Melbourne NSL grounds
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 5:27 pm
It has taken me nearly 2 weeks to get these up but finally they are here. Pics of various Melbourne ex-NSL grounds. All photographs were taken on Thursday 19/01/06. There are a number of images so it may take a while to load up on slow connections.
Olympic Village
Side-on view of the main stand.
Looking across the northern goals towards the broadcast side. The tv gantry railing can be just seen centre of roof. This stand has about 5 corporate boxes behind closed up rollershutters. Northland Shopping Centre, one of the major retail multiplexes in Melbourne is behind this stand on the other side of Darebin Creek.
The change/clubrooms behind the northern goals. In essence Olympic Village is a two-sided ground as both ends don't have spectator areas to speak of. This has been named after former keeper Jeff Olver.
A closer look at the main stand which stretches the entire eastern wing of Olympic Village. The cinder athletics track can also been seen in the foreground which encircles the venue. This running track was the official warm up track for the 1956 Olympic Games Athletes Village. Judging by the condition it appears not to have been used for competitive track and field for a long time.
The Southern Rd end of the ground feature advertising hoardings and the scoreboard. This end is named after Gary Cole, former player and now MVFC Football Operations Manager. This scoreboard used to have advertising in times past for a Pan-Macedonian Bank (i.e. Greek Maco's of which Alexandros draw their supporters from) which used to always be daubed in political graffiti. I wonder who did that?
Inside look of the main stand. It has actually improved since the last time I visited. All the seats were in place and none appeared to be broken. Last time I was here around 80% were either busted or missing their seats all together and were covered in pigeon sh*t.
The old club emblem dating back to the latter NSL days above the entrance to the clubhouse.
Full view of the main stand. The car-park inside the fence has been modernised but when Heidelberg played in the NSL I can vividly remember seeing cars parked right up to the fence of the athletics track. The TV broadcast standard lights can also be seen. When the Bergers NSL viability was being questioned around 1994 they proposed to install lights to add a bit more gloss to the venue so much vaunted night games could be staged. The poles went up, there was a delay with the lights; when they finally got them in they were kicked out anyway.
The ticket boxes at the Catalina St entrance.
The back view of the main stand.
BT Connor Reserve
Main turnstile entry into the Lions den.
The main stand, changerooms and the portable corporate facilities on the eastern side of the ground.
Western side of BT Connor. This is the broadcast side. Next to the media box until last season was a TV camera scaffold tower that was around three levels high. Despite the requests of the club to install lights this has steadfastly been rejected by the Darebin Council as the ground on this side backs onto Merri Creek - a tributary of the Yarra River and has numerous grasslands. These grasslands are considered an Aboriginal sacred sight hence the rejection of the lights.
A side on look at the main stand, changerooms and corporate facilities.
Got to love the perimeter fences. These date back to the mid-late 80's when it was an NSL directive for all clubs to install perimeter fencing by a certain date. Not all of them did. Preston was one of the clubs that towed the line.
Behind the goals at the sou-west corner.
Preston fans are well-known for their passionate support. Somehow I think these golden signs on the fence make stuff all difference.
The Preston Makedonia Social Club on Broadhurst Avenue opposite the ground.
Epping Stadium
The stand at the ground.
The goals at the south-western end with scoreboard in corner. The ground isn't the traditional north-south or east-west configuration but a diagnal nor-east sou-west. This is what is seen right of screen if watching on TV. The playing surface of Epping Stadium would have to be the best I have ever seen for a local level stadium.
The outer grass banking. Location-wise it is in an isolated area about 5km north of the Epping township in the middle of paddocks. I remember watching a game here one Monday night and heading back to the car there was kangaroos just lying around relaxing nearby. The Nike sign harks back to the calamitous foray Carlton made here right at its death. Due to portable goalposts and an unusual amount of people trying to get into the game the match was delayed for about an hour. I still believe that if given the chance at the ground by becoming a northern suburbs team, Carlton may have prospered at the venue.
The sign outside the main gates for Fawkner-Whittlesea Azzuri. This is a merged team which formed at the start of last season out of Fawkner Blues and Whittlesea Stallions. Both Italian backed clubs, Whittlesea were trying to market themselves as the broadbased team for the northern suburbs, managed to get good crowds but got relegated and sought a union with Fawkner specifically I believe so Epping Stadium could remain the hallmark VPL venue.
Green Gully Reserve
The main entrance into the ground outside the club.
The south-east corner of the ground. Note the perimeter fencing behind the goals.
The outer side of Green Gully Reserve. The large hills surrounding the ground remind me of Brandon Park, Wollongong. I could imagine they could hold a decent amount of people if full. Though with Gully we will never see this tested. It's hard to tell with these pics but the pitch has a very pronounced slope from right to left with the focus towards the north-east corner.
What the players see before the run out onto the field.
Looking towards the southern goals. A bird is flying through this shot but in another looking at this end which i didn't post is a Virgin Blue Boeing 737. GG Reserve is very close to Melbourne Airport and is pretty much under the flightpath for the southern approach to the runway.
The licenced club complete with Tabaret adjacent to the ground. It can be said it is this club and the pokies which fuels Gully's success.
The base of the TV Gantry and the impromptu shed covering the terraces between the changerooms and the pitch. Unless things have changed, in the recent past they have been reluctant to use the TV gantry for broadcasting games as the covering slightly blocks the north-west corner. Instead they use the corporate and media rooms and C31 TVH has on occasions used the bank on the outer side complete with the three flag poles in front of the lens. . When Green Gully had their brief tenure in the NSL during the conference years of the mid 80's, this area wasn't paved nor was there a roof. Rather it was just a grass hill with concrete terraces.
The facilities on the broadcast side. Closest to shot is the corporate/media facility with kiosk/bar underneath. When you enter the ground you come out from beneath this building.
Chaplin Reserve
The Railway Reserve Pavilion of Chaplin Reserve, home to Sunshine George Cross (Georgies is a pathetic ). Between the media boxes and the main building used to be a big TV gantry used for NSL fixtures.
The scoreboard.
The overgrown outer. In an arcane way, Chaplin Reserve is the Melbourne equivalent of Milwall's old ground The Den. Not for the hooli aspect but because it is wedged between two major railways. Immediately behind the embankment to the righ of shot is the Ballarat line (old Adelaide line) and to the top of the pic is the Bendigo line. A double headed Pacific National NR Class can be seen heading towards the McIntyre Loop Albion goods which is the standard guage railway to Sydney.
Behind the goals at the western end.
Another look of the main building from the terraces across the pitch. The Portakabins to the right are the player changerooms. Behind this are bocce rinks.
Local western suburbs and Maltese humour on the beer shed.
Chaplin Reserve's version of a vomitory.
The impressive gates leading into the ground from Anderson Road.
Skinner Reserve
Better known as the home of Sunshine VFA and as an AFL practice match and pre-season training venue, Skinner Reserve was also the sometime home of Sunshine GC. This pics shows the large embankment behind one of the ends.
The J.A. Chigwidden Stand. To the front under the roller shutters is the clubrooms.
The spaciousness of this venue is seen from the stand. It had an field size comparable to Waverley and was much appreciated by AFL teams, especially Footscray who at once stage thought of playing home games here. I'm not sure the NSL configuration of the field markings but I have seen in the past football markings and goals running towards the stand with two pitches on the field at odds with Aussie rules goals. My educated assumption is that it would be similar to when Footscray JUST and Melbourne BUSC played games at Whitten Oval with the pitch being closest to the stands but in the same alignment as the Aussie rules goals.
The city end of the ground from the stand. Up until the last few years the ground was enclosed by a cyclone fence however this has since been taken down. A very rusty timeclock sponsored by Mayday Auto Parts was found in the forward pocket near the trees but has since been removed.
Site of Schintler Reserve
The once home ground of Footscray JUST is now the home of FCL Transport and has been turned into a container terminal. The building that is now the head office of the transport company was the former change/club rooms for the Yugoslav backed team. I'm sure there would be many Melbourne Knights supporters that would get immense satisfaction from seeing what became of this ground.
The pavillion was behind the goals at the southern end. The semi that can be seen in the driveway was in the approximate spot of the media box and TV gantry. A mediumish embankment very similar to the one seen at Chaplin Reserve was found on this side. At the far end behind the northern goals is the standard gauge railway. It has gone into NSL folklore that people (mainly Melbourne/Sydney Croatia supporters who didn't want to give money to JUST but not exclusive to them) used to stand on the railway embankment, watch the match and piff ballast onto the ground and at the spectators below.
Site of Middle Park
Amongst all the playing fields of the refurbished Albert Park is the location of the former Middle Park ground.
When the plans first started around 1993 about Melbourne staging the F1 GP at Albert Park, the then South Melbourne Soccer Club made plans to incorporate a double sided stand into the design so it could look at the ground on one side and the track on the other. IIRC they even started the earthworks for the stand. However when the idea to slightly alter the position of Aughtie Drive for the Pit Straight, the ground suddenly was in the way and the Lakeside Oval was exchanged.
Esther Park
It may be sh*t. It may be insignificant. It may not even create a blip on the radar. But it is the home ground of perhaps arguably one of the most important teams in Australian sporting history. The team that paved the way for something we take for granted today - national club competition sport. That team is my team: the Mooroolbark Soccer Club.
The main pavillion which incorporates the club and change rooms.
Player benches and scoreboard on the outer side of the field. The Barkers bench is the left, the visitors on the right.
Standing on the Brushy Creek bank looking at the clubrooms with Mt Dandenong and the TV transmission towers in the background framing the shot.
The outer side of the ground. The training and junior pitches can be seen in the background.
The Brushy Creek end. Many a times wayward shots have ended up in the creek with someone having the duty of fishing the balls out. A public amenities block is to the right. On matchday this bank is chockerblock with cars parked and people either sitting in them waiting to get a smashed windscreen or people standing/sitting on the grass next to them.
Who let the dogs out! The players race leading onto Esther Park.
Close up view of the pavillion.
Under the verandah of the 'stand'. Note the large amount of seating. Just for Jeffles the kiosk is to the immdediate left of shot.
Behind the goals at the Esther Crescent end.
Along the sideline where there isn't much room except for a vehicular track. The pitch has a distinct slope towards the creek end.
The pavillion (was the Bunnings Stand until the start of season 2005 ) as seen from sitting on the home players bench.
The next game club sign and turnstiles which never get used anymore. Such is the pity as I reckon they look rad.
Outside the ground the local council do their part.
The gate leading into the venue. To the left is the traditional style parking for club president, secretary, treasurer, coach and captain. From memory nobody actually adheres to it.
Olympic Village
Side-on view of the main stand.
Looking across the northern goals towards the broadcast side. The tv gantry railing can be just seen centre of roof. This stand has about 5 corporate boxes behind closed up rollershutters. Northland Shopping Centre, one of the major retail multiplexes in Melbourne is behind this stand on the other side of Darebin Creek.
The change/clubrooms behind the northern goals. In essence Olympic Village is a two-sided ground as both ends don't have spectator areas to speak of. This has been named after former keeper Jeff Olver.
A closer look at the main stand which stretches the entire eastern wing of Olympic Village. The cinder athletics track can also been seen in the foreground which encircles the venue. This running track was the official warm up track for the 1956 Olympic Games Athletes Village. Judging by the condition it appears not to have been used for competitive track and field for a long time.
The Southern Rd end of the ground feature advertising hoardings and the scoreboard. This end is named after Gary Cole, former player and now MVFC Football Operations Manager. This scoreboard used to have advertising in times past for a Pan-Macedonian Bank (i.e. Greek Maco's of which Alexandros draw their supporters from) which used to always be daubed in political graffiti. I wonder who did that?
Inside look of the main stand. It has actually improved since the last time I visited. All the seats were in place and none appeared to be broken. Last time I was here around 80% were either busted or missing their seats all together and were covered in pigeon sh*t.
The old club emblem dating back to the latter NSL days above the entrance to the clubhouse.
Full view of the main stand. The car-park inside the fence has been modernised but when Heidelberg played in the NSL I can vividly remember seeing cars parked right up to the fence of the athletics track. The TV broadcast standard lights can also be seen. When the Bergers NSL viability was being questioned around 1994 they proposed to install lights to add a bit more gloss to the venue so much vaunted night games could be staged. The poles went up, there was a delay with the lights; when they finally got them in they were kicked out anyway.
The ticket boxes at the Catalina St entrance.
The back view of the main stand.
BT Connor Reserve
Main turnstile entry into the Lions den.
The main stand, changerooms and the portable corporate facilities on the eastern side of the ground.
Western side of BT Connor. This is the broadcast side. Next to the media box until last season was a TV camera scaffold tower that was around three levels high. Despite the requests of the club to install lights this has steadfastly been rejected by the Darebin Council as the ground on this side backs onto Merri Creek - a tributary of the Yarra River and has numerous grasslands. These grasslands are considered an Aboriginal sacred sight hence the rejection of the lights.
A side on look at the main stand, changerooms and corporate facilities.
Got to love the perimeter fences. These date back to the mid-late 80's when it was an NSL directive for all clubs to install perimeter fencing by a certain date. Not all of them did. Preston was one of the clubs that towed the line.
Behind the goals at the sou-west corner.
Preston fans are well-known for their passionate support. Somehow I think these golden signs on the fence make stuff all difference.
The Preston Makedonia Social Club on Broadhurst Avenue opposite the ground.
Epping Stadium
The stand at the ground.
The goals at the south-western end with scoreboard in corner. The ground isn't the traditional north-south or east-west configuration but a diagnal nor-east sou-west. This is what is seen right of screen if watching on TV. The playing surface of Epping Stadium would have to be the best I have ever seen for a local level stadium.
The outer grass banking. Location-wise it is in an isolated area about 5km north of the Epping township in the middle of paddocks. I remember watching a game here one Monday night and heading back to the car there was kangaroos just lying around relaxing nearby. The Nike sign harks back to the calamitous foray Carlton made here right at its death. Due to portable goalposts and an unusual amount of people trying to get into the game the match was delayed for about an hour. I still believe that if given the chance at the ground by becoming a northern suburbs team, Carlton may have prospered at the venue.
The sign outside the main gates for Fawkner-Whittlesea Azzuri. This is a merged team which formed at the start of last season out of Fawkner Blues and Whittlesea Stallions. Both Italian backed clubs, Whittlesea were trying to market themselves as the broadbased team for the northern suburbs, managed to get good crowds but got relegated and sought a union with Fawkner specifically I believe so Epping Stadium could remain the hallmark VPL venue.
Green Gully Reserve
The main entrance into the ground outside the club.
The south-east corner of the ground. Note the perimeter fencing behind the goals.
The outer side of Green Gully Reserve. The large hills surrounding the ground remind me of Brandon Park, Wollongong. I could imagine they could hold a decent amount of people if full. Though with Gully we will never see this tested. It's hard to tell with these pics but the pitch has a very pronounced slope from right to left with the focus towards the north-east corner.
What the players see before the run out onto the field.
Looking towards the southern goals. A bird is flying through this shot but in another looking at this end which i didn't post is a Virgin Blue Boeing 737. GG Reserve is very close to Melbourne Airport and is pretty much under the flightpath for the southern approach to the runway.
The licenced club complete with Tabaret adjacent to the ground. It can be said it is this club and the pokies which fuels Gully's success.
The base of the TV Gantry and the impromptu shed covering the terraces between the changerooms and the pitch. Unless things have changed, in the recent past they have been reluctant to use the TV gantry for broadcasting games as the covering slightly blocks the north-west corner. Instead they use the corporate and media rooms and C31 TVH has on occasions used the bank on the outer side complete with the three flag poles in front of the lens. . When Green Gully had their brief tenure in the NSL during the conference years of the mid 80's, this area wasn't paved nor was there a roof. Rather it was just a grass hill with concrete terraces.
The facilities on the broadcast side. Closest to shot is the corporate/media facility with kiosk/bar underneath. When you enter the ground you come out from beneath this building.
Chaplin Reserve
The Railway Reserve Pavilion of Chaplin Reserve, home to Sunshine George Cross (Georgies is a pathetic ). Between the media boxes and the main building used to be a big TV gantry used for NSL fixtures.
The scoreboard.
The overgrown outer. In an arcane way, Chaplin Reserve is the Melbourne equivalent of Milwall's old ground The Den. Not for the hooli aspect but because it is wedged between two major railways. Immediately behind the embankment to the righ of shot is the Ballarat line (old Adelaide line) and to the top of the pic is the Bendigo line. A double headed Pacific National NR Class can be seen heading towards the McIntyre Loop Albion goods which is the standard guage railway to Sydney.
Behind the goals at the western end.
Another look of the main building from the terraces across the pitch. The Portakabins to the right are the player changerooms. Behind this are bocce rinks.
Local western suburbs and Maltese humour on the beer shed.
Chaplin Reserve's version of a vomitory.
The impressive gates leading into the ground from Anderson Road.
Skinner Reserve
Better known as the home of Sunshine VFA and as an AFL practice match and pre-season training venue, Skinner Reserve was also the sometime home of Sunshine GC. This pics shows the large embankment behind one of the ends.
The J.A. Chigwidden Stand. To the front under the roller shutters is the clubrooms.
The spaciousness of this venue is seen from the stand. It had an field size comparable to Waverley and was much appreciated by AFL teams, especially Footscray who at once stage thought of playing home games here. I'm not sure the NSL configuration of the field markings but I have seen in the past football markings and goals running towards the stand with two pitches on the field at odds with Aussie rules goals. My educated assumption is that it would be similar to when Footscray JUST and Melbourne BUSC played games at Whitten Oval with the pitch being closest to the stands but in the same alignment as the Aussie rules goals.
The city end of the ground from the stand. Up until the last few years the ground was enclosed by a cyclone fence however this has since been taken down. A very rusty timeclock sponsored by Mayday Auto Parts was found in the forward pocket near the trees but has since been removed.
Site of Schintler Reserve
The once home ground of Footscray JUST is now the home of FCL Transport and has been turned into a container terminal. The building that is now the head office of the transport company was the former change/club rooms for the Yugoslav backed team. I'm sure there would be many Melbourne Knights supporters that would get immense satisfaction from seeing what became of this ground.
The pavillion was behind the goals at the southern end. The semi that can be seen in the driveway was in the approximate spot of the media box and TV gantry. A mediumish embankment very similar to the one seen at Chaplin Reserve was found on this side. At the far end behind the northern goals is the standard gauge railway. It has gone into NSL folklore that people (mainly Melbourne/Sydney Croatia supporters who didn't want to give money to JUST but not exclusive to them) used to stand on the railway embankment, watch the match and piff ballast onto the ground and at the spectators below.
Site of Middle Park
Amongst all the playing fields of the refurbished Albert Park is the location of the former Middle Park ground.
When the plans first started around 1993 about Melbourne staging the F1 GP at Albert Park, the then South Melbourne Soccer Club made plans to incorporate a double sided stand into the design so it could look at the ground on one side and the track on the other. IIRC they even started the earthworks for the stand. However when the idea to slightly alter the position of Aughtie Drive for the Pit Straight, the ground suddenly was in the way and the Lakeside Oval was exchanged.
Esther Park
It may be sh*t. It may be insignificant. It may not even create a blip on the radar. But it is the home ground of perhaps arguably one of the most important teams in Australian sporting history. The team that paved the way for something we take for granted today - national club competition sport. That team is my team: the Mooroolbark Soccer Club.
The main pavillion which incorporates the club and change rooms.
Player benches and scoreboard on the outer side of the field. The Barkers bench is the left, the visitors on the right.
Standing on the Brushy Creek bank looking at the clubrooms with Mt Dandenong and the TV transmission towers in the background framing the shot.
The outer side of the ground. The training and junior pitches can be seen in the background.
The Brushy Creek end. Many a times wayward shots have ended up in the creek with someone having the duty of fishing the balls out. A public amenities block is to the right. On matchday this bank is chockerblock with cars parked and people either sitting in them waiting to get a smashed windscreen or people standing/sitting on the grass next to them.
Who let the dogs out! The players race leading onto Esther Park.
Close up view of the pavillion.
Under the verandah of the 'stand'. Note the large amount of seating. Just for Jeffles the kiosk is to the immdediate left of shot.
Behind the goals at the Esther Crescent end.
Along the sideline where there isn't much room except for a vehicular track. The pitch has a distinct slope towards the creek end.
The pavillion (was the Bunnings Stand until the start of season 2005 ) as seen from sitting on the home players bench.
The next game club sign and turnstiles which never get used anymore. Such is the pity as I reckon they look rad.
Outside the ground the local council do their part.
The gate leading into the venue. To the left is the traditional style parking for club president, secretary, treasurer, coach and captain. From memory nobody actually adheres to it.