2014 Round 24, Quarter time.

19th August Birthdays.

 

Dermott Brereton 1986, Michael Moncrieff 1952.

 PLAYER OF THE DAY. Andrew Obst, born 19th August 1964.

Another player who got his grounding at great SANFL club Port Adelaide Andrew played his first game for Melbourne in 1990 and over the next 8 seasons he played 149 games and kicked 60 goals. 

A versatile player who could be used as a tagger or link player he had lean years in 1992-1994 due to injury, but when he was fit he was very valuable for the Demons.

During his time at Melbourne he played in 7 finals matches and after finishing there he went back to Port Adelaide where he was part of their 1999 Premiership team.

Source: The Encyclopaedia Of AFL Footballers.

VFL Park.

Now officially known as the Ricoh Centre, VFL Park was built in 1970 at a cost of 3 million dollars.

At the time it was considered that the area in which it was built would become the geographical centre of Melbourne, and though it was built right next to a major freeway, public transport to the ground was not good. As well as that, getting out of the ground by car after games was a nightmare and as it was built in a rain belt weather conditions were quite often not the best.

 

It was meant to be a 140,000 seat stadium but only ever got to a capacity of 72,000.  Most of the site is now a housing estate with only the Kenneth Luke stand still standing, having seating for 8,000.

The biggest game to be held there was the 1991 grand Final which was moved from the MCG due to redevelopment of the Southern Stand and the largest crowd, 92,935, was for a match between Collingwood and Hawthorn in 1981.

Round 22 1999 saw the last season game played there and the last ever game was the VFL grand Final in 2000.

Source: Austadiums website.

 

Some Interesting Facts.

-         The first player to represent 3 states was Bill Mayman (WA, SA and Tasmania).

-         First night premiers were South Melbourne in 1956.

-         In 1897 St Kilda was the first team to not win a game all season.

-         The last team to not win a game all season was Fitzroy in 1964.

-         First game to be played under lights for premiership points was on 16^th June 1952 and was held at the Brisbane exhibition grounds between Essendon and Geelong.

Source: Great Australian Football Stories by Ken Piesse.

Bernie Naylor.

The award for the top goal kicker in the WAFL is named the 'Bernie Naylor medal' and it is not surprising as he kicked 1023 goals in 194 games for South Fremantle.

He started with the club in 1941 and then had to take a break due to the Second World War. Resuming in 1946 he was there until 1954, being the top goal scorer in all of his 10 seasons.

Topping the WAFL goal kicking 6 times (46-48 and 52-54), he was in 6 Premiership teams and 16 state games.

He also has the record for the most goals in a season (167) and the most in a single game (23).

Source: Wikipedia..