Whitten Oval enjoying football revival with advent of AFL Womens, Bulldogs success
IT’S not only the Western Bulldogs who have enjoyed a recent football revival, so too has the ground that has been the club’s home since its inception.
IT’S not only the Western Bulldogs who have enjoyed a recent football revival, so too has the ground that has been the club’s home since its inception almost 140 years ago.
This year marks 20 years since the Whitten Oval - the venue formerly known as the Western Oval - last hosted an AFL match. But the famous stretch of land nestled between Barkley and Gordon Streets is fast becoming more relevant than it has for decades.
If Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has his way it will become “the mecca” for the secondary tier of the game for many years to come.
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“Three or four years ago, when I came back onto the board, one of the priorities we had was to make this place an important place for football again,” Gordon said.
“There is so much history tied up with this ground, and there are so many more opportunities to use this venue now, because we have grown the game.
“One of the priorities for the club in the wake of the 2016 premiership is to turn the Whitten Oval into a real mecca of football - for women’s football, for the VFL and for local football.”
Saturday night’s double-header JLT Community Series and AFLW games between the Bulldogs and Melbourne drew another strong crowd to the Whitten Oval.
It follows on from more than 10,000 fans attending the first AFLW game a fortnight ago, and a strong crowd at the Western Bulldogs-Melbourne women’s exhibition match last September.
Gordon, who watched his first game at the venue as a seven-year-old and who was serving pies in Barker’s Cafe on Saturday, said the AFL needed to keep investing in suburban grounds.
“I am not just talking about this ground. Victoria has a great heritage with Windy Hill, Arden St, Moorabbin and Victoria Park,” Gordon said.
“It wasn’t all that long ago that people were embarrassed about these grounds. Theatregoers was the buzzword back then, but we should be proud of our grounds.”
It was almost a perfect blend of the past and the present at the ground, as some fans went back to the vantage points they used to have when league matches were played here.
Many took up residence on the outer wing that used to belong to Doug Hawkins; others crowded behind the goals at the overpass end; while some of the faithful took up their spots in the old stand that houses the names of past greats including Norman Ware, Arthur Olliver, Charlie Sutton, John Schultz and Allan Hopkins.
Originally published as Whitten Oval enjoying football revival with advent of AFL Womens, Bulldogs success
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