco agreed to lease him for three years for $210,000 and after a court case began his career at Hawthorn...
.
The ground hosted its first and only AFL Grand Final
1991 AFL Grand Final
The 1991 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Hawthorn Football Club and West Coast Eagles, held at Waverley Park in Melbourne on 28 September 1991. It was the 95th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League/Australian Football League, staged to...
in 1991, which was contested by Hawthorn and the West Coast Eagles
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...
because the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
at the time was undergoing construction of the Great Southern Stand. Hawthorn defeated West Coast by 53 points in front of a crowd of 75,230.
In 1996 an unexpected pitch invasion
Pitch invasion
A pitch invasion or field invasion, known as rushing the field in the United States, occurs when a crowd of people who are watching a sports game run onto the field, to celebrate or protest about an incident...
occurred when the lights went out at the stadium in a night game between Essendon and St Kilda, during the third quarter . After declaring the match finished for the evening the AFL commission held an emergency meeting to decide what should happen as there was no provision in the official rules for an event like this. They decided to continue the match three days later. Essendon kept their winning position comfortably, starting with a 20 point lead and winning with a 22 point margin. Controversially, the Bombers made five changes to their line-up between the two parts of the match. One of Essendon players, James Hird, managed to pick up match votes in some of the media awards. Prior to the match, St Kilda coach Stan Alves complained about the situation and stated that his team is "not going to go kamikaze" and risk an injury when they don't have much chance of winning.
The AFL subsequently decided on a set of rules to be applied for incidents of this kind, those being that if a game is not started, the league in control of the match shall determine the result. Games that start but are interrupted prior to half time are deemed to be drawn if the game can not recommence within 30 minutes, while if the game is interrupted after half time, the scores at the time are deemed to be final.
Football records
In its history, 732 AFL/VFL matches have been played at Waverley Park, 70 of which were finals and one grand final.- Highest score: FitzroyFitzroy Football ClubThe Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...
: 36.22 (238) v Melbourne: 6.12 (48) in round 17, 1979 - Largest crowd: 92,935, Queen's Birthday 1981, Hawthorn v Collingwood
- Most goals scored in one game: Jason DunstallJason DunstallJason Hadfield Dunstall is a former Australian rules football player for the Hawthorn Football Club of the AFL. He is the third greatest goalkicker in the history of the VFL/AFL. Dunstall is regarded as one of the greatest full-forwards to have ever played, kicking 1254 goals, a feat only...
, 17 goals, Round 7, 1992
Special events
Waverley Park hosted many special events other than Australian rules football. These included:- Rock concerts: Rod StewartRod StewartRoderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
(1979), KISSKISS (band)Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
(1980), David BowieDavid BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
(1983), U2U2U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
(1998) and Simon and GarfunkelSimon and GarfunkelSimon & Garfunkel are an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They formed the group Tom & Jerry in 1957 and had their first success with the minor hit "Hey, Schoolgirl". As Simon & Garfunkel, the duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the...
(1983). A 6 December 1993 concert for Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's Dangerous Tour was cancelled after the tour was cut short. - CricketCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
: World Series CricketWorld Series CricketWorld Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
games between 1977 and 1979. - International Rules FootballInternational rules footballInternational rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....
: Matches between AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. - BaseballBaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
: Home of the Waverley RedsWaverley/Melbourne RedsThe Melbourne Reds were a baseball team in the Australian Baseball League. They were the only team to win the championship 3 times. The Reds originally played at the home of VFL/AFL Football, Waverley Park from 1989 until the 1994 Championship, when they moved to the former home ground of the St...
from 1989 until 1994.
Closure
The decision to close the venue was made by the AFL for some vague reasons. While it was serviced by a major freeway, Waverley Park was only 20 minutes from the Melbourne CBD, but the John Cain ALP government refused to provide sufficient public transport. Waverley had sufficient parking and provided its own water storage, together with the playing surface being the best in all of Australia. As it aged, the issue of spectators having access was pushed aside, instead flimsy short sighted limitations were highlighted. These limitations included its lack of undercover seating - which was due to only being partially (the original plans were for coverage to most of the stadium), poor spectator and corporate facilities, and an outdated sepia-toned video screen. The ground itself was very large and spectators felt distant from the game. The stadium earned the unflattering nickname "Arctic Park", thanks to a combination of its location on an exposed site in a rain belt (the prevailing southwesterly winds bringing rain to Melbourne's eastern suburbs directly from Port PhillipPort Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
) and the aforementioned lack of covering over most of the seating. Leaving the stadium's car park was chaotic at best, with near gridlock in the car park itself and little improvement on reaching Wellington Road or Jacksons Road, the only two access routes to the ground.
The stadium's demise was made official on 31 October 1996 after the AFL confirmed that a new stadium would be built as a replacement for Waverley Park. http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?straction=update&inttype=1&intid=927
The last official AFL game was played in 1999 between Hawthorn
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
and Sydney
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
in front of a sell-out crowd of 72,130.
In 2000, AFL pre-season cup matches were played at the venue, and Victorian Football League games also took place there, including finals and the grand final. Melbourne's Eastern Football League also played division 1 and division 2 grand finals at the venue at the conclusion of the 2000 season. The 2000 VFL Grand Final was the last official game of football played at the venue.
After the 2000 VFL Grand Final, Waverley Park did not appear to be maintained and vandals smashed windows and trashed the super boxes. The playing surface became covered in weeds. Victorian MP Mary Delahunty
Mary Delahunty
Mary Delahunty is an Australian journalist and retired politician with the Australian Labor Party.-Early life:Delahunty was born in Victoria, Australia and educated at Loreto College, in Victoria. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Latrobe University.-Media career:Delahunty...
called on the AFL to mow the dilapidated stadium, because it was still under their control.
On 10 December 2001 the AFL confirmed that the land was sold to housing developer Mirvac to assist the Australian Football League to finance the construction of the now complete Docklands Stadium. The ground was demolished starting on 11 December 2002.
While often seen as something of a failure, Waverley Park actually served an important purpose for the VFL/AFL, providing a critical bargaining chip in negotiations with the Melbourne Cricket Club
Melbourne Cricket Club
The Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....
over MCG
McG
Joseph McGinty Nichol , better known as McG, is an American director and producer of film and television, as well as a former record producer....
access. The existence of Waverley as a viable alternative venue for the grand final and other events presumably led to a considerably more favourable bargaining position for the AFL.
Current status
Following its cessation as a venue for league football, the stadium fell into a state of disrepair. Anticipating complete demolition, the National Trust of Victoria moved quickly to nominate the members' stand for heritage listing on the basis that the stadium was the first major stadium purpose built for Australian rules football, that it hosted the 1991 AFL Grand Final and that the members' (or K.G. Luke) stand features a mural of football legends by artist Harold FreedmanHarold Freedman
Harold Freedman was an artist from Victoria, Australia renowned for his work in public murals.Also known as Freidman.Collections include Ballarat Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia- Notable works and achievements :...
.
Successful lobbying saw Heritage Victoria grant legislative protection to the site and, beginning in December 2002, the entire stadium was demolished except for the members' stand and the members' stand mural. The surrounding parking lot has been replaced by suburban housing, including 1400 new dwellings for 3500 people. The members' stand is visible from the nearby Monash Freeway
Monash Freeway
Monash Freeway is an urban freeway in Victoria, Australia linking Melbourne's CBD to its southeastern suburbs and the Gippsland region. The entire stretch of the Monash Freeway bears the designation...
.
The oval itself and the remaining section of the members stand have been redeveloped into a state-of-the-art training and administrative facility for the Hawthorn Football Club
Hawthorn Football Club
The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
and the community. The facility incorporates an MCG-dimension oval (the size of the playing arena having been reduced from its original size), includes a 25 metre heated indoor swimming pool, four refrigerated ice tanks, a gymnasium with a 60 metre running track and a warm-up area with projection and screen facilities to simulate match-day conditions. The grandstand has seating for around 2000 patrons with seating in the top level of the grandstand having been retained.
External links
Sources
- Greg Hobbs, "A Restless Birth," AFL Football Record, Vol 80, No 28, 28 September 1991, pp. 10–11.