- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I was lucky enough to visit the beautiful Adelaide Oval during a one-day cricket international in 2012, before the latest multi-million dollar reconstruction.
The ground was a picture of beauty: full of character, with the Bradman Stand, where the media centre was located, probably in need of an upgrade.
It obviously received one as part of the new refurbishment to increase the size of the ground to cater for 55,000 people so AFL footy could be played there.
The Adelaide Oval now looks amazing and although there were critics worried that what makes this ground so special and unique may be taken away by progress, it still maintains that uniqueness.
The historical scoreboard, the trees and the grassy area at the northern end have all been retained, because they are heritage listed. It was tremendous seeing that famous grassy backdrop when either Adelaide or Port were kicking goals at that end.
For many years, local cricket and footy officials were at each other’s throats about which sport was more important to the ground, with the late Sir Donald Bradman seen as a major stumbling block to making the ground friendlier to Australian Rules.
This is why the South Australian National Football League decided to find their own venue, Football Park at Westlakes in the suburbs, which for many years was more than suitable as a home of elite footy in Adelaide. But in recent seasons, you could tell it was getting tired and run down.
Refurbishment won’t happen now, as the AFL has got their wish of holding matches at their new jewel in the crown, the Adelaide Oval. It’s the best outcome possible, with leading football and cricket administrators in South Australia all driving the same agenda, which would have been seen as impossible just five years ago.
Port Adelaide had been in favour for many years of hosting matches at Adelaide Oval, and in the Showdown on the weekend, played like they had been calling it home for years.
They wanted to put on a good show against the cross-town rivals and that’s exactly what happened.
They got off to the customary Ken Hinkley good start, got headed by Adelaide in the middle quarters and then ran all over them in the last term to show they mean business again in 2014 and that winning a final last year, after rising from 14th in 2012, wasn’t a flash in the pan.
Granted, there’s still a long way to go in this season, but Port is looking the goods, with virtually a full list to choose from, a luxury that Adelaide most certainly doesn’t have.
It seems now that Port has the number one ranking of the two AFL teams purely on performance. Go back 18 months and they were a poor, distant relation of the Crows and basically irrelevant.
Less than a decade ago, the Adelaide Oval was in the same boat when it came to having a presence in the AFL. Now it would have to rank second only to the MCG in AFL venues.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.