Punt Road Oval is a sporting ground located in
Yarra ParkYarra Park is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct - the premier sporting precinct of Victoria, Australia. Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground and numerous sporting fields and ovals, including the associated sporting complexes of Melbourne & Olympic Parks...
,
East Melbourne, VictoriaEast Melbourne is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, adjacent to Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2006 Census, East Melbourne had a population of 4,330....
situated only a few hundred metres to the east of the famous
Melbourne Cricket GroundThe Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
.
Punt Road Oval is historically notable as a former venue of the
Victorian Football LeagueThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
(now Australian Football League) with 544 official VFL/AFL matches played there between 1908 and 1964 and as the headquarters and former home ground of the
Richmond Football ClubThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
.
History
In October 1855 an application was made for the
Richmond Cricket ClubThis article concerns the Richmond club in Australia. For the English club of the same name, see Richmond Cricket Club, SurreyThe Richmond Cricket Club is an Australian cricket club based in Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria....
to play matches on the
RichmondRichmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...
paddock next to the site occupied by the prestigious
Melbourne Cricket ClubThe Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....
. The first documented
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
match on the oval was played on December 27, 1856.
It was used as the home ground by the
Richmond Football ClubThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
in the Victorian Football Association from 1885 to 1907 then in the
Victorian Football LeagueThe Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
from 1908 to 1964. It was also used by the
Melbourne Football ClubThe Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
during and immediately after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when the MCG became a military base. Not until late 1946 were Melbourne able to play the MCG again. Owing to the arrangement of the draw for 1942,
South MelbourneThe Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
played one home game there against
HawthornThe Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
when Richmond had the bye.
The TigersThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
, under the stewardship of Club President
Ray DunnRaymond Hudson Dunn was a noted lawyer and football administrator with VFL club Richmond. Ray Dunn was one of the towering figures at Richmond who laid the foundations for the club's greatest era of success...
, negotiated to move their home games to the
MCGThe Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
and, on August 22, 1964, the last senior VFL game was played at Punt Road when
RichmondThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
played host to
HawthornThe Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...
.
In November 1999 it hosted a Mercantile Mutual Cup match between Victoria and Canberra
Ground records - VFL
- Most Goals (Individual) in a Match: 14 by Doug Strang
Doug Strang was an Australian rules footballer who played in the VFL between 1931 and 1935 for the Richmond Football Club.Whilst several injuries restricted his VFL career to just 64 games...
(Richmond vs North MelbourneThe North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
Round 2, 1931)
- Highest Score: Richmond 30.19 (199) (vs North Melbourne
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
Round 2, 1931)
- Lowest Score: St Kilda
The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed The Saints, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club plays in the Australian Football League, the sport's premier league....
1.10 (16) (vs Richmond 1910)
- Greatest Winning Margin: 168 points (Richmond vs North Melbourne Round 2, 1931)
- Drawn Matches: 6
- Record attendance: 46,000 (Richmond vs Carlton, 1949
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1949.-Premiership season:In 1949, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man...
)
Today
The ground is still used for training by the
Richmond Football ClubThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
and it remains the club's administrative headquarters. A statue of Tigers legend
Jack DyerJohn Raymond Dyer Sr. OAM , always known as Jack Dyer, was one of the colossal figures of Australian rules football during two distinct careers, firstly as a player and coach of the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1931 and 1952, and later in the broadcast media for...
is outside the ground. A $20 million redevelopment is underway to provide a modern state-of-the-art facility for the Richmond football club. The redevelopment is under the management of Buxton Construction.
It has remained as the home ground for the
Richmond Cricket ClubThis article concerns the Richmond club in Australia. For the English club of the same name, see Richmond Cricket Club, SurreyThe Richmond Cricket Club is an Australian cricket club based in Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria....
from 1856 to the end of the 2010/2011 season. The Richmond cricket club has moved from Punt Road after being the longest-serving survivors in cricket to keep their ground from the AFL sides. They now play in Mount Waverly. When completed in 2012 the redeveloped sports facilities at Punt Road will accommodate a range of business and community sports organisations, including
Klim Swim, the
VRI Fencing ClubVRI Fencing Club located in Richmond, Victoria is an Australian fencing club distinguished as being one of few sports clubs in any sport to have produced athletes for every Olympiad since 1956....
and the Indigenous Youth Education Centre.
External links