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

[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.