Barossa Valley ground Lyndoch Recreation Park to stage two Gather Round games, Mount Barker to miss out in 2025

After hosting the only regional Gather Round games to date, Mount Barker has been overlooked for 2025. MATT TURNER reveals the latest developments.

The Barossa Valley will host both of Gather Round’s regional games next year.

Mount Barker staged the only matches outside of Adelaide across the first two footy festivals and was in the mix to get one in 2025, but organisers were understood to have opted for a fresh start in South Australia’s famous wine region 75km north of the CBD.

Barossa town Lyndoch is set to hold two games in two days – one on Saturday, the other on Sunday – during the April event.

Adelaide Oval is slated to have five matches, including one double-header, while Norwood will keep the other two.

Barossa Council mayor Bim Lange would not comment about fixture details.

But he said he was grateful to Premier Peter Malinauskas for lobbying to bring the footy festival to the tourist area.

Lyndoch Recreation Park’s redevelopment as of last month. Picture: Barossa Council

“We look forward to the opportunity to play AFL games at this newly built recreational facility and we welcome the Gather Round into our region,” Lange told this masthead.

In April, the AFL, state government and Barossa Council announced that Lyndoch Recreation Park would be redeveloped so it could host at least one Gather Round game in 2025.

The venue’s $42m transformation – funded mostly by the council and state government – is due for completion in late March.

Works are believed to be on schedule, including having turf laid on the main oval.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon was understood to have visited the ground about a month ago and was said to have been impressed with its progress.

Mount Barker mayor David Leach told this masthead the Barossa would do a great job next year.

“We are good friends with the Barossa Council … and this council will do anything we can to assist them in hosting their matches,” Leach said.

“We are particularly willing to assist Bim in anything he ever wants.

“We always knew we weren’t the first choice for Gather Round but we were very grateful for the three matches we got.

“It really put us on the map and proved that we can handle really major projects.”

A crowd shot at this year’s Sydney-West Coast game in Mount Barker. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Mount Barker’s Summit Sport and Recreation Park is the back-up option in case there are any hitches at Lyndoch.

It hosted North Melbourne versus Brisbane during the inaugural Gather Round in 2022, then West Coast-Sydney and Gold Coast-GWS this year.

Although Mount Barker was set to miss out on minor-round games next season, the town was tipped to be given matches not for premiership points as reward for its stellar hosting jobs.

The AFL and state government are expected to reveal the 2025 footy festival fixtures in the middle of next month.

Gather Round will run from Thursday, April 10 to Sunday, April 13.

Originally published as Barossa Valley ground Lyndoch Recreation Park to stage two Gather Round games, Mount Barker to miss out in 2025