Windy Hill
Windy Hill, officially known as the Essendon Recreation Reserve, is the traditional home of the Essendon Football Club. The Bombers played their home matches at the ground from 1922 until 1991 when they moved to the MCG. In total, it played host to 629 AFL/VFL matches and one final.
Windy Hill continued as the administration and training base of the Essendon FC until the end of the 2013 season when they moved to their new Elite Training Centre located at the Melbourne Airport in Tullamarine. Windy Hill has, and will continue to be the home of the club's reserves team which plays in the VFL.
Two grandstands still exist at Windy Hill (R.S. Reynolds Stand, Alan T. Hird Stand & W.H. Cookson Stand). The W.R. Crichton Shelter was removed in the mid-90's, the A.F. Showers Pavilion demolished in 2007 and the W.G. Brew Scoreboard removed in the early 2000's along with the remainder of the hill. The record crowd of 43,487 was recorded in 1986. These days, since the removal of the hill and grandstands, the ground capacity is approximately 5,000.
