The decision that created our home ground.

[newcs]

Round 18 2004.
Geelong were being pressured to relocate their home game from KP to Docklands. They AFL & St Kilda whinged how 20,000 would miss out on attending, they waived a six figure cheque in front of the club.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/geelong-refuse-to-move.114043/

Fortunately Costa, Cook & Co stood firm and refused to move. I believe this was the biggest history making decision of the club.
Had we moved the game it would have set a bad precedent. The ground would not have been redeveloped like it has been, all the big games would have simply been relocated.
We would still have things like -
- Past players watching the game from a wooden box in the forward pocket.
- A stray kick on the outer wing ending up in Moorabool St.
- Cheapskates watching the game by climbing nearby pine trees.

A great decision by the club which is still bearing fruit 13 years later.

 

[Turbocat]

Round 18 2004.
Geelong were being pressured to relocate their home game from KP to Docklands. They AFL & St Kilda whinged how 20,000 would miss out on attending, they waived a six figure cheque in front of the club.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/geelong-refuse-to-move.114043/

Fortunately Costa, Cook & Co stood firm and refused to move. I believe this was the biggest history making decision of the club.
Had we moved the game it would have set a bad precedent. The ground would not have been redeveloped like it has been, all the big games would have simply been relocated.
We would still have things like -
- Past players watching the game from a wooden box in the forward pocket.
- A stray kick on the outer wing ending up in Moorabool St.
- Cheapskates watching the game by climbing nearby pine trees.

A great decision by the club which is still bearing fruit 13 years later.

Im not sure this is the full story...

If you go back to when the Docklands first opened and it was called Colonial... the club intended to move there, the deals on paper looked good. From memory..they played 4 home games there in 2000. But surprise , surprise ... Cook quickly realised that the money was well short of what was foretold.
and he put quickly put into reverse. The money we could make at home had far more potential and from then on Cook was working on and towards what we have today.

 

[Brains Trust66]

How many people does your ground hold now? Looks impressive from what I saw on the TV . I wish we could have upgraded Moorabbin all those years ago too but we were always broke . It would have been great for you to have your ground and we had ours too. Would have made it so much harder for those interstate sides that come over . But wasn't to be .


Sent via HAL

 

[CatsDoItBetter]

Brian Cook has been the most important person at the Geelong Football Club for over 50 years. He has completly transformed the club into a powerful club of the competition. Other people have played huge roles but Cook was involved in some way with all of them. I'm not generally one to heap all the praise on CEOs but Cook deserves all the praise he gets. Whenever the time comes that he moves on he will be greatly missed.

 

[Seeds]

Round 18 2004.
Geelong were being pressured to relocate their home game from KP to Docklands. They AFL & St Kilda whinged how 20,000 would miss out on attending, they waived a six figure cheque in front of the club.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/geelong-refuse-to-move.114043/

Fortunately Costa, Cook & Co stood firm and refused to move. I believe this was the biggest history making decision of the club.
Had we moved the game it would have set a bad precedent. The ground would not have been redeveloped like it has been, all the big games would have simply been relocated.
We would still have things like -
- Past players watching the game from a wooden box in the forward pocket.
- A stray kick on the outer wing ending up in Moorabool St.
- Cheapskates watching the game by climbing nearby pine trees.

A great decision by the club which is still bearing fruit 13 years later.

Did a stray kick on the outer wing ever end up in Moorabool street? I find this hard to believe.

 

[Tyzza_07_09_11]

Did a stray kick on the outer wing ever end up in Moorabool street? I find this hard to believe.

there was 20m between the edge of the ground and moorabool street.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Round 18 2004.
Geelong were being pressured to relocate their home game from KP to Docklands. They AFL & St Kilda whinged how 20,000 would miss out on attending, they waived a six figure cheque in front of the club.

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/geelong-refuse-to-move.114043/

Fortunately Costa, Cook & Co stood firm and refused to move. I believe this was the biggest history making decision of the club.
Had we moved the game it would have set a bad precedent. The ground would not have been redeveloped like it has been, all the big games would have simply been relocated.
We would still have things like -
- Past players watching the game from a wooden box in the forward pocket.
- A stray kick on the outer wing ending up in Moorabool St.
- Cheapskates watching the game by climbing nearby pine trees.

A great decision by the club which is still bearing fruit 13 years later.

The club had already been approved to build the new grandstand on the Moorabool st wing before that Stkilda game.
It was actually a few years before that we were pressured to move to Docklands full time after we nearly had to move a game because of safety decisions.
Instead of moving big games now we just don't get them. The capacity of the ground was actually a lot bigger before the new developments.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Did a stray kick on the outer wing ever end up in Moorabool street? I find this hard to believe.

I never ever saw it happen. Quite a few used to go over the old Hickey into the pool though.

 

[Spazz Cat]

How many people does your ground hold now? Looks impressive from what I saw on the TV . I wish we could have upgraded Moorabbin all those years ago too but we were always broke . It would have been great for you to have your ground and we had ours too. Would have made it so much harder for those interstate sides that come over . But wasn't to be .


Sent via HAL

I wish the afl just kept Waverly. I thought it was a great setup having yous and Hawthorn share it. Massive population there and I actually used to really like going there, except if it was pissing down.

 

[Seeds]

View attachment 373658

there was 20m between the edge of the ground and moorabool street.

Yes but it was also on a hill with high fences up the top of that hilll. You would have to deliberately try to kick it out to make it.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Yes but it was also on a hill with high fences up the top of that hilll. You would have to deliberately try to kick it out to make it.

It's my strong recollection that there was a drop behind the slope, with the boundary fences (and entrances) at street level, as at most league "outers".
But it still would have needed a very, very wild kick, unless it took a peculiar bounce; or had assistance from some exuberant barrackers.

 

[frggr]

Did a stray kick on the outer wing ever end up in Moorabool street? I find this hard to believe.

They used to bomb over the 'ablett terrace' and end up in the men's toilets occasionally (no roof back then)

 

[Seeds]

They used to bomb over the 'ablett terrace' and end up in the men's toilets occasionally (no roof back then)

I can believe that as goals were down that end.

 

[Tony Barber]

Did a stray kick on the outer wing ever end up in Moorabool street? I find this hard to believe.

I can never remember a ball going over the fence and I sat on that wing for 12 years straight.

 

[Tony Barber]

I never ever saw it happen. Quite a few used to go over the old Hickey into the pool though.

I used to sell pies there for a while and had to restock at the back of the hickey stand. The amount of kids that used to wait for a ball to come over and just take off with it was funny to watch.

 

[Tony Barber]

It's my strong recollection that there was a drop behind the slope, with the boundary fences (and entrances) at street level, as at most league "outers".
But it still would have needed a very, very wild kick, unless it took a peculiar bounce; or had assistance from some exuberant barrackers.

You must go back way before me Fred. There was no slope and fence at ground level when I went. The only slope was at the city end.

 

[FredLeDeux]

You must go back way before me Fred. There was no slope and fence at ground level when I went. The only slope was at the city end.

I'm talking about the 50s and 60s. The whole "Outer" along the Moorabool St boundary was sloped, and consisted of soil, terraced with concrete (maybe timber?) kerbs. It was all standing area except for one row of seats along the fence. There was a gap at the City end of Moorabool Street with entrances and an entry slope up to the viewing area, and on the other side of that area there was the even steeper slope behind the goals. In the Outer, there was a drop at the top of the slope, down to the street-level fence. There were long dunnies in part of that lower area, but for most of its length there was simply a steep drop to the fence along the street.

 

[AndyMac05]

While we are reminiscing, there was nothing better than finishing my junior footy in the morning then racing to Kardina Park without having showered or getting changed from my playing clothes into my cats clothes and meeting friends who had driven from Melbourne at 5am to be at the front of the queue for when the gates opened at 11. Then the sprint to the seats, which back then were only the three rows of benches around the moorable street side. Then spreading out the scarves and jackets to ensure the regulars got to keep their usual seats. I'll always remember the arguments with the guys in charged of opening the gates if you saw a heard of people running towards seats from where the Ford stand now is and not being allowed in because it was only 10.59! Then we actually got to watch a reserves game for a couple of hours! That was what going to the footy was all about!

 

[winty]

I never ever saw it happen. Quite a few used to go over the old Hickey into the pool though.

Apparently the great Richard Hadlee carted a six straight down the ground over the Hickey Stand once playing for a touring New Zealand side against a Victorian XI back in the 80's too.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Apparently the great Richard Hadlee carted a six straight down the ground over the Hickey Stand once playing for a touring New Zealand side against a Victorian XI back in the 80's too.

Wow. That's a long boundary too. Wouldn't of been to dissimilar to the old Adelaide oval.
That's a massive hit.