Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

[LostDoggy]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

Collecting Mosley soft drink bottles and the refund (that's going back awhile).

The introduction of steel beer cans to stand on (as already mentioned earlier) which meant I could finally see the game when crowded.

The introduction of tiered steps at the Geelong road end - why didn't they do this years earlier - dam hard balancing on the tin cans on sloped ground

Being old enough to buy beer myself from the scoreboard bar - only to have to watch the guy behind the bar 'pop' the ring (as per the law).

The introduction of the aluminium cans - this meant my kids never had the experience of balancing on the tin cans.

I've progressed since those days, I now drink boubon & coke from a can - times have certainly change since the Western Oval hill.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

Anyone remember the souvenir stall at the front of the EJ Whitten Stand?

I used to get there early & wait inside the entrance between the Whitten & Gent Stands & get the players autographs as they entered the ground.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

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

!'

Or one of my favourites; "Hey Emmett, You should be charged with impersonating a footballer!"

[Bulldog4332]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

My father used to drink with the groundsman of the Whitten oval at the Powell Hotel. The groundsman (Watty) lived in the red brick house that adjoined the oval. On game day we would visit the groundman and he would walk us through his house into his garage and then into the ground. His garage stored eqipment etc for the working on the ground and opened into the ground. I would then stand on the small hill behind the Police Horses and my dad would visit the can bar. Overall very very happy memories of father/son furtive behaviour getting away with something.

Have started to park at the Whitten oval car park to catch the train to work and still look at where the house was and remember.

[stefoid]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

I have a few odd recollections of games at the WO

as a teenager, I was addicted to those flouro pink hotdogs.

another time as an 18yo, driving home after a win, got a bit excited and spun out on a corner near to the WO, mounted the curb and blew a front tyre. In dads car.

[Twodogs]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

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.
.

I asked my dad why it was called Mt Mistake. He said that it was originally designed to be further down the road where Geelong rd, Somerville rd and Roberts st all intersect but somehow it ended up where it is now.

I've thought a bit about it through the years and his answer makes a lot of sense. That huge overpass looks like a massive overreaction to the problem of getting the traffic from Geelong rd over Gordon st. It would have made more sense to take Gordon st over (or under) Geelong rd rather than the other way around.

[Twodogs]

Re: Whitten Oval - Your Unique Memory

My favorite memory is training sessions back in the '70s and '80s. You'd head to the ground after school and talk to the players arrived and then watch them go through their paces on the field. Liker others have said though, it used to get cold!

There were always a bunch of old blokes watching, and if they didnt have a rumour about footy they'd just make one up, "such and such is coming to coach/play at Footscray next year, we are sure to make the finals with him aboard"

One day at training when I would have been 16 or 17 so it would have been late '70s or early '80s I remember really well. I was having a kick with my mate on the steps in front of the Gent stand. Ted Whitten and Charlie Sutton were standing about 30 metres away from us watching training and intently studying a clipboard that Charlie was holding up in front of the both of them.

My mate kicked the ball over my head and it went bouncing toward the two great men. I turned around and ran towards the ball and yelled out "Excuse me mister, can we have our ball back?" The lower part of Ted's leg reached out and kicked the ball and the bloody thing flew at me like a tracer bullet! It hit me on the chest and knocked me over. As I was climbing to my feet I could hear the two of them laughing and Charlie said to EJ "Ahhhhh, you've still got it Teddy my boy"

That's my Whitten oval story, and I laugh every time I think of it.