- Jul 9, 2010
- 24,163
- 26,536
- AFL Club
- Fremantle
Freo play their final game at the ground and next weekend the Eagles will probably close out its AFL tenure. After that, there's just the WAFL Grand Final and then the International Rules and its future after that is ambiguous.
There hasn't been much fanfare for this, which is strange, because the end of a ground is a big deal in other sports. I understand there is a direct link to one club and usually that ground has been the only place that team's been at.
The ground opened in 1908 and its future is ambiguous, which may be the main cause for many stadiums not having a sense of finality with their last matches. Plenty of arenas sit empty or decaying for ages and it'll probably happen with Subi as well. There are plans to retain the heritage gates and utilise the parkland either side of the ends, with a school at the city end and a couple of blocks of stands retained with an oval for WAFL footy in the middle.
Australians are very excited to move on and upward, which is understandable, and when you're looking at AAMI Stadium to Adelaide Oval or Subi to Perth Stadium, there really isn't a huge amount to decry. But these venues have been venues for memories and occasions, big and small, obvious and not so. Players and fans, games and wins and losses and whatever else. There's been some cracking games of WAFL, including the 1979 Grand Final between South Fremantle and East Fremantle... seesawing, high scoring, a few jumper punches, some of the best players in footy history all on the same ground... State of Origin, concerts, Eagles and Dockers' entire histories revolving around it, and of course this:
An appalling decision of disregard and plain old nastiness, this one. Freo were nothing but noble and it's a proud moment that a fledging club were happy to move this match to Melbourne. Instead the club paid for singers and old club greats to come over. With Subi going, another last little tether of Fitzroy in the AFL quietly slips off.
For many people, West Aussies, Subiaco is where most people had their formative experiences with something that would be with them for life – the thing guiding them on weekends, in small talk, making new mates in pubs, maybe even the start of their own AFL careers.
For me, it is ingrained as a bit of a ritual. I would go with my dad and we'd get the train up from Fremantle Station, do the same thing most game days, get there early and see the boys walk around in their bare feet getting a feel for the oval, cringe at them pulling the anchor out, inevitably not hear the club song at the end of it, then going to Subiaco station where the first train to go past was busy, the next one was packed, and the other two were out of service. After 45 minutes you'd get back on and get off at Fremantle, have some tea, and go home.
When I was a student I'd get the bus there and would sit in a different part of the ground every weekend Freo played. The pavement was always damp and dank and your feet would freeze, then the late winter orange would come out and you got that classic Sunday feeling of twilight and inevitable dread... wait I was a student so I was probably just hungover as * and had the horrors and not dreading another week of work... Sitting in a few different areas, the old three tier stand is probably one of the worst things you could watch professional sport in is my take away from it all, and yet a majority of my memories are from there. It took about 20 minutes to walk up because the stairwell was so thin and yet it was the biggest stand. No idea how it passed OH&S but they got through it I guess...
My favourite game there was probably the only derby I got to see, back in 2012. Pav kicked more goals than the entire Eagles side. Absolute clinic. That win gave us some real momentum and it was the start of a good couple of years for the club, where it felt we were on the brink and actually going to finally do something. I remember he kicked a goal in just about every way... one off the left, one off the ground, one from the pocket... we were right behind the goals where it seemed basically all of them went through as well. From memory, Sonny Walters played a good one too.
When I was a kid, I'd be amazed by the girls walking around in purple jumpers and it was the train rides and lines for microwave-heated chicken rolls where I first had my encounters of momentary crushes. I probably liked my first few girls while en route to Freo games.
Now a lot of the places we went to are closing down and the suburb is preparing to cater to its local people and not the weekend crowd of bad club polos, bootleg jeans, and pointy dress shoes.
It would be nice to see it well converted and utilised for local sport and the odd WAFL game, and there's probably a basic shell of a nice low key ground there.
What do you remember about Subi?
There hasn't been much fanfare for this, which is strange, because the end of a ground is a big deal in other sports. I understand there is a direct link to one club and usually that ground has been the only place that team's been at.
The ground opened in 1908 and its future is ambiguous, which may be the main cause for many stadiums not having a sense of finality with their last matches. Plenty of arenas sit empty or decaying for ages and it'll probably happen with Subi as well. There are plans to retain the heritage gates and utilise the parkland either side of the ends, with a school at the city end and a couple of blocks of stands retained with an oval for WAFL footy in the middle.
Australians are very excited to move on and upward, which is understandable, and when you're looking at AAMI Stadium to Adelaide Oval or Subi to Perth Stadium, there really isn't a huge amount to decry. But these venues have been venues for memories and occasions, big and small, obvious and not so. Players and fans, games and wins and losses and whatever else. There's been some cracking games of WAFL, including the 1979 Grand Final between South Fremantle and East Fremantle... seesawing, high scoring, a few jumper punches, some of the best players in footy history all on the same ground... State of Origin, concerts, Eagles and Dockers' entire histories revolving around it, and of course this:
An appalling decision of disregard and plain old nastiness, this one. Freo were nothing but noble and it's a proud moment that a fledging club were happy to move this match to Melbourne. Instead the club paid for singers and old club greats to come over. With Subi going, another last little tether of Fitzroy in the AFL quietly slips off.
For many people, West Aussies, Subiaco is where most people had their formative experiences with something that would be with them for life – the thing guiding them on weekends, in small talk, making new mates in pubs, maybe even the start of their own AFL careers.
For me, it is ingrained as a bit of a ritual. I would go with my dad and we'd get the train up from Fremantle Station, do the same thing most game days, get there early and see the boys walk around in their bare feet getting a feel for the oval, cringe at them pulling the anchor out, inevitably not hear the club song at the end of it, then going to Subiaco station where the first train to go past was busy, the next one was packed, and the other two were out of service. After 45 minutes you'd get back on and get off at Fremantle, have some tea, and go home.
When I was a student I'd get the bus there and would sit in a different part of the ground every weekend Freo played. The pavement was always damp and dank and your feet would freeze, then the late winter orange would come out and you got that classic Sunday feeling of twilight and inevitable dread... wait I was a student so I was probably just hungover as * and had the horrors and not dreading another week of work... Sitting in a few different areas, the old three tier stand is probably one of the worst things you could watch professional sport in is my take away from it all, and yet a majority of my memories are from there. It took about 20 minutes to walk up because the stairwell was so thin and yet it was the biggest stand. No idea how it passed OH&S but they got through it I guess...
My favourite game there was probably the only derby I got to see, back in 2012. Pav kicked more goals than the entire Eagles side. Absolute clinic. That win gave us some real momentum and it was the start of a good couple of years for the club, where it felt we were on the brink and actually going to finally do something. I remember he kicked a goal in just about every way... one off the left, one off the ground, one from the pocket... we were right behind the goals where it seemed basically all of them went through as well. From memory, Sonny Walters played a good one too.
When I was a kid, I'd be amazed by the girls walking around in purple jumpers and it was the train rides and lines for microwave-heated chicken rolls where I first had my encounters of momentary crushes. I probably liked my first few girls while en route to Freo games.
Now a lot of the places we went to are closing down and the suburb is preparing to cater to its local people and not the weekend crowd of bad club polos, bootleg jeans, and pointy dress shoes.
It would be nice to see it well converted and utilised for local sport and the odd WAFL game, and there's probably a basic shell of a nice low key ground there.
What do you remember about Subi?
That you're closing it down just after we finally learnt to win there.
