Arden Street

[Marstermind]

This has probably been done before so sorry if it has. It's really a thread for the oldies. I only ever went to one game at Arden Street - Round 1, 1983 against St.Kilda. We won, but not by much, and David Dench got reported for the only time in his career for striking Jacko! (I think he got off)

What are your memories of going to games at Arden Street? The sites, smells, sounds, atmosphere. Do you remember any characters on or off the field? What "personality" did the North crowd have? What were the facilities like? Ground/weather/wind conditions (generally)? What was yours or your family's routine on Saturdays? Did you catch the train/bus? Park somewhere and walk? Any tips for the best place to sit or stand? What was supporting North like in those days? What do you miss? What is better off in the past?

I don't remember much of my one day - we took a red rattler to North Melbourne station and had a seat/wooden bench on the HFF flank. That's about it.

 

[Deleted member 98541]

Some kid just jumped 85cm's man. From a standing start! Arden st talk? Now? sheet, I'm off to see if I can find a stat for his wingspan.

 

[Marstermind]

Some kid just jumped 85cm's man. From a standing start! Arden st talk? Now? sheet, I'm off to see if I can find a stat for his wingspan.

It has always boggled me that people will reply to threads saying how the thread isn't worth replying to...but they still reply to it. OK then fine. Let's all talk about what you're talking about. What ARE you talking about??? Something on Foxtel at the combine? Fine, piss off and watch that.

 

[Deleted member 98541]

85cm I tells ya!



Chill, my post was a p-take on the fact that if it's not draft or trade relevant then your going to struggle. No disrespect intended.

I also feel that people will be reluctant to put in the effor of tripping down memory lane, when the topic has been discussed numerous times before.


But I'm only one poster, who never watched a game at Arden st btw.


However, if the OP focussed on PRE season, zoning and list management in the glory days then I reckon we just might have a winner. I wonder if there was a TradeweekWireless App back then?

 

[Mr Reliable]

This has probably been done before so sorry if it has. It's really a thread for the oldies. I only ever went to one game at Arden Street - Round 1, 1983 against St.Kilda. We won, but not by much, and David Dench got reported for the only time in his career for striking Jacko! (I think he got off)

What are your memories of going to games at Arden Street? The sites, smells, sounds, atmosphere. Do you remember any characters on or off the field? What "personality" did the North crowd have? What were the facilities like? Ground/weather/wind conditions (generally)? What was yours or your family's routine on Saturdays? Did you catch the train/bus? Park somewhere and walk? Any tips for the best place to sit or stand? What was supporting North like in those days? What do you miss? What is better off in the past?

I don't remember much of my one day - we took a red rattler to North Melbourne station and had a seat/wooden bench on the HFF flank. That's about it.

They were the good old days. No, the great days. I used to stand with my mates from the local Commission flats on the slope between the grandstand and the cream brick press box on the half forward flank. At the end of the game we'd make plans to meet up the following week at Moorabbin or Windy Hill, or wherever we were playing. We all knew each other by first names only. That was enough - we were footy mates. We didn't exchange Christmas cards or birthday greetings or visit each other''s houses.

We'd watch the game and have a few VBs and cigarettes and barrack like hell. Where we stood the crowd was about 80% pro-North. It used to get pretty rowdy but no fighting.

Mostly the windy days featured a howling gale blowing from the north - i.e. from the social club end to the swimming pool end. Glendinning would play down the Arden St end in the action all game.On still days a smoke haze would hang over the ground from 3/4 time on as a night descended it would be hard for us to see up the social club end.

Saw John Newman play a great game there at centre half forward. Michael Turner too playing chf on Rosco Glendinning and giving him the runaround. Phil Kelly would do the same thing against Carlton playing on Val Perovic. Saw Daicos kick 5 or 6 goals on Doug Smith in one quarter - the third I think. When we played Essendon with Salmon on fire our coach (Cable?) played big Bill Berry (a battling ruckman) on him. Best game of senior footy Berry ever played. He was out of the side and IIRC out of the club by the end of the season.

Was there when the elephant ran amok, when the hot dog stand caught on fire and when the grandstand filled with smoke from a parachutist's flares and had to be evacuated. Saw the Krakouers play their first game there. Saw Francis Bourke bleeding like a pig go to the forward line and kick a bag of goals. Saw all the great or good North players of the 70s and early 80s - the likes of Greig, Schimma, Blight, Crosswell, Nolan, Byrne, Burns, Tanner, Icke, Gumbleton, Dench, Crazy Horse Cowton, Briedis, Cassin, Montgomery, Baker, Melrose, Cable, Hodgman, Kelly, Ebert, Bryant, Jonas, Carman, Dempsey and Henshaw. It was really nice to have star recruits like Rantall, Davis, Wade and Alves but they weren't true North people. Well Alves hung around for a while .

The place was always pumping on match days. The conditions were probably appalling but we didn't notice or care one bit. We were standing, drinking, smoking and cheering our heroes. We didn't have kids or elderly parents looking for seats. We weren't looking for a seat at a corporate function. We weren't entertaining clients. We must have got rained on occasionally but try as I might I just don't recall it. Maybe we had umbrellas.

I used to drive to near the fire station, park the car and go into the Black Prince and have a couple of pots to settle the nerves before walking to the ground. All of five minutes walk.

When we announced our move to the MCG it was between seasons or that's how I remember it and I lost touch with all my footy mates. I would have happily stayed at Arden St but that's progress I suppose.

The closest modern event that I could liken to a day at Arden St would be the ABC coverage of the VFL from Port Melbourne. Imagine that with a crowd of say 15,000 instead of 3,000.

 

[Envelopes]

Never got to go wish I had.

 

[Mr Reliable]

It has always boggled me that people will reply to threads saying how the thread isn't worth replying to...but they still reply to it. OK then fine. Let's all talk about what you're talking about. What ARE you talking about??? Something on Foxtel at the combine? Fine, piss off and watch that.

Don't sweat it, MM. This sort of thread's been done before but what's wrong with reflecting on the past from time to time? Different things come up - some interesting to others, some not. We're not writing a novel. We're spending 5 minutes talking about the club and its history. If people don't want to contribute or read other contributions that's fine too.

 

[The Butcher]

Mr Reliable, my 30'th is rushing at me and you make me wish I was older

 

[jacko57]

Dad used to take me and my brother, starting in the late 60s (68? 69?)

Dad would park inside the front gate of the cement works (Albion?), no one ever challenged him.

We'd stand on the terrace near the press box. Dad would go into the past players room at 1/2 time 'for a couple of sherbets'. He only played reserves at North before playing VFA with Yarraville, but liked keeping in touch from the blokes he knew from those days (late 40s/early 50s). Our treat was a few jam donuts (with bloody scalding hot jam inside them) from the van parked outside in Arden St, either at 1/2 time or after the game.

Fast forward to 73, Mum decided she might as well come to the game on a Saturday, so Dad got us reserved seats in the grandstand, right up the back. The stand was packed every week, and the fans were passionate, and one-eyed. We saw the team charge up the ladder, win a couple of flags, and play some great footy along the way.

By then, I was ok to have a beer or 2 at the game myself, even if they were Courage! And Dad still parked at the cement works every game.

 

[GarnerSmash]

I'm sad I never got to see a game at Arden Street. Kinda feel like I have missed out on a vital something of being a North person.

Oh well, I never even heard of North until '87.

 

[MaddAdam]

Going down there utterly shitfaced at 5AM for kicks of the footy when I was 18 and living just up the road.

 

[utility]

Meeting Jimmy Krakouer in the race and shaking his hand... don't remember much else!

 

[Groucho]

Great recollections there MrR. I think I was at most of those games you mentioned. The smells,oh the smells. I would say that,approaching Arden Street from the train station, there was an overwhelming and quite delicious aroma that, as far as I could tell, was a combination of a variety of take away foods, cigarette smoke and urine. Somehow they all combined into one brilliant feeling that said "I'm going to the footy!!". Loved that walk to the ground almost as much as the game.

 

[numchuks]

Never got to go wish I had.

This. Times a million.

I live in blind hope that one day Hardon Street will be redone for us to play games there. Modern footy sucks without clubs having their own grounds to play at.

Hardon Street is actually one of the oldest footy/cricket grounds in Melbourne. Have often thought of writing a book on it's rich history including interviews with those who played and watched matches there. Unfortunately as times passes alot of those great stories from the heady early days at Hardon Street, where there was riots & fights are being lost as the older generations move on.

 

[chrissy]

I was born in 1975 and come from a family full of North supporters , every year I used to wear the number of the age I was at the time on my back .
No doubt by the end of the game my old man should not of been driving us home but it was a very different time back then , and it was the only time my old man swore . It was the same thing every week I'd make roads on the ground in the gravel on the steps ( I can't really remember what part of the ground it was ) but I remember clear as day walking to the entrance and through the turnstiles and was really sad when it was pulled down .
I can remember every week my old man yelling abuse at Steve McCann " do something McCann you weak pr# ck"
Those were great days , 32 years later I'm 37 and my old man is 66 and we still always talk about North , I tell him how good Patch , Atley , Spitta are and he tells be " there no Greg , Cable , Blight "

" give em time you old bastard , give em time "

 

[scroo]

One of my favourite memories of the Arden St days was an occasion when I got there early enough to get a seat in the old wooden seating near the player's race. Naturally there were virtually all North supporters there, but one particularly horrible Collingwood supporter had somehow inserted himself into the area, and he was seated a couple of rows in front of me. He continued with a barrage of anti-north remarks, until an old lady sitting just behind him had had enough, and she used her umbrella to give him a mighty blow to the head! There was much blood, and a lot of laughter. The St John Ambulance people took the Magpie fan away for treatment, and the police (massively booed) took the old lady away, presumably to charge her with assault. If I remember correctly, we won the game.

 

[sutcliffe's hotel]

I was there when the elephant ran amok - you can see me in one of the photos sitting on the fence with my Collingwood supporting brother blissfully unaware of the potential danger. Remember wandering down there with my duffel coat full of badges & sitting with the cheer squad & roaring myself hoarse. Remember the smell of the abattoir as you walked down from North Melbourne station.

Favourite memories would be the ground announcer stating we had finished on top of the ladder after beating Melbourne in 1983, ending a woeful run of losses by thrashing Hawthorn in 1984 & watching the old stand rock with the faithful in full voice & winning our last game there against Richmond on a rainy day & watching some diehards crack open champagne bottles to say fare thee well.

I also recall the banner that day: No Matter How Far or Wide We Roam We Will Always Call Arden St Home. Funny thing is that for all our wanderings interstate we still do.

 

[MaddAdam]

Phil Krakouer running at a pack full pelt and the ball spilling out and bouncing awkwardly and Phil sticking out a hand and the ball just staying, one big wide turning step around an opposition player, another to balance and handballing over the pack to Jimmy who took off goalside to kick a wobbling but deadly straight goal at the Kensington end.

 

[MaddAdam]

I also remember (vaguely) a rave held there on Christmas time in 94/95. Shitfaced.

 

[muttley45]

used to go to every game and jump the blue wooden gate/fence next to the nth melbourne baths,never got caught in over 5-6 years

 

[Hard_to_Beat]

Keith Greig gliding along the gasometer wing is forever etched in my memory.

I will die holding that image.

 

[One Eyed Roo]

There can never be a wrong time or to many threads like this. Absolutely love reading these memories. Very jealous of those that go to experience first hand who the NMFC is.

 

[MaddAdam]

used to go to every game and jump the blue wooden gate/fence next to the nth melbourne baths,never got caught in over 5-6 years

This explains our financial predicament.

 

[MaddAdam]

Going down there with a mate to see his older brother try out for the under 19s in the late 80s. Mate's older brother getting told to piss off by Pagan very quickly.

Now realising that with the quality of the team assembled in that lot, mate;s older brother should have gone to Richmond where he would have been a 200 game player.

 

[Hard_to_Beat]

The highest score ever registered at Arden Street

North Melbourne 29-19-193 defeated Carlton 11-16-82



The last ever game at Arden Street v Richmond (17-10-1985)