What is your most hated ground that has been used for AFL?

Remove this Banner Ad

I am rather bland with my AFL grounds. Have only been to the MCG and Docklands and I prefer the MCG. That being said, I have no real issues with Docklands. Easy to get to, amenities all around, has a roof (which is good for cricket) so can not complain at all, but it doesn’t have the same atmosphere. I really like going to Princes Park and Windy Hill (for AFLW and EDFL respectively) and I don’t mind Victoria Park, it would probably be my #1 if they didn’t knock down the big stand. Princes Park is probably a victim of being to big for its own good. There’s just too much mess around and nowhere to put it now without the Harris and Heatley stands, and no real reason to clean it. What, 4 reasonably attended AFLW games and around 15 low attendance VFL and TAC Cup games? Doesn’t help that the staff can be rude as * sometimes as well. I intend on going to GMHBA for the cricket and maybe Ballarat too (but Port aren’t playing there any more which is a shame and they used to play on Sunday which isn’t helpful as I play my matches on Sunday.)
 

RedV3x

It's about time some mods started being fair
Dec 14, 2015
5,063
1,586
It's about time some mods started being fair
AFL Club
Fremantle
I like the Dockland because of it's pricing and viewing but I agree it is a little soul less with a small crowd.
Subiaco was a terrible ground because the government cheaped out and disregarded the original expansion design which would have made the wings the best for viewing instead of the current worst.
Actually the worst AFL ground in W.A. is the WACA. Terrible misaligned miss-mash of stands with the lowest concourse angle of inclination.
The worst ground for overall cost must surely be ANZ stadium. This stadium was designed for the Olympics with no thought to it's use afterwards. It's a one bank stand that that ascends steeply into the clouds. At best, only 50% of seating would be considered reasonable. The concourses are open to the elements so there's shelter on a windy or rainy day. The main problem is that they designed the entire middle section to be moveable when common sense dictated that only the first 2.5 metres had to be moveable. The moveable section interferes with line of sight when in oval mode. ANZ is so bad that the Giants chose to play next door.
 
Sep 22, 2011
29,796
29,047
Perth
AFL Club
Fremantle
Other Teams
Liverpool FC, Washington Wizards
Subiaco oval, without a doubt. Having to suffer every second week going to that hole of a stadium. How it was done and allowed to be a stadium after 2000 is a mystery.
Remember taking a trip in 09 to see Freo play at the MCG then coming back the next week to a stadium that is somehow more expensive then the G, absolute disgusted. The comparison would always linger. The last game Freo played there, regardless of the thrashing, was joyous.
Dump of a ground.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

BIRDBRAIN

Premiership Player
Aug 12, 2013
3,080
4,609
AFL Club
West Coast
Went to Western Oval once, disgusting. But at least it had a local character, Docklands is basically the AFL's homeless shelter for the irrelevant minnow clubs of the league.
 

Isaac Cumming No 1

Cancelled
10k Posts
Mar 28, 2018
10,491
8,454
AFL Club
GWS
I like the Dockland because of it's pricing and viewing but I agree it is a little soul less with a small crowd.
Subiaco was a terrible ground because the government cheaped out and disregarded the original expansion design which would have made the wings the best for viewing instead of the current worst.
Actually the worst AFL ground in W.A. is the WACA. Terrible misaligned miss-mash of stands with the lowest concourse angle of inclination.
The worst ground for overall cost must surely be ANZ stadium. This stadium was designed for the Olympics with no thought to it's use afterwards. It's a one bank stand that that ascends steeply into the clouds. At best, only 50% of seating would be considered reasonable. The concourses are open to the elements so there's shelter on a windy or rainy day. The main problem is that they designed the entire middle section to be moveable when common sense dictated that only the first 2.5 metres had to be moveable. The moveable section interferes with line of sight when in oval mode. ANZ is so bad that the Giants chose to play next door.
I know it's an old post but I have to question if you've ever been to ANZ. If you have you must have sat on the lower levels only. In which case it's wierd that you missed the obvious flaw there, the lack if gradient so cant see past the people in front of you.

To say there was no thought to it's use post Olympics is simply errant nonsense. A major refurb and reconfiguration was undertaken after the Olympics. You might have a view it wasn't done well but that's another matter.

On the upler levels the concourse is completely inside and you go outside to your seat, absolute weather protection.

An 80k stadium with the flaws it has was never going to be suitable for us as a home ground. The clubs position is it prefers it be retained, although unwilling to commit to games there. Simply because it'll be a lonnnng time before there's another 80k oval stadium in Sydney and it could have it's uses.
 

R Chee Manning

Marlo Snellman
Apr 27, 2019
401
226
AFL Club
Sydney
The Gabba back in the days of the dog track was crap-city.

Horrible seating... (nothing close to the field of play) 40m lines instead of 50m...
 
Sep 14, 2003
7,245
3,858
Williamstown
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
LA Angels, Maple Leafs
Arctic Park. Very cold. Too far away from the action. Took hours to get out of the joint if you drove (Who wants to catch a bus?). Good riddance!

It paid to be an AFL Member back in the day - could get out of the car park and onto the freeway in 10 minutes if you got a park on the members' stand side.

Worst is York Park before it was redeveloped. Uncomfortable and hardly any protection from the elements.
 
Mar 21, 2017
8,183
14,665
Perf
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Arsenal, Scorchers, Scuderia Ferrari
Subiaco and ANZ by a long way, been to Subacio, Optus, MCG, Docklands, ANZ and Showgrounds and Subiaco was the worst from a spectator's point of view, ANZ from a players point of view. Anyone over 6ft would know how horrid the bench seating at Subiaco was, got to the point where I actively avoided going to West Coast games out of sheer discomfort. Optus has been a welcome change.
 

PerthBoy86

Norm Smith Medallist
May 23, 2016
6,789
5,677
AFL Club
West Coast
As a spectator i don't get the hate for Docklands. It's convenient, comfortable no matter what the weather is like, and viewing is good, what more could you ask for? Aside from the playing surface I'd say it's pretty good. I haven't been to many major venues, just Subi when I was back in Perth, which wasn't the best, ANZ in Sydney once, and of course the MCG and Docklands/Marvel. Oh and the Whitten Oval, which is like a km from where I live. Keen to check out a few more grounds, starting with Optus when I visit home next.
 

raymond35

Club Legend
Jan 5, 2004
1,807
2,855
Brisbane
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
collingwood vfl
As a spectator i don't get the hate for Docklands. It's convenient, comfortable no matter what the weather is like, and viewing is good, what more could you ask for? Aside from the playing surface I'd say it's pretty good. I haven't been to many major venues, just Subi when I was back in Perth, which wasn't the best, ANZ in Sydney once, and of course the MCG and Docklands/Marvel. Oh and the Whitten Oval, which is like a km from where I live. Keen to check out a few more grounds, starting with Optus when I visit home next.

- the good seats are unavailable to the average punter and sit empty
- standing room is virtually nonexistent
- decent ground level seats cost a fortune
- most supporters are herded up to the nose bleed seats, which seem incredibly high up
- the food is inedible
- place has no atmosphere at all
- the place somehow holds 30,000 less people than the stadium it replaced
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Oct 5, 2017
1,215
1,008
AFL Club
Sydney
Other Teams
Port Melbourne, Norwood, St George
- the good seats are unavailable to the average punter and sit empty
- standing room is virtually nonexistent
- decent ground level seats cost a fortune
- most supporters are herded up to the nose bleed seats, which seem incredibly high up
- the food is inedible
- place has no atmosphere at all
- the place somehow holds 30,000 less people than the stadium it replaced

Not to mention the facilities can't cope with a 25,000 plus crowd
 
- standing room is virtually nonexistent
Plenty of Standing room at Docklands. Try the Gabba if you want to bitch about lack of standing
 
Dec 16, 2010
1,382
1,715
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Liverpool
I don't get the hate that the Docklands stadium gets. Yeah they stuffed it up building it the wrong way so day games with the roof open is just unwatchable. But for the standard night game its great! Easy to get to, great seats pretty much no matter where you sit, atmosphere is great with the roof closed. I'd much rather watch a game at the docklands then the MCG where i feel too far away.
 

raymond35

Club Legend
Jan 5, 2004
1,807
2,855
Brisbane
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
collingwood vfl
You seriously would prefer the Arctic?


As the great Rod Marsh once said...

'Nah mate'.

The happiest memories of my childhood are of countless games at vfl park. Like thousands of others, i loved the place.
Also, i freezed my arse off at Collingwood, Junction oval, MCG, Moorabbin, Western oval, Windy hill, Princes park and Cararra, so it gets cold at other places too.
 

Gersman

Team Captain
May 10, 2017
412
161
AFL Club
Carlton
North Hobart Oval was pretty ordinary back in the day.
North Hobart had a magnificent atmosphere when full but the facilities, apart from one poorly positioned, new-build stand erected in the late 80s after the original one was burnt down in an arson attack, were at best, 1940s standard.
The ground hadn't changed since 1923 when Fitzroy and SOO were played there in the early 90s.
Does have a 100% better playing surface now though.
North Hobart was like it was primarily because of a useless and lazy Hobart City Council who also lost the cricket to Clarence City Council (Bellerive) in the 1980s because of a similar lack of maintenance and investment of the old TCA Ground.
 

Gersman

Team Captain
May 10, 2017
412
161
AFL Club
Carlton
Worst is York Park before it was redeveloped. Uncomfortable and hardly any protection from the elements.
I first went to that ground in about 1983 and you're right, it wasn't much to write home about!
But northern Tasmanians used to crap on about being the "best ground in Tasmania" despite it being a ground that had a 1960s stand that seated 400 in the right forward pocket (demolished for the redevelopment), a 1970s stand on the wing that most of the seating had been taken out of for sponsors boxes and seated about 90 people, and that jagged roofed 1920s stand in the left forward pocket that was moved next door only about ten years ago.
Had a huge row of poplar trees on the outer wing in front of those massive railway sheds.
More than half the ground still has temporary seating even now since the redevelopment.

Bellerive Oval prior to its redevelopment was probably the worst ground even in TFL football and that was a good reason why even the old TFL would never stage a final there.
 

Occidental

Club Legend
Oct 2, 2016
2,385
6,792
AFL Club
Collingwood
Windy Hill. Shocking place.
Had a bowling club butting onto the ground, so a fair slab of the place was out of bounds for supporters. It had a string of ugly, drab concrete grandstands and hardly any room behind each goal.
It was in the middle of nowhere too, just a park in the northern suburbs on a cramped site they tried to turn into a stadium. Yuk.
702098
 

Olian

Norm Smith Medallist
Jul 12, 2013
8,499
13,976
Between the Bridges
AFL Club
Sydney
Homebush due its design was not great for viewing games as they moved stands back the widen the field. Forward pockets were also out of whack with any other field.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Back