Suburban grounds are the bedrock of our great game.
They’re the grounds that almost every football player in the country plays on – kids, ammos, state leagues, you name it, they play on grounds in the suburbs.
It’s a great experience, where you play with your teammates purely for the love of the game, and learn about commitment and leadership and loyalty.
I loved it in Tasmania growing up, and they were still using them for the VFL here in Melbourne when I came to the Tigers as young kid.
Princes Park – I liked playing there, I liked the nature of it, being out in the suburbs. And I played at Waverley too, but I didn’t play at Vic Park or Moorabbin. I’m the oldest player in the league, but I’m not that old!
I played at the Junction Oval when I first came to Richmond, in 1993. We had a reserves game down there. I think it was against Melbourne, and I’ve got good memories of that ground as well.
It just felt more like where I’d come from, I guess – more like Tassie, playing on a ground with one grandstand, where you might have a few cars parked around the edge.
That’s real suburban, but we watched Coburg (Richmond’s VFL team) play the Bullants at Princes Park on the weekend, and I was thinking at the time, ‘Why couldn’t they have a smaller, boutique ground like this? It would be perfect for teams who are getting a raw deal when they’re playing, say, an interstate team and you’re not expecting more than 25-30,000’.
It makes sense to have a smaller stadium, because playing in front of 20,000 people at the MCG is a bit lifeless.
I mean, you look at the little boutique stadium they’re building for the Victory there on Swan St – they’re going to fill that up most weeks and it’s going to have a fantastic atmosphere.
For games when you are only going to get your 20,000 or 25,000 it’s a viable option.
So you wonder whether the AFL could go down that path with a third ground, for sure.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.