Historic home of the Hawks, Glenferrie Oval, to become female footy hub after multimillion-dollar facelift
A spiritual home of AFL powerhouse Hawthorn is undergoing a major multimillion-dollar facelift which will see it emerge as a massive sporting hub - but only for female players.
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Hawthorn’s Glenferrie Oval will be designated a women’s-only senior football ground as part of a $30 million redevelopment of the historic Victorian venue.
The former home of the AFL Hawks will be turned over to female football in a move Boroondara Council says reflects participation trends.
The Victorian Amateur Football Association will hold women’s games at Glenferrie Oval, including Boroondara clubs, on Saturday afternoons.
The council said junior football “for all genders’’ would be scheduled on Saturday mornings and Sundays.
A similar model will be adopted for summer sport, with a focus on junior and women’s cricket.
“Our community sporting mix is based on participation trends which have seen a significant increase in women’s AFL and women’s cricket in recent years,’’ Boroondara mayor Sophie Torney said.
“This informs council’s commitment to ‘levelling the playing field’ and removing barriers for girls and women to play sport. This means upgrading our pavilions to provide modern change rooms, umpire rooms, toilets and showers.”
The council decided last year to dedicate Glenferrie to women’s senior football.
It believes the local community wants to see more investment in women’s sport to “ensure fair and equitable access to high-quality sporting facilities’’.
Hawthorn played home games at Glenferrie Oval from the time it entered the VFL in 1925 until 1973.
But the Hawks kept the ground for training and for their administration until 2006, when they set off for Waverley Park.
The Ferguson Stand was demolished in 2023, making way for open space.
The redevelopment kicked off 12 months later and the first stage of a refurbishment of the heritage-listed Tuck Stand – named after Hawthorn legend Michael – is finished.
Old timber seats in the grandstand have been removed and put in storage, and the exterior of the building has been repaired and weatherproofed.
The inside has been prepared for fit-out after work including new beams to support the building, reinforcing existing concrete columns and rebuilding a retaining wall.
Oval improvements will include the playing surface, a new cricket wicket, drainage, lighting and coaches’ boxes.
The project will be completed over four years.
Councillor Torney said Glenferrie Oval and the Tuck Stand had been “at the heart of community and professional sport for more than 120 years’’.
“We’re proud to breathe new life into the Tuck Stand building, restoring it as a vibrant community asset. This project will create a community hub that brings people together through sport, recreation, culture and connection,’’ she said.
Heritage Victoria says the design of the Tuck Stand in “Moderne style’’ is unique and demonstrates the middle-class values of the club, “in contrast to the working class origins of most of the league clubs’’.
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Originally published as Historic home of the Hawks, Glenferrie Oval, to become female footy hub after multimillion-dollar facelift
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