East Melbourne Cricket Ground

East Melbourne Cricket Ground
Construction
The EMCG in its final season of use, 1921

Location	East Melbourne, Victoria
Coordinates	37°49′2″S 144°58′40″E / 37.81722°S 144.97778°E / -37.81722; 144.97778
Surface	Grass
Opened	1860
Closed	1921
Demolished	1922
Tenants
East Melbourne Cricket Club (unknown–1921) East Melbourne Football Club (1878–1882) Essendon Football Club (1882–1921) Melbourne City Football Club (1912–1913)

The East Melbourne Cricket Ground was a grass oval sports venue located at the corner of Wellington Parade and Jolimont Parade^{[clarification needed]}, in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.^[1] Now part of Yarra Park and being adjacent to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the site is best known for playing host to many sporting events during the city of Melbourne's early existence, consisting mainly of cricket and Australian rules football, although the ground occasionally hosted soccer matches.

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History

The ground was opened in 1860 and closed in 1921. It adjoined the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was not far from the Richmond Cricket Ground, all three grounds being sited in the area formerly known as Captain Lonsdale's Cow Paddock, now Yarra Park.^[1]

Cricket

East Melbourne Cricket Club was the most successful member of the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA) during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, winning more than half of the VCA's Premierships during that period. The club was formed in 1857 as the Abbotsford Cricket Club but they soon changed their name as part of a push to use the East Melbourne ground.^{[citation needed]} The team mainly consisted of Scotch College old boys.

Four first-class cricket games were played at the ground in the 1880s, including the Smokers v Non-Smokers match, in which the Non-Smokers made 803, at the time a world record innings score.

Season	Teams	Date	Result	Ref
1880–81	Victoria v South Australia	1880-11-12 12–13, 15 November 1880	Victoria won by 7 wickets	^[2]
1882–83	Victoria v South Australia	1883-03-24 24, 26–27 March 1883	Victoria won by an innings and 98 runs	^[3]
1886–87	Smokers v Non-Smokers	1887-03-17 17–19, 21 March 1887	Match drawn	^[4]
1888–89	Victoria v Tasmania	1889-01-01 1–5 January 1889	Victoria won by 9 wickets	^[5]

Australian rules football

The oval was used for Australian rules football games during the winter months from 1878. The ground also hosted the first-ever interstate representative football match, on 1 July 1879, between Victoria - represented by the Victorian Football Association (VFA) - and South Australia. The match was attended by more than 10,000 people. It also hosted the first intercollegiate football match in Melbourne, played on 21 July 1881 between teams from the University of Melbourne colleges Trinity and Ormond.^[6]

Tenant football clubs of the ground included:

East Melbourne Football Club, which used the ground until it disbanded in mid-1882.
Essendon Football Club: despite the ground being 6 miles (10 km) away from the suburb of Essendon, the club moved to the ground in 1882 after East Melbourne folded, and used it in both the VFA and the VFL until its closure at the end of 1921.
North Melbourne Football Club used the ground during the 1897 VFA season due to upgrading works on its usual home ground, the Arden Street Oval.^[7] The club also played an 1887 Queen's Birthday match at the ground, and another game there in 1891 as Arden Street was flooded.
West Melbourne Football Club moved to the ground for the 1907 VFA season, and disbanded the following year.^[8]
Melbourne University Football Club played there from 1908 to 1910 in the VFL; the club left the ground before the 1911 season following a dispute with Essendon over rent.
Melbourne City Football Club used it during its two years in the VFA, 1912 and 1913; Melbourne City lost all 36 matches it played in those two seasons.

The ground hosted 426 senior matches in the recognised top level of Victorian football - 201 matches in the VFA and 225 matches in the VFL/AFL - in 44 seasons of competition.

It also held 30 VFA finals between 1903 and 1921.^[9] The VFL held one final in the 1897 and 1901 finals series and the 1900 Grand Final at the ground, while the VFA also held the 1896 premiership play-off match at the ground.

As a venue for football, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground had an unusual quirk that the field sloped downhill towards the railway end, but was often affected by a strong wind which blew to the pavilion end.^[10]

The record football crowd at the venue was 36,185 for a VFA match between Essendon and South Melbourne in 1891, the record attendance for a match at that time.

The VFL record was 20,181 for the 1900 Grand Final, with the record for a VFL home and away match being 18,000, set twice in 1921.

Soccer

Occasionally, soccer was played at the oval. The best known use for the sport were the interstate representative matches between the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales in the 1880s. Four matches were played between 1883 and 1887 with three taking place at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground with the other being played at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground that ended in a nil-all draw.^[11]

Date	Teams	Result	Attendance	Ref
16 August 1883	Victoria v New South Wales	2 – 2	2000	^[12]
16 July 1885	Victoria v New South Wales	4 – 0	600	^[13]
16 July 1887	Victoria v New South Wales	2 – 2	300	^[14]

Lacrosse

The ground was occasionally used as a venue for lacrosse, and hosted Victoria's first intercolonial lacrosse match on 1 September 1888, against South Australia^[15] (the first intercolonial match in Australia was played between Queensland and New South Wales a year earlier^[16]). The match was not largely attended, due in part to the cold and showery weather on the day, with Victoria winning the match by 5 goals to 1.^[17]

Closure

After the 1921 football season, the ground was closed and then demolished to make way for an extension of the Jolimont Yard railway sidings.^[18]

The East Melbourne Cricket Club subsequently amalgamated with the Hawthorn Cricket Club to form the Hawthorn-East Melbourne Cricket Club, and moved to Hawthorn's Glenferrie Oval. One of the wooden stands was moved from East Melbourne to Glenferrie Oval, where it stood until 1965, when it was replaced by the Dr A.S. Ferguson Stand.

After the Essendon Football Club lost the use of the ground, it moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve. It had initially tried to move to the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve, resulting in a major off-field political struggle between the Essendon Association and North Melbourne Football Clubs, the VFL and the VFA.

The former site of the ground has now been taken over by a housing estate, a feature of which is a semi-circular housing block with a tower obviously designed to look like an ersatz football pavilion. The remaining part of the oval in front of that block is now a park.

References

^ ^a ^b Santo Caruso, Marc Fiddian and Jim Main, Football Grounds of Melbourne (Melbourne: Pennon Publishing, 2002 ISBN 978-1877029028.
^ "Victoria v South Australia, 1880–81". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
^ "Victoria v South Australia, 1882–83". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
^ "Smokers v Non-Smokers, 1886–87". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
^ "Victoria v Tasmania, 1888–89". ESPNcricinfo. ESPN Inc. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
^ "FOOTBALL". The Argus. No. 10, 948. Victoria, Australia. 21 July 1881. p. 6. Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "Football – the Victorian Football League". The Argus. Melbourne. 13 April 1897. p. 6.
^ "Football – Victorian League – Question of Grounds". The Argus. Melbourne. 28 March 1907. p. 4.
^ "Final – Williamstown v. West Melbourne". North Melbourne Courier and West Melbourne Chronicle. Melbourne. 4 October 1907. p. 3.
^ Old Boy (11 October 1920). "Footscray premiers – success of the unbeatable". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 11.
^ "Miscellaneous Games".
^ "Miscellaneous Games".
^ "Miscellaneous Games".
^ "Miscellaneous Games".
^ First Intercolonial Lacrosse match
^ "Intercolonial Lacrosse Match". The Brisbane Courier. 26 September 1887. p. 7. Retrieved 8 May 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "Lacrosse". The Age. Victoria, Australia. 3 September 1888. p. 6. Retrieved 8 May 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "Flinders Street Yard – why the cricket ground is needed". The Argus. Melbourne. 1 December 1920. p. 14. Retrieved 20 August 2021 – via National Library of Australia.

v t e Australian Football League grounds
Main grounds:	Adelaide Oval The Gabba GIANTS Stadium GMHBA Stadium Heritage Bank Stadium Marvel Stadium Melbourne Cricket Ground Optus Stadium Sydney Cricket Ground
Secondary grounds:	Blundstone Arena Cazalys Stadium Mars Stadium Manuka Oval Norwood Oval TIO Stadium TIO Traeger Park Summit Oval University of Tasmania Stadium
Former grounds:	Albury Oval Arden Street Oval Blacktown ISP Oval Brisbane Exhibition Ground Canberra Stadium Brunswick Street Oval Coburg Oval Corio Oval East Melbourne Cricket Ground Euroa Oval Football Park Glenferrie Oval Jiangwan Stadium (China) Junction Oval Lake Oval Moorabbin Oval Motordrome North Hobart Oval Princes Park Punt Road Oval Riverway Stadium Stadium Australia Subiaco Oval Toorak Park Victoria Park WACA Ground Waverley Park Wellington Regional Stadium (NZ) Whitten Oval Windy Hill Yarraville Oval
Future grounds:	Macquarie Point Stadium
Training grounds:	AAMI Park Alberton Oval Arden Street Oval Austworld Centre Brighton Homes Arena Cockburn ARC Football Park GMHBA Stadium Ikon Park Mineral Resources Park Olympic Park Oval Punt Road Oval RSEA Safety Centre Sydney Cricket Ground The Hangar Victoria University Whitten Oval Waverley Park WestConnex Centre

v t e Essendon Football Club
Nickname: Bombers History Premierships Records Players Captains Coaches Honours Crichton Medal Leading goalkickers AFL coach: Brad Scott AFL captain: Dyson Heppell AFLW coach: Natalie Wood AFLW co-captains: Stephanie Cain & Bonnie Toogood
VFL/AFL home grounds	East Melbourne Cricket Ground (1897–1921) Windy Hill (1922–1991) Melbourne Cricket Ground (1992–) Docklands Stadium (2000–)
VFA premierships (4)	1891 1892 1893 1894
VFL/AFL premierships (16)	1897 1901 1911 1912 1923 1924 1942 1946 1949 1950 1962 1965 1984 1985 1993 2000
Runner-up (14)	1898 1902 1908 1941 1943 1947 1948 1951 1957 1959 1968 1983 1990 2001
VFA/VFL/AFL seasons (144)	1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
AFLW home grounds	North Port Oval (2022 (S7)) Windy Hill (2023–)
AFLW seasons (2)	2022 (S7) 2023
Related articles	Anzac Day match Archer–Hird Medal Carlton rivalry Dreamtime at the 'G The Hangar Line in the Sand Match Round 16, 2001 comeback against North Melbourne Supplements saga
Essendon did not participate in the 1916 and 1917 VFL seasons due to World War I (indicated in grey)

v t e University Football Club
History Players Captains Coaches Honour roll Leading goalkickers
Home grounds	East Melbourne Cricket Ground (1908–1910) Melbourne Cricket Ground (1911–1914)
Premierships	Nil
Seasons (7)	1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914
University Football Club played in the Victorian Football League from 1908–1914

This page was last edited on 6 January 2024, at 23:06

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