Whitten Oval

[Twodogs]

This time next year the old place will be radically different. Almost indistinguishible from the place we've grown to love, all those idiosyncratic places that made the footy ground great, places where generations of families found each other will be gone-indeed some like the coaches box, the scoreboard and the EJ Smith stand(heh-'stand'!) are already gone.


It occured to me last friday that I'd watched my last game from The Whitten Stand the way it's always been. The Can Bar will be gone-I still sneak up there sometimes and look at the ghosts on the ground. Ditto the visiting change rooms which havent changed since they were built in the 1920s.


I'll miss all those places but I'm equally excited about the reconstruction. If all the facilties go ahead it's going to be a great boon for the club and establish our presence in the west for the long term. That's a great outcome.


Our footy club is in for a huge ride in a lot of ways over the next few years.

[GVGjr]

I have had a flash of similar memories of late. It struck me how much I missed the scoreboard when trying to keep tabs on Fridays hit out and to be honest I even miss the old Coaches Box on the Doug Hawkins Wing.
I know the past isn't the future but I wish there was a practical way of maintaining some of the old features of the place.

[Twodogs]

I know the past isn't the future but I wish there was a practical way of maintaining some of the old features of the place.



It's a conflicting emotion, isnt it?


On the bright side we might get a chance at picking up some of the old fittings at a good price.

[GVGjr]

It's a conflicting emotion, isnt it?


On the bright side we might get a chance at picking up some of the old fittings at a good price.


Wouldn't the old coaches box have made a great shed for out the back?

[BulldogBelle]

Times are a changing, the Whitten Oval will never be the same again. Growing up as a kid and all those memories of the ground and how it was will always remain in our minds but how exciting is it for the club to be on the cusp of a new redevelopment at the end of the day if it helps our club it will help all of us to continue to love and enjoy our club for a long time to come.

[bulldogtragic]

While it is undoubtedly good for the club, it's also very sad. An auction could raise a few dollars. Would get my attention what they offered up.

[alwaysadog]

Times are a changing, the Whitten Oval will never be the same again. Growing up as a kid and all those memories of the ground and how it was will always remain in our minds but how exciting is it for the club to be on the cusp of a new redevelopment at the end of the day if it helps our club it will help all of us to continue to love and enjoy our club for a long time to come.

Yes BB the club moves on and I for one am very pleased to be able to say that it is safe for the immediate future and the mid term looks equally good, but Whitten Oval will never be the same because its role as a focus for Saturday afternoon entertainment for whole communities has changed, and the deep suburban rivalries are now expressed in less open ways. All sorts of things have done this but communications and transport are the biggest two.

So we mourn in a sense the passing of a way of life with which we were not just comfortable but with which we were in some ways blest. While we can't bring it back or even at times express exactly what it meant we can make sure that our club continues to redefine and strengthen the connections to its community in the west.

For anyone who is interested I have posted the first part of a blog about the times I and my family spent at the Whitten Oval. Here's the link http://www.woof.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=278 (http://www.woof.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=278)

[Dry Rot]

Obviously I can't talk about WO, but I can talk about NRL suburban grounds which are disappearing.

I suspect that WO had characteristics of Leichhardt Oval, home of the Balmain Tigers and enemies of my silvertail Manly side.

Had some great times out there, exposed to the wind and rain with crappy facilities, and weird abusive locals.

The modern soul-less grounds are far more comfortable but nothing beats a suburban ground.

I just feel sorry for young folk who will never experience a "real" footy ground.

BTW, Manuka Oval in Canberra is still an old style ground.

[alwaysadog]

Obviously I can't talk about WO, but I can talk about NRL suburban grounds which are disappearing.

I suspect that WO had characteristics of Leichhardt Oval, home of the Balmain Tigers and enemies of my silvertail Manly side.

Had some great times out there, exposed to the wind and rain with crappy facilities, and weird abusive locals.

The modern soul-less grounds are far more comfortable but nothing beats a suburban ground.

I just feel sorry for young folk who will never experience a "real" footy ground.

BTW, Manuka Oval in Canberra is still an old style ground.

Yes DR Manuka is, but the best one of all is Mararra in Darwin or whatever it's now called. The local aboriginal population have got that real at home feeling about them. The bearded guy who joins our cheer squad to hold up the banners engages in a very spirited if just slightly inebriated interchange with his mates on the other side of the fence. It's the Aussie repartee still being practised. It's bullsh1t, bravado and a thumbing of the nose at those overly concerned with the niceties of behaviour that get in the way of having a good time.

[bornadog]

Love the old place and the great times I spent there watching the boys go round, but in this day and age lets face it, the buildings should have been torn down 20 years ago. The facilities are a real disgrace and they really were not much chop back in the 1970s and 1980's. It will be great for the boys to have some decent facilities to work from.

[Twodogs]

I just feel sorry for young folk who will never experience a "real" footy ground.




The greatest tradgedy for kids today is they will never know the pure, unaldulterated joy of lining up on the boundary waiting for the siren at Whitten oval to run out on the ground and be the first to pat your favorite player on the back after a mighty home win.

Sometimes we didnt even wait for the siren. Looking back it's a miricle how there were never any deaths or serious injuries with players chasing the ball into packs of very young teenagers encroaching onto the playing arena.

[Dry Rot]

Yes DR Manuka is, but the best one of all is Mararra in Darwin or whatever it's now called. The local aboriginal population have got that real at home feeling about them. The bearded guy who joins our cheer squad to hold up the banners engages in a very spirited if just slightly inebriated interchange with his mates on the other side of the fence. It's the Aussie repartee still being practised. It's bullsh1t, bravado and a thumbing of the nose at those overly concerned with the niceties of behaviour that get in the way of having a good time.

I hope he's more orginal and witty than the feral halfwits at Leichhardt Oval.

The public wedding proposal over a faltering PA interrupted by the landing jets overhead was pretty funny.

But nothing beats a refugee from the local loony bin near the oval entering the field of play when Manly was attacking....

[bulldogtragic]

I think it was BF where i posted it, but at the intraclub match i had the best time at the footy i've had in years. No big concrete structures with music blaring and pies costing $6 and bottles of Coke $6 and the atmosphere of corporatism. I sat in the Whitten stand with other tragics gazing at the ground with players and to the city (would have prefered the DH wing and scoreboard). Got a CAN of Coke and sausage at half time and soaked up the atmosphere of a crowd only interested in the footy. Seeing all the old things and graffiti such as "I LOVE NATHAN BROWN 1998" enscribed on a toilet door. Thinking about all those before me that would have watched the game from where i was sitting.

I've done corprate boxes and all that jazz. But Friday was by far and away the best footy day i've had in a while. I'm really going to miss the tradition, and while new tradition is being made i supppose, those that have had the privlidge to experience our tradition to date know what they're missing.

To think in only a few years time at training and intraclubs we'll be telling young fans i remember the Doug Hawkins wing over there - Doug was a past club Champion you know. The coaches box was over there, you had to climb a ladder, not like the new fancy ones. The scoreboard was over there and there was the can bar. - Personally i think i'll enjoy it because my past memories are soo much better than the ones im developing now (onfield success excluded). Geez they really were times to savour, what a shame.

[Dry Rot]

So WO should not be re-developed?

Perhaps no easy answers here.

[bulldogtragic]

So WO should not be re-developed?

Perhaps no easy answers here.
It must be re-developed to ensure long term survival.

But it's robbing Peter's children the tradition of the club to pay Paul's ongoing expenses.

I guess it's just the cost of corporatising footy, making it about dollars and cents and not about the game or it's fans.

[Dry Rot]

It must be re-developed to ensure long term survival.

But it's robbing Peter's children the tradition of the club to pay Paul's ongoing expenses.

I guess it's just the cost of corporatising footy, making it about dollars and cents and not about the game or it's fans.

I'm light years away from experiencing WO, but if it ensures the long term survival of the club in Melbourne, then Peter's children will be better off watching the Dogs in Melbourne at the ground, not on tele from Darwin.

[Twodogs]

So WO should not be re-developed?

Perhaps no easy answers here.



No, it must be redeveloped. It improves or dies-that's the equation.


We'll just miss the old place, and the way things used to be. That's the way of things for us tragics.



BTW It's not to late to jump on a bus and experience it the way it is now. That offer of accomadation still stands.

[Dry Rot]

Thanks - I hope to be able to take up that kind offer this season and finally see a Dogs home game.

Will any footy games be played on WO in the future?

[bulldogtragic]

Only intraclub matches. Last year I emailed Cam Rose with an idea for a game, but was told we did not even come close to meeting AFL standards (changerooms etc), and that although we all wanted games back we couldn't as (To quote) " They (The AFL) have informed us that having a home game even only one is absolutely out of the question irrespective of the case we could put. " - So those days are dead. But the meories remain.

[westdog54]

Thanks - I hope to be able to take up that kind offer this season and finally see a Dogs home game.

Will any footy games be played on WO in the future?

You might just have to settle for one of our RecFooty Matches DR.

Mind you, you'll get to see young Borgy in action, worth the price of admission alone as they say.

[Dry Rot]

You might just have to settle for one of our RecFooty Matches DR.

Mind you, you'll get to see young Borgy in action, worth the price of admission alone as they say.

Borgy is a young Chris Grant?

[Twodogs]

Borgy is a young Chris Grant?


Shaun Higgins. Just runs and runs and when he cant run any more he runs again. Uses the ball beautifully as well.


Adrian Anderson, for all his faults, is a good player and has played at a good standard for a fair while. Borgy made him look like a goose more than once.

[BulldogBelle]

Adrian Anderson, for all his faults, is a good player and has played at a good standard for a fair while. Borgy made him look like a goose more than once.

That would have been good to watch. So what were some of Adrian Anderson's faults?

[Twodogs]

That would have been good to watch. So what were some of Adrian Anderson's faults?


Bit of a stirrer and lair. When his team is on top he lets you know about it. It gets a bit frustating when the umpire is well aware of who he is and basically lets him get away with anything.

[westdog54]

Bit of a stirrer and lair. When his team is on top he lets you know about it. It gets a bit frustating when the umpire is well aware of who he is and basically lets him get away with anything.

We'll have to work on some sledges before the return fixture I think

[bulldogtragic]

If he fires his mouth off abouting winning or kicking a goal, ask him if he wants to bet on it?

[Twodogs]

We'll have to work on some sledges before the return fixture I think



Inspired by 42-C-3 I think I'll just tell him we bet on his mob.

[westdog54]

Inspired by 42-C-3 I think I'll just tell him we bet on his mob.

We could launch into a rendition of the 12th Man's Hansie Cronje impersonation.

"Now what are the odds of that happening?? 100-1, 200-1, I'll bet you a thousand bucks that's never happened before!"

[BulldogBelle]

Bit of a stirrer and lair. When his team is on top he lets you know about it. It gets a bit frustating when the umpire is well aware of who he is and basically lets him get away with anything.

He sounds like a bit of a smarty, just remember the only thing that gets him over the line is his link with the AFL.

[Twodogs]

He sounds like a bit of a smarty, just remember the only thing that gets him over the line is his link with the AFL.


He was a smart arse, but at least he leaves it on the field. I had a few run ins with him in a fairly spirited game but he shook my hand after the game and even conceded Borgy had the better of him.


Ben Buckley played in that game as well.

[ons]

Plus the girls in their side came from a sporting background as well. Wasn't one of them an olympic medallist?

[Twodogs]

Plus the girls in their side came from a sporting background as well. Wasn't one of them an olympic medallist?




Peta Eddingbone- A gold medallist in softball.

[westdog54]

He was a smart arse, but at least he leaves it on the field. I had a few run ins with him in a fairly spirited game but he shook my hand after the game and even conceded Borgy had the better of him.


Ben Buckley played in that game as well.

I refused to shake his hand, shook everyone's hand except his and the umpire's. And its very rare I don't shake hands with the ump, let alone the opposition.

Edit: Thought of another line we could use. If he starts criticising the umpire at any stage, we can say "It's alright Adrian, you can just go to work tomorrow and change the rules, can't you?

[Twodogs]

I refused to shake his hand, shook everyone's hand except his and the umpire's. And its very rare I don't shake hands with the ump, let alone the opposition.





I made my point on (and off, and then back on again) the field.


I dont even remember seeing Napoleon Dynamite after the game-I just thought he'd disappeared down whichever hole he'd crawled out of in the first place.

[Sockeye Salmon]

This sounds all very Adelaide United

[Twodogs]

This sounds all very Adelaide United


John Kosmina is on our short list as the new coach.

[alwaysadog]

John Kosmina is on our short list as the new coach.

You actually mean that others are under serious consideration after Kossy's recent audition?

This must be a prize gig.

[Twodogs]

You actually mean that others are under serious consideration after Kossy's recent audition?

This must be a prize gig.


Well, to be frank, the short list only has one name on it. Kossy has agreed to take the job as long as we pay for his mad monday meal afterwards. He's going to blow his top if they've run out of the roast of the day again.

[alwaysadog]

Well, to be frank, the short list only has one name on it. Kossy has agreed to take the job as long as we pay for his mad monday meal afterwards. He's going to blow his top if they've run out of the roast of the day again.

And so he should, both he and the hostelry have standards to maintain.

[Twodogs]

And so he should, both he and the hostelry have standards to maintain.


It's become a weekly joke. "What's the roast?" and then John Cleese comes out with a trifle in a silver serving dish and says "Ducks off, Sorry"

[alwaysadog]

It's become a weekly joke. "What's the roast?" and then John Cleese comes out with a trifle in a silver serving dish and says "Ducks off, Sorry"

Oh no! Not a publican with a good sense of humour.

[westdog54]

They've always got a healthy supply of chicken parma and fish n chips so I'm happy

[Twodogs]

They've always got a healthy supply of chicken parma and fish n chips so I'm happy



Maybe they should roast the chicken parma?

[westdog54]

Maybe they should roast the chicken parma?

Why isn't there a "Deep in Thought" emoticon when you need it?

[Sockeye Salmon]

Maybe they should roast the chicken parma?

OK. Now i'm agreeing with the 'true visionary' thingo.