Windy Hill stoush: AFL, cricket continue war of words over access to ground in October

As the fight for access to Windy Hill in October drags on, Cricket Australia has urged the officials involved in the stand-off to “behave like grown-ups”.

Todd Greenberg has called on cricket and AFL administrators to “behave like grown-ups” to resolve the battleground being waged over Essendon’s iconic Windy Hill.

Essendon Cricket Club is in the midst of a heated stand-off with Essendon Football Club after both organisations scheduled competing fixtures at the ground for the same time in October.

A few weeks after Essendon Football announced AFLW matches, Essendon Cricket did the same for Premier Cricket fixtures – and now the Cricket Australia chief executive has called for the two sports to come to the table for the greater good of both codes.

The AFL blocked the Sheffield Shield Final being played at Adelaide Oval due to it being football season, and while Cricket Australia was accepting of the reasons behind that decision, they also want compromises to be a two-way street.

Greenberg said he was not pointing the finger at the AFL, and said cricket also needed to work towards a practical solution that doesn’t compromise future grants and infrastructure projects by local and State Governments.

“All of the sports, us included, we all need to behave like grownups,” Greenberg said at a Cricket Australia announcement that Westpac has taken over as its major sponsor.

“We’re playing more and more cricket outside our traditional seasons, as are the footy codes. We’re playing cricket now in August. AFLW will create issues where they need more access to grounds.

Bonnie Toogood leads Essendon out at Windy Hill. Picture: Michael Klein

“So we’ve got to work collaboratively and we’ve got to work with councils, state governments and federal governments to try and create ways to use all the infrastructure together.

“Yeah, we’re going to bump into each other occasionally but I do think if we work together we can find solutions.

“They (the AFL) have a traditional window, we have a traditional window. Of course we’re going to protect those traditional windows but on each of those windows are shoulder seasons for both of our sports and we’re looking to play more games in shoulder seasons as are they.

“So we have to find ways that we work together.

“I haven’t been disappointed (with the AFL) at all. I’m a realist to know that everyone is going to try and protect their own patch. So everyone is going to try and effectively secure the best outcome for their own sport, all I’m saying is we’ve got to make sure we’re the grownups at the table and we’ve got to take problems away from Governments and give them solutions.

Essendon Cricket Club President Simon Tobin (left).

“And if we do those sort of things they’ll continue to invest more in the infrastructure that we all need.

“We bumped into each other a little bit this year around the Sheffield Shield final in Adelaide and we understand the complexities of it, but to generate the sort of millions and billions of dollars in investment that go into stadiums, we’re going to have to work together on these things.”

The cricketing Bombers were financially compensated when they allowed the Essendon AFLW team to play at the ground in 2023 and 2024.

AFLW fans watch a game in October, 2024 from the Windy Hill grandstand.

But cricket club president Simon Tobin said that in the absence of any deal for 2025, “it’s business as usual as far as Cricket Victoria and Premier Cricket goes’’.

Asked if his club was digging in, he said: “It’s not just a case of digging in. We have nowhere else to go. It’s our home ground and has been for many years.

“It’s not just four men’s team this impacts. We’ve got 10 junior teams at Essendon. On any given Friday night during October you’ll have three Under 10s matches being played. So it’s not a question of digging in. It’s about playing cricket in cricket season, as we have done for 150 years.’’

Todd Greenberg wants officials involved in the talks to behave like grown-ups.

He said the issue boiled down to the football club wanting to play four hours of football at Windy Hill at the expense of eight weeks of cricket.

Tobin said the cricket club had asked for mediation, formally and informally, but through their lawyers the AFL Bombers had refused.

“We couldn’t be more disappointed,’’ he said.

“It’s evidence of their bullying and arrogant attitude. For all the espousing they do about their great community work, when it really counts they do what suits them best.

“They talk about all parties having to compromise and making sacrifices, but their interpretation of compromise is as long as they’re not inconvenienced and someone else is paying the price, that’s all the matters.’’

Originally published as Windy Hill stoush: AFL, cricket continue war of words over access to ground in October