Waverley Park - Memorable Events

Memorable Events

• The first ever final played at the ground was also the first ever elimination final played in AFL history, played between St Kilda and Essendon in 1972.
• During the 1973 season, 42,610 attended the first interstate match at the ground (between Victoria and Western Australia) and a record 60,072 attended the second semi-final between Carlton and Collingwood.
• Essendon and Carlton contested a once-off match on Anzac Day in 1975 (which Essendon won) in front of a crowd of 77,770.
• The record attendance was 92,935 for Collingwood versus Hawthorn in 1981.
• In 1977 Fitzroy played North Melbourne in the first night match at the stadium in the Amco-Herald Cup (now the NAB Cup). The game started 55 minutes late after the State Electricity Commission's supply to the $1 million lighting system failed just ten minutes before the game was due to begin. A fuse was thought to have blown in in the feeder pole to the ground. All power to the ground was turned off for 18 minutes while it was repaired.
• In 1987 Fitzroy played North Melbourne in the first night match at the stadium for premiership points in the major competition. A total of 183,383 people watched the three finals games at VFL Park and the preliminary final attendance of 71,298 was the largest since 1984. The game was between Melbourne and Hawthorn and the game was described as the most epic played at VFL Park, with Hawthorn winning from a goal kicked after the siren, by Gary Buckenara.
• In 1989 a match was played for premiership points on a Sunday at VFL Park for the first time.
• The ground hosted its first and only AFL Grand Final in 1991, which was contested by Hawthorn and the West Coast Eagles because the Melbourne Cricket Ground at the time was undergoing construction of the Great Southern Stand. Hawthorn defeated West Coast by 53 points in front of a crowd of 75,230.
• In 1996 an unexpected pitch invasion occurred when the lights went out at the stadium in a night game between Essendon and St Kilda, during the third quarter . After declaring the match finished for the evening the AFL commission held an emergency meeting to decide what should happen as there was no provision in the official rules for an event like this. They decided to continue the match three days later. Essendon kept their winning position comfortably, starting with a 20 point lead and winning with a 22 point margin. Controversially, the Bombers made five changes to their line-up between the two parts of the match. One of Essendon players, James Hird, managed to pick up match votes in some of the media awards. Prior to the match, St Kilda coach Stan Alves complained about the situation and stated that his team is "not going to go kamikaze" and risk an injury when they don't have much chance of winning. The AFL subsequently decided on a set of rules to be applied for incidents of this kind, those being that if a game is not started, the league in control of the match shall determine the result. Games that start but are interrupted prior to half time are deemed to be drawn if the game can not recommence within 30 minutes, while if the game is interrupted after half time, the scores at the time are deemed to be final.