The AFLW first-round match between Essendon and Hawthorn has been moved to the 53,359-capacity Docklands stadium due to a massive demand for tickets.
Key points:
The match was to be held at the North Port Oval
The venue switch was made after the initial ticket allocation was exhausted
Essendon and Hawthorn are both making their AFLW debuts this season
The historic match between the two AFLW newcomers — to be played on August 27 — was to be held at the 12,000-capacity North Port Oval in Melbourne, but the initial allocation of tickets sold out within 24 hours.
AFL general manager of women’s football Nicole Livingstone said the venue relocation was an indication of the increasing interest in AFLW.
“We’re in an incredible place coming into our seventh season and I couldn’t be prouder of every single person who got us here,” she said.
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AFL executive member Travis Auld said the demand for tickets was “unprecedented.”
“Quite simply the fans of both clubs, and supporters of women’s footy in general showed why we needed to move to a bigger venue by selling out the game so quickly,” he said.
“Two proud clubs, a historic occasion for them and another historic moment for the AFLW competition.”
Port Adelaide and Sydney join Essendon and Hawthorn as the new AFLW teams, meaning the competition will feature all 18 AFL clubs.
The AFLW season begins on August 25, with Carlton hosting Collingwood at Princes Park.
Adelaide and Melbourne meet in a grand final rematch the following evening at Norwood Oval.
It is a region known for producing dual Brownlow Medalist Nat Fyfe, but the small community of Lake Grace-Pingrup has produced six AFL players from a combined population of fewer than 1,000 people.
Key points:
Lake Grace-Pingrup Football Club celebrates 100 years this weekend
The club has produced AFL players such as Nat Fyfe, Mark Bairstow and Liam Baker
Fyfe says the club was key in his development as a player and person
Lake-Grace Pingrup Football Club is known as the Bombers in the Ongerup Football Association – one of WA’s smallest leagues with just four senior sides.
The club marks 100 years on Saturday, a feat not many country football clubs have managed as an exodus of players and people leave many in decline.
But in Western Australia’s Great Southern grain belt, the club remains the heart of the community.
Nat Fyfe credits Lake Grace-Pingrup Football Club for molding him to succeed in the AFL.(AAP Image: Richard Wainwright)
Fremantle Dockers captain Fyfe, one of this century’s most decorated AFL players, still visits the club he says was integral to his development as a player and person, when he returns home.
“You never forget where you come from,” he told ABC Great Southern.
“It’s unbelievable for the town, there’s some real history there… to get to 100 years and hopefully 100 ahead of us, is a great milestone for the community.”
The club was where Fyfe learned the football nous that has led to more than 200 AFL games and winning the league’s most prestigious medal twice.
Among the AFL players to come from Lake Grace-Pingrup are Richmond premiership player Liam Baker, Geelong legend Mark Bairstow and the three Moreton brothers, Cale, Jarryd and Mitch.
Richmond’s Liam Baker, left, hails from Lake Grace-Pingrup.(AAP: Sam Wundke)
Fyfe said he started playing for the club around year 4, when the club’s D-grade side won four premierships in a row.
“That was my grounding roots in footy… we went out, played and won,” he said.
“We had families like the Bairstows, Moretons and Slarkes; they were teaching us how to train, play and win games of footy and get together and enjoy afterwards as a team and community.
“That was my introduction to men’s footy and that taught me a lot of the craft to then go on and play AFL.”
Just 11 years after Lake Grace was settled by European pioneers a football club was established.
Lake Grace-Pingrup football club historian Bill Trevenen.(ABC Great Southern: Olivia Di Iorio)
Self-proclaimed football historian Bill Trevenen specializes in Lake Grace-Pingrup football and spent half his life in the library going through newspaper records of the club dating back to 1922.
“I profiled all the players [over the years] and it’s about 800 of them,” he said.
Mr Trevenen said regional football is extremely important to small communities across Australia.
“I think it’s the reason people get together on the weekend,” he said.
“In towns where football clubs have disbanded, those communities do struggle because there isn’t something that everyone comes to.”
Shane Carruthers says volunteers are the lifeblood of the club.(ABC Great Southern: Olivia Di Iorio)
Club president Shane Carruthers said the club continues to flourish.
“Sporting clubs are the very social fabric of country towns — it gives people an outlet on sport days to catch up with people they haven’t seen for a little while or a long while and it’s extremely important,” he said.
