Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

[Doc26]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

A good read JC. Thanks for sharing the memories.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

Before the EJ Whitten stand was built fans used to be able to go into the change rooms to watch the players get changed. Fans were also allowed in after the game. So you would see these naked footballers going to and from the showers.

Later on they built this kind of horse-shoe enclosure in the dressing rooms that limited the fans to the area behind the barriers. Every now and again a woman would get in and there would go out a cry that 'there's a women a in here' and all of the players would cover up. Later on it seems as though nobody cared.

I would get into the change rooms at half time sometimes and it was a shock to see some of the players having a smoke. I vividly remember Dave Darcy having a puff.

When we stood in the outer there was me and my brother-in-law and his mate and his two brothers. My other brother-in-law Doug and Sarge and about 20 of his Yarraville mates would stand just in front of us.

One day one of the brothers Paul, told the other Damien, that he loved eating quiche. (Quiche had just come in at that stage, some sort of yippy Scandinavian dish). So Damien, who was a real he-man told him that only poofs eat quiche. And so Paul punched Damien in the face and Damien punched him back. So that was our big fight on the terraces in the outer at the Western Oval. Paul ended up going home. Damien strengthened his argument that Paul was a poof because he saw him push a shopping trolley around in a supermarket.

Fights seemed to break out amongst Doug's Yarraville mates on a more regular basis. One day there was a serious fight and somebody got hurt and a St John's ambulance man attended and somebody got carted off but I never found out what happened. A week later the coppers turned up to ask questions but nobody saw anything.

The well-prepared fan would bring a cut lunch, a flask of coffee and a fold-up wooden platform to stand on. These guys with the wooden platforms were nuisances especially if they stood any-where near in front of you as they blocked the view. So the trick was to shuffle away from them. The old gentle push to move yourself across a few yards.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

No but used to slide down the back of the geelong rd end hill between the 2 toliets on a piece of cardboard.

Oh yes that was so much fun at half time!

[ReLoad]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

The Donut Van at the Geelong road end they dont make em like they used to!

Like a lot of people here we used to always stand in the same place week in week out, ours was near the scoreboard, and as a kid id take along a milk crate so i could see the game

Most memorable game was the one where carlton only got the one goal for the match (was it mark arceri?) from a dodgy free kick in the last quarter.

And of course as a kid going up to see my grand parents at half time who used to sit in the whitten stand and Nana would always have a warm hug and cup of soup for me.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

Lining up for beer in 84 I was 16 my woodwork teacher old rednose Smith tapping me on the shoulder asking me what I thought I was doing So i told him same as you having a beer and wathcing the footy thinking I wouldn't get served he had a huge grin on his face but it disappeared as quickly as i did with my beer before he could dob me in for being underage!!

[Flamethrower]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

I can't remember if it was '76 or '78, but it was the year the Hawks & Roos played off in the Granny when i played in the little league, although i was pretty young, only managed the 3 or 4 games, we all recieved our free North or Hawks t-shirt & got to walk around the G before the game to let off the balloons.

It was 1978 that we wore the tricolours of Footscray m_w.

My first memories are from the late 1970s standing with my old man and his work mates at the Barkly Street end next to the opposition cheer squad. One of my dad's mates in particular loved to bait them and I remember many a brawl once the amber fluid took effect.

Later on I often walked down to the ground from the Western Hospital when I was doing a weekend shift. It was very handy to leave the car at the hospital and head to the game once my shift ended.

My other main memory is of when the Bulldogs took control of the Melbourne Monarchs baseball team - I was there for every game and remember seeing plenty of players who have now gone on to play or coach in the Major Leagues. Unfortunately I never got to play baseball there, but playing football for the Footscray Little League more than made up for it.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

A friend of mine once leased out the old coaches box on the Dougie Hawkins Wing. I got to sit in it one game. Fantastic view, but bloody scary climbing up/down the ladder.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

We would park our cars down Cross Street in the Olympic Tyres car park. Then the club took over the park and started charging money. Sometimes the attendants wouldn't turn up and we could get in for free.

We got Billy Goggin as a coach and he built this coaching box on the eastern wing that became known as the Hawkins wing. We called it Goggin's Folly as he had to walk all of the way over there from the Gent stand to get in the box and the sun would be in his eyes all of the time. We note that he stopped using it after a while. When we sold Quinlan to Fitzroy he spat the dummy and quit.

Geelong road used to be two lane and lined with palm trees it was really beautiful there just south of the Western Oval. At Gordon Street there were railway gates (as boom gates were not yet used) across Geelong Road. Then they built an overpass and called it Mt Mistake. Why it was named Mt Mistake I will never know, the only ones really complaining at the time were the Rising Sun Hotel who had most of their business chopped off by the overpass as people could no longer freely walk from the Western Oval.

There was a section on the boundary where the mounted police would park their horse. They would just open a gate and onto the ground would trot this horse. I didn't see a lot of the mounted police on the ground, or how the horse may have chopped up or pooed on the surface. Didn't seem to have lasted long.

[Scraggers]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

I remember being there when we unveiled our reserves premiership flag (I'm not sure what year) and cheering on Zeno Tzaris in that ressys game ... I think he bagged 8 that game.

I remember thinking that that flag was going to be the start of big things (premiership-wise) for the club

[ledge]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

[QUOTE=James Cuming;161179]We would park our cars down Cross Street in the Olympic Tyres car park. Then the club took over the park and started charging money. Sometimes the attendants wouldn't turn up and we could get in for free.

We got Billy Goggin as a coach and he built this coaching box on the eastern wing that became known as the Hawkins wing. We called it Goggin's Folly as he had to walk all of the way over there from the Gent stand to get in the box and the sun would be in his eyes all of the time. We note that he stopped using it after a while. When we sold Quinlan to Fitzroy he spat the dummy and quit.

Gee i didnt realize it was that long ago, I thought it was Malthouse era.

[GVGjr]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

The ladies toilets under the John Gent stand were always flooded. You were never quite sure what you were standing in, and it didn't bear much thinking about. They were an improvement though on the ones near the drill hall, where at the last ever WO game, I saw a dead rat.

I think the biggest roar I ever heard was when the team came off the ground in 85 and we had beaten Hawthorn to finish 2nd on the ladder. It was bedlam. Drew Morphett exclaimed on the replay 'It sounds like the premiership has been won.'

The crowd chant of 'Footscray' at the fightback rally is still the most spinetingling thing I have ever heard.

Some great calls in the 80s: 'Emmett dunne, you are the only copper who can't kick!'

And another guy who muttered, 'Geez, Footscray, more passes than Bruce Ruxton on Mastermind!'

[dadsgirl16]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

So many great memories but my earliest is running on to the field with my autograph book and being hit with an errant footy,book broke and I bawled!Must have been around 5 or 6 I guess.Also remember
playing outside the pub while Dad went in for one on the walk home(and never telling Mum)
Ah the good old days of the 60's!

[Desipura]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

I remember being there when we unveiled our reserves premiership flag (I'm not sure what year) and cheering on Zeno Tzaris in that ressys game ... I think he bagged 8 that game.

I remember thinking that that flag was going to be the start of big things (premiership-wise) for the club

1987, dont think Zeno Tzatzaris ever got 8 kicks in a game!

[LostDoggy]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

1987, dont think Zeno Tzatzaris ever got 8 kicks in a game!

Didn't our reserves win the 1988 Premiership? We beat North Melbourne. I was in the cheer squad then, helped hold up the banner & then stayed to watch Hawthorn smash Melbourne.

Or did we win both years?

[Bornadog]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

Didn't our reserves win the 1988 Premiership? We beat North Melbourne. I was in the cheer squad then, helped hold up the banner & then stayed to watch Hawthorn smash Melbourne.

Or did we win both years?

Yes, I went to that one in 1988 as my mate a Melbourne supporter insisted I go with him. He could only manage standing room tickets behind the goals and a cyclone wire fence. We got there to watch all three grandfinals, ie under 19, reserves and firsts.