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THE Western Bulldogs will start work on the possibility of bringing AFL football back to the Whitten Oval in the wake of Saturday’s successful NAB Challenge match.

The Dogs accommodated a crowd of 9500 when they hosted Richmond in the pre-season clash.
Bulldogs president Peter Gordon told the Herald Sun much development would be needed to get the ground up to scratch for a premiership match, but it was something he would love to see happen.

“I was thrilled with how the venue came up on the weekend and since the Smith Stand on the eastern side of the ground came down 10 years ago the TV now has a beautiful view of the city skyline and of Footscray,” Gordon said.
“It showed off the city of Maribyrnong to tremendous effect.
“I would love to consider the prospect of being able to fixture some home games for the future for the Bulldogs at the Victoria University Whitten Oval.
“I have to say for emotional reasons, but also business growth reasons, I do think it is something we ought to be considering and it is something that our board will begin to consider in 2015.”

The Dogs have not played an AFL match at Whitten Oval since 1997, when almost 27,000 fans watched them beat the West Coast Eagles.

Former skipper Scott Wynd leads the Bulldogs out on Whitten Oval for the last time in 1997. Picture: Darren Tindale


Gordon said he had not had any serious talks with the AFL about the prospect of a return of home-and-away games.
He said there had been big infrastructure improvements to enable the Footscray VFL side to use the venue and for it became a base for women’s and junior football.
“We have got a couple of million dollars of funding that we got from the state government and Maribyrnong council and from the AFL and indeed a significant amount of money that we raised from our own members last year, which enabled us to build new change rooms for the opposition, new coaches’ boxes, and umpires’ boxes and timekeepers’ boxes which are state of the art (and) built in compliance with AFL standards.

“We are slated to get new lights later this year and a new electronic scoreboard which will have a live action facility to it.”
The new West Footscray station would also be an asset, Gordon said.
But he acknowledged the ground would have to be developed to accommodate enough seating for at least 6000 reserved ticket holders and more amenities — such as public toilets would have to be built.

“These thing take time, with tenders and raising the money and all of those sort of things — as well as convincing the AFL.
“Not only do we not have enough seats, we really struggled to cope with demands of public facilities like toilets.
“But speaking personally I do think something was lost in the loss of the suburban ground and it doesn’t mean every suburban ground needs to get resurrected (but) with the unique history of the Bulldogs and the fact that we have been playing there since the mid-1870s, and how well the oval looked at the weekend and how well it was received by both clubs — then I think it is something that ought to be put on the drawing board for future discussions.”