Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

[Bornadog]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

The great thing was that we rarely lost at home, well thats how I remember the games there

[Before I Die]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

We came out after half time and kicked seven goals in the first ten minutes of the third quarter to blow them away. Brian Royal was everywhere and picking up kicks at will. I still reckon it was the most dominant and devastating (for Essendon) burst of football I've ever seen us put on.


My favorite memory was one day against Geelong in the early '80s when the power went out at the ground just before half time. There was no electricity for the time for the timekeeper to blow the siren and they were furiously ringing the old cow bell, God knows where they got that from. Anyway the umpires didnt know that the quarter had finished and play just kept going.
The umpire was about to bounce the ball when he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to find T-shirt Tommy standing there. The umpire looked at him as if to say WTF?!? Then Hafey pointed to the timekeeper running down the steps of the John Gent stand ringing the bell.

Other memories;

-Sliding down the embankment behind the scoreboard on flattened cardboard boxes

-Terry Wheeler shirtfronting Jezza and us coming from five goals down to win the game easily against Carlton in 1978.

-Shane Loveless pulling Bruce Doull's headband off and throwing it into the crowd. Doull started to charge at Pinhead until Loveless shaped up to him and stopped Doull dead in his tracks. It must have been the only time Doull backed down in his life. Loveless's purple patch over a month or so in the early '80s when he was kicking 7 or 6 goals a game was prety good too.

-Two Essendon supporters watching Michael MacLean. One said to the other "Watch this bloke, he's going to be a superstar" Magic lead two Essendon players to a bouncing ball stopped, propped, tapped the ball backwards between his legs and then turned and scooped the ball up and took off leaving the Essendon players stading there flat footed and thinking "where the hell has he gone?". The bloke turned to his mate and said "see, I told you"

-Chooka Merrington(I think) running away from Peter Hudson. He bounced the ball which went back over his head and landed in Hudson's arms. Huddo jusy turned around and kicked the goal.
-1985. Beasley charging out of the goal square and marking on the lead, Lally Bamblett mopping up anything he missed and Jimmy Edmond dropping back into the goal square to mark the long bomb.

-Gary Dempsey tapping the ball straight down Ted Whitten Jr's throat who'd then hit Kelvin Templeton's chest with a perfect pass.

-'Tit's Kennedy and Fruicake Ford terrorising any opposition forward silly enough to go anywhere near the ball.

-Brian Royal hobblng out of the player's race on his crutches after his career ending injury and the crowd giving him a standing ovation. Choco looked a bit sheepish at all the attention and just sort of waved one of his crutches and headed back down the race.

-The roar fom the crowd Doug Hawkins got warming up on the boundary in his return game from a knee reconstruction. The Hawk had started on the bench and came halfway through the first quarter. He got up, took off his tracksuit top and the crowd went mad!

I think you will find that was Peter Welsh. Hudson chased him almost to the wing with absolutely no chance of catching him. On about Welsh's third bounce the ball bounced awkwardly, Welsh fell over trying to retrieve it and then Hudson picked it up, took a few bounces on the way back and clamly kicked the goal. Gee, I hope that memory is correct because it seems crystal clear in my mind's eye. Though memory is not always my strong point.

Another strong memory is Gary Dempsey taking mark after mark on the last line of defence. Then kicking a mongrel, tumble punt 40 metres up the flank.

[Doc26]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Buying the Herald on the way out of the ground and having the 3/4 time scores printed in red on the edge of the back page (how did they collect the scores, print them and get them out in 1/2 hour?)

Wow, had forgotten about that and did intrigue me at the time as well.
How the digital age has changed communication.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Anyone remember a mark Gary Dempsey took where he was behind the goal post & marked it with one arm either side of the goal post as he reached forward?

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Anyone remember a mark Gary Dempsey took where he was behind the goal post & marked it with one arm either side of the goal post as he reached forward?

Wasn't that Bernie Quinlan?

[Twodogs]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Anyone remember a mark Gary Dempsey took where he was behind the goal post & marked it with one arm either side of the goal post as he reached forward?

Wasn't that Bernie Quinlan?

Yep, it was Bernie.

[Desipura]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Wasn't that Bernie Quinlan?

Sure was, at the Geelong Road end.

[KT31]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Wasn't that Bernie Quinlan?

Hope you three have your facts straight, TCD has a way of Knowing these things.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Hope you three have your facts straight, TCD has a way of Knowing these things.

I admit I hesitated before posting it.

You have to think long and hard before challenging anything TCD says. When you pull it off it's a bit of a badge of honour.

A bit like Barry Jones telling the Sale of the Century researchers they were wrong.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

Hope you three have your facts straight, TCD has a way of Knowing these things.

I was only a kid, these old buggers have me here!

[Twodogs]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

I admit I hesitated before posting it.

You have to think long and hard before challenging anything TCD says. When you pull it off it's a bit of a badge of honour.

A bit like Barry Jones telling the Sale of the Century researchers they were wrong.

I'm pretty sure it was Pick a Box mate.

[Twodogs]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

I admit I hesitated before posting it.

You have to think long and hard before challenging anything TCD says. When you pull it off it's a bit of a badge of honour.

A bit like Barry Jones telling the Sale of the Century researchers they were wrong.

I'm pretty sure it was Pick a Box mate.

[always right]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

[QUOTE=Twodogs;215367-Shane Loveless pulling Bruce Doull's headband off and throwing it into the crowd. Doull started to charge at Pinhead until Loveless shaped up to him and stopped Doull dead in his tracks. It must have been the only time Doull backed down in his life. Loveless's purple patch over a month or so in the early '80s when he was kicking 7 or 6 goals a game was prety good too.
[/QUOTE]

One of us has a faulty memory but I'm not prepared to say it was you necessarily

My recollection is different than yours in that Doull did not back down. In fact I distinctly remember Doull giving Loveless a straight left and knocking him flat on his back. As a young bulldogs supporter I had Loveless pegged as a tough guy. His run-in with Doull left me feeling a little deflated.

My other memory of the Western/Whitten Oval was taking the long journey by train from Glen Waverley and swapping trains at Flinders St to get out to West Footscray. It's an even longer ride when your team lost as much as ours. Spent many late afternoons coming back on smelly, dirty red rattlers, arriving home in darkness.

One very fond memory is coming home after we kicked the record score and a bloke on the train asked me the score and who kicked all the goals. Almost fell over when I told him. That was a good trip.

[ReLoad]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

A few here already posted which are my memories as well.

That clown Mark Arceri kicking the goal they just shouldn't have got, my duffel coat got a workout at school that week! sticking it to all the blues supporters.

We lived in the country and drove to every game, and would park up at the hospital, it was usually the only place we could get a park because we would get there about 2 minutes before each game (mum had to work Saturday mornings so the earliest we could get away was 12:01)

After the games, listening to the various radio stations depending upon who covered us that day, then at 6pm all radio stations turned back to music etc, and I had to listen to 6 o'clock rock, with hits from the 60's, its where I learnt to appreciate the Beatles.

I used to take a milk crate into the ground to be able to see from the scoreboard end, and one summer at the first game, one of my uncles proudly declared that i was tall enough and didn't need the crate any more.

The greatest highlight is still that donut van. Dandy Donuts? if memory is right.
The jam that was hotter than the Earth's core temperature.

Before I could really see the footy (even with the milk crate) I used to collect the aluminium cans. I would put a small stone in each one to make the bags heavier to earn extra cents.

Once I stayed down with my grandparents in Tottenham, we went to the game but had a counter meal at the rising sun hotel before the game, and about 20 yards down the road from walking between the two, I found a $50 note in the gutter, That was a crap ton of money back then!

[always right]

Re: Top 20 Whitten Oval Memories

I used to take a milk crate into the ground to be able to see from the scoreboard end, and one summer at the first game, one of my uncles proudly declared that i was tall enough and didn't need the crate any more.

I used to take a little step ladder into the ground for my son to stand on. You could virtually take anything in those days

Once I stayed down with my grandparents in Tottenham, we went to the game but had a counter meal at the rising sun hotel before the game, and about 20 yards down the road from walking between the two, I found a $50 note in the gutter, That was a crap ton of money back then!

Ever think of the family that didn't eat that week?