OPINION: "Yuppies walk their Dogs in the Late Afternoons on the Sacred Western Oval Turf: The Abandonment of the Traditional Victorian Suburban Grounds", by Jack Frost

The famous Western Oval in Footscray in Melbourne's west is now a public reserve where yuppies walk their dogs on weekday afternoons. This is an insult to Bulldogs' legends such as Dougie Hawkins and the late Ted Whitten who used to thrill the crowds at this reserve on winter Saturdays in a bygone era. The mighty grandstands now lie silent. The taxpayers are the losers or the April Fools (coincidentally and not by design the picture was taken on 1 April 2011). 

WO: Dictatorial sign left-over from AFL match days

I think the NRL [National Rugby League] has done a much better job than the AFL in keeping some games in authentic suburban venues [for example Brookvale Oval (Manly-Warringah), Campbelltown Sports Stadium (Wests Tigers), Endeavour Field (Cronulla-Sutherland), Kogarah Oval (St George Illawarra), Leichardt Oval (Wests Tigers), and Penrith Stadium (Penrith)], some of which still have areas of grassed banks and/or concrete terracing and hence retain appeal for the traditional fans. Partly this can be explained by the physical layout of Sydney meaning that fewer people regularly traverse from one section of the city to another section, not in the immediate area, than is the case in Melbourne. Small suburban grounds then have a role to play because many fans will not venture far from their local districts. Sydney separates because of its physical geography and especially its famous Harbour (Warby, 2011). Some might point out, perhaps with a mocking attitude, that NRL crowds are significantly smaller than AFL crowds. Therefore, the cosy suburban venues can much more easily accommodate NRL crowds. However, there is more to the story than this. The NRL appears to value tradition and community more than the AFL does at present. The AFL and its (now truly powerless) clubs have been completely unsentimental in their rapid and guiltless abandonment of the suburban grounds. Collingwood is not even based at Victoria Park anymore. I wonder whether, in a generation or two, this policy and culture will rebound upon the AFL and upon its clubs. A day may come when football supporters forget or never knew the AFL clubs’ traditional associations with certain districts. Then the competition’s appeal may be adversely impacted as clubs, all playing in shared mega-stadiums, become little more than names and jersey designs. Carlton, Collingwood, and Essendon, in a generation or two or three, may come to mean little more than Team A, Team B, and Team C. Dr Phil Griffiths, lecturer in politics at the University of Southern Queensland and a diehard Richmond supporter, has written as follows about the AFL’s attitude towards ground rationalization (personal e-mail communication to the author dated 24 January 2011):

“I’ve never really expressed an opinion on the move from suburban football grounds; not that I can remember. If anything, I think the move was a mistake, or at least the extent of it. Geelong have [sic] done well to keep their ground, and many people (including me) wish that Carlton had kept Optus Oval. Richmond’s move from Punt Rd was logical because the ground was too small, and couldn’t expand, and was next to the MCG. But at the same time, those grounds were pretty horrible places at times with minimal facilities. Kevin Sheedy discusses Essendon’s move in his autobiography”.

Hunt and Bond (2005, p. 97) make the following comments on ground rationalizations:

“With the changes in footy over the past 40 years, however, the suburban venues have disappeared. Geelong’s Skilled Stadium is really the only home ground left in Victoria, and the traditional suburban scrap is no more.

            The game has moved on, but it is disappointing that such a colourful part of the game’s history has only a small part to play in the modern competition”. 

WO: Old outer wing terraces now grassed

Even now I would argue that the name “Collingwood” has become an empty signifier (Ferguson, 1999, p. 121) in the sense that people no longer generally think of the actual suburb of Collingwood when they use the club’s name. The same comment applies also to Essendon and St Kilda. Only Geelong is different in that the club name still brings with it a generally accepted signified of the town of Geelong which is, in itself, a signifier with its own set of geographic and socio-economic signifieds. Geelong has not yet become disattached to place or community in the way that Collingwood has. The phrase “Kill for Collingwood” now becomes ironic or sarcastic as the signifier has become empty. What does “Collingwood” mean now other than Mick Malthouse, Eddie "Everywhere" McGuire, and the black-and-white stripes? It is no wonder Eddie will not let Port Adelaide wear its famous prison-bar jerseys in the AFL! (Eddie "Everywhere" tried to argue that Collingwood has some form of legal trademark over the black-and-white stripes. How completely ridiculous. What is he going to do? Go to Africa and sue a zebra? Sue Newcastle United Soccer Club? Sue Juventus? If only one club can wear black-and-white stripes in the AFL perhaps it should be Port Adelaide which was formed in 1874 whereas Collingwood was formed only as late as 1892.) 
      I recently visited the Western Oval in Footscray - the impressive stands are empty, the perimeter seating has been removed, and the concrete terracing has been replaced with a grassed bank (see pictures on this page taken by the author on 1 April 2011, quite appropriately April Fools’ Day, the fools being the taxpayers). The old tin sheds on the outer wing, on the city side of the ground, are gone and the outer fence has been removed so people can freely walk into the oval using a concrete footpath at the northern or Barkly Street goals end. In the late afternoons double-income yuppies walk their dogs on the once hallowed turf. Although the ground is still the training base for the Western Bulldogs, it can be argued that the AFL has cheated the taxpayers since the empty grandstands will never be full again nor is the ground used anywhere near as often as it should be. We have what urban sociologists term the “privatization of public spaces” (see, for example, Ferguson, 1999, p. 124). The West Footscray train station will never again accommodate thousands of fanatical football followers every second Saturday afternoon in winter. Without wanting to disparage dog-walking, is dog-walking truly an activity suitable for the great Western Oval where Ted Whitten, Dougie Hawkins, Kelvin Templeton, and Simon Beasley used to perform their mighty feats? Is dog-walking respectful of the generations of great deeds and memories that the ground still contains and rekindles?

WB players train on Western Oval, 1/4/11

Hunt and Bond (2005, pp. 107, 113) refer to the demise of VFL/AFL Park in Glen Waverley. The present article is not the place for a detailed discussion of the VFL/AFL Park issue but the following quote is worthy of consideration:

“Between 1969 and 2004 we saw 85 hectares of grazing and market garden land in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs become the site for a magnificent stadium and end up as a housing estate. ... Emotional Hawthorn president Ian Dicker fired a parting shot in his pre-match address [for the last match at Waverley, Hawthorn versus Sydney, 29 April 1999], saying the fans would never forgive the AFL for the demise of the ground as a league venue”.

FOOTNOTE: I was pleased to hear recently that the Footscray VFL team has started to play matches at the Western Oval and its opening match there attracted 7,000 people.

[By Jack Frost, 11 October 2012; footnote added 21 April 2015]