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Waverley Memories

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Hawks88bestever

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Aaah VFL Park/Waverley - those were the days.

I loved Waverley, maybe because I used to live near there. My favourite memory is the day Jason kicked 17. My old man predicted before the match that he would snag 20. Not far off the mark.

Also the 2nd semi 1991 when we beat Geelong by 2 points. Fantastic game.
 
I can't remember what year it was, late 90's some time...before the match they rolled out the Village People (yes, the Village People) and attempted to break the record for the biggest crowd doing the YMCA dance. There would have been less than half the crowd participating and they still claimed the record. Russell Morris was the MC for some reason. Very, very lame!
 

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Hawks88bestever said:
Aaah VFL Park/Waverley - those were the days.

I loved Waverley, maybe because I used to live near there. My favourite memory is the day Jason kicked 17. My old man predicted before the match that he would snag 20. Not far off the mark.
Click to expand...

I was there. JD had a great run with the umpires that day :D
 
flukeyluke said:
I was there. JD had a great run with the umpires that day :D
Click to expand...

So he should have as well...he was crucified for the majority of his career by guys like Silvagni & Kelly holding him behind play and burying him after he took a mark
 
Hawks88bestever said:
So he should have as well...he was crucified for the majority of his career by guys like Silvagni & Kelly holding him behind play and burying him after he took a mark
Click to expand...

Please ... don't get me started on Silvagni. He cost Dunstall and the Hawks 100s of goals with his clumsy tackling and smothering methods. All he ever did was hang on, and you kept waiting for at least ONE umpire to notice, but they never did. Full Back of the Century, don't make me laugh.

I remember a game at Waverley when Dunstall kicked 4 goals on Silvagni in the 1st 20 minutes of the game, so they shifted him. He got a few touches for the rest of the game but nothing outstanding, and the press gave him BOG!!!! They'd forgotten he'd been belted in the 1st qtr. SOS was a good handy player but most definitely the most over-rated player I've seen.
 
Nothing beats the Tony Jewell v Percy Jones "melee" at quarter time over Rudi Webster, the West Indian motivator.

Best thumping Carlton ever got was that day. :D :thumbsu:
 
One of many incidents which remains vivid in my memory is when the sprinklers came-on in a night game of 1979.

Came across the following snippet:

West Australians just knew there was a conspiracy against them when the ground staff at Waverley showed their determination to impose Victorian conditions on the match between Hawthorn and Claremont in May 1979. Until the last quarter, the big talking point was Claremont's Krakeour brothers, who had blitzed on their Melbourne debut. Then the sprinklers burst into action, sending fountains of water into the air while players stood around with their hands on their hips. A groundsman turned off the water and the match resumed. The Hawks slid to victory by 21 points.
 
1991 Grand Final. Paul Dear had the ball on a string. The fight between Worsfold & McKenna - knew we had em them &

The game against Collingwood. 91000+ turned up. Geez the place with jumping. The noise of thousands of feet stamping up and down on the metal at the back of the stands - noisy as hell (and loving it)

Cant remember who won that game?
 
We did, easy as well.

Round 11 1981
Hawthorn 7.5 12.9 14.14 18.19 127
Collingwood 3.2 6.3 9.8 12.9 81

Hawthorn defeated Collingwood by 46 points

Crowd: 92935 at Waverley Park

Date: 6/6/1981


Shame it actually led into a bit of a mid-season drop in form following from it though, missed the finals that year (81) by a game in the end. :(
 
There should be a stadium in the south-east suburbs of Melbourne. The population centre of Melbourne is at Glen Iris we are told, yet both large stadiums are about 10 km west & north of there. Silly.

But why in Waverley? Historically, it's in a cold and wet micro-climate. i.e. statistically it sits right in the coldest and wettest little bit of Melbourne, and didn't we feel it when we sat there? No wonder so many people didn't like it as a stadium.

My favourite memory of the ground was the '87 (?) preliminary final between Hawthorn and Melbourne, in which it is often forgotten that Melbourne had the wind behind it for three quarters. There was a classic Melbourne (as in, the city of Melbourne) cold front that hit during the quarter time break, turning the wind 180 degrees from a blustery northerly to a blustery southerly. In the last quarter Melbourne was ahead and Ricky Jackson had a set shot from about 20 metres and I remember thinking that Hawthorn was about to miss the Grand Final for the first time in 5 years. The next few minutes was special. Sheer will to win, which was repeated in different guises in the 88 and 89 Grand Finals and the 91 Qualifier in Perth.

I also remember Leigh Matthews kicking 11 goals - as a rover - in a game against Essendon in the 70s. He had a classic run out of the middle that day, receiving the palm out of the ruck, and making his way to centre-half-forward with a string of extraordinary blind-turns, dummies and bounces, and then he slotted it. It could have been 18 against 1 and it wouldn't have mattered.

I also remember getting the biggest laugh I've ever got for yelling something out at the footy. Circa 1987, it had taken over an hour to get from the freeway into the car park. (Car park organisation has improved little over the last 18 yrs - they should pay more for the attendants and train them in traffic mgmt one would think.) Essendon was having a difficult year, and the mighty Hawks were making them pay. I think we kicked about 5 goals in 5 minutes with almost no resistance, and (having endured the 84 and 85 GFs) I yelled in full heart: "Good on you, Bombers. The car park is better organised than your back-line." Fortunately, lots of bombers fans turned and laughed.
 

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It has to be the final game at the ground. Very emotional. Packed crowd seeing the might hawks floged the swans by 86 points i think. Just the last quarter gave me a tear, the hawk fans had begun to sing the song for most of the final quarter. I only went to two or three games at the ground, but i'm glad i was there for that game. Real touchin stuff
 
Thanks for the game info Grendel :)

Another most important moment, of which, sadly I was not there, the 1987 Preliminary Final with Bucky after the siren goal.

And, I think, it was Waverley, cos I was there, when Peter Hudson flew in by helicopter. I thought it was 1976/77 but the records seem to show it was 1973.

S
 
I went to the last game at Waverly(Haw v Syd). Everyone went nuts at the final siren, running on to the ground and ripping up the turf. One uptight policeman decided this wasn't right and dragged some kid to the ground and held him there. The crowd gathered around, sods of turf in hand, and let fly. brilliant
 
Its a trip down memory lane.....................

loved it when we where good as the carpark would be nearly empty when it was time to leave
 
The final game for me was great. 12 years old watching Hawthorn beat Sydney. I got Ian Dicker's autgraph when he came out and sat in the member's section, and I still have a piece of the Waverley turf growing in my front yard (Memento from the game as I left the screwdrivers and allan keys at home)

One of my brother's mates (a pie boy at the time) managed to pinch a set of the goalpost covers. They are magnificent things to look at.
 
Pottski said:
The final game for me was great. 12 years old watching Hawthorn beat Sydney. I got Ian Dicker's autgraph when he came out and sat in the member's section, and I still have a piece of the Waverley turf growing in my front yard (Memento from the game as I left the screwdrivers and allan keys at home)

One of my brother's mates (a pie boy at the time) managed to pinch a set of the goalpost covers. They are magnificent things to look at.
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Come on you blokes, what about Dunstall's last game when he was carried off by Croady and Judas . . . He kicked a goal in the first 2 minutes of that game against Freo and i thought it might be the first of 20! Unfortuantely he only kicked on more for the game.
 

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my greatest memory of waverly is actually playing on it...but i remeber watching crawf play his first game there. it was against the dee's and we got beaten. bummer.
i loved the ground, but didn't get a lot of chances to go to games there as a kid cos i live 3 hours north and was the only hawk supporter in my family. but the games i did go to were great.
 
Adelaide Hawk said:
Please ... don't get me started on Silvagni. He cost Dunstall and the Hawks 100s of goals with his clumsy tackling and smothering methods. All he ever did was hang on, and you kept waiting for at least ONE umpire to notice, but they never did. Full Back of the Century, don't make me laugh.

I remember a game at Waverley when Dunstall kicked 4 goals on Silvagni in the 1st 20 minutes of the game, so they shifted him. He got a few touches for the rest of the game but nothing outstanding, and the press gave him BOG!!!! They'd forgotten he'd been belted in the 1st qtr. SOS was a good handy player but most definitely the most over-rated player I've seen.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with everything you've said here...it used to really p*ss me off the way Silvagni would blatantly hold the FF's and get away with it week-in & week-out
 
Adelaide Hawk said:
Please ... don't get me started on Silvagni. He cost Dunstall and the Hawks 100s of goals with his clumsy tackling and smothering methods. All he ever did was hang on, and you kept waiting for at least ONE umpire to notice, but they never did. Full Back of the Century, don't make me laugh.

I remember a game at Waverley when Dunstall kicked 4 goals on Silvagni in the 1st 20 minutes of the game, so they shifted him. He got a few touches for the rest of the game but nothing outstanding, and the press gave him BOG!!!! They'd forgotten he'd been belted in the 1st qtr. SOS was a good handy player but most definitely the most over-rated player I've seen.
Click to expand...
I agree.

"Full back of the century" my arse :thumbsd:
 
Hawks88bestever said:
I totally agree with everything you've said here...it used to really p*ss me off the way Silvagni would blatantly hold the FF's and get away with it week-in & week-out
Click to expand...
He did like to play grabass on a weekly basis--I thought SOS was short for "same old s*it" for years. Always thought he abused the rules and was only slightly better than average player. His dad could play though.
My best Waverly memories were the routine beatings we gave the Bombers at VFL Park in front of big crowds. I hated Windy Hill and losing to Essendon out there. Going back to the early 70s, I never felt like the Bombers liked to play the Hawks at Waverly. I felt the Bombers supporters felt the same way about VFL Park and it was nice to turn the tables!
 

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