Ground sizes required

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Aut Vincere Aut Mori

Aut Vincere Aut Mori

Debutant
Jul 21, 2020
89
80
AFL Club
Sydney
I'm after the ground sizes of former VFL, VFA and AFL grounds. Hoping people out there can assist;
Grounds required are : Glenferrie Oval, Brunswick Street Oval, WACA, Football Park and possibly Corio Oval and East Melbourne CG. Also Arden Street was shortened in the 1960's when the greyhound track was built in 1965 - anyone know the original dimensions.

For the benefit of others I have ground sizes as:
Kardina Park 170 x 116; Coburg 165 x 140; Lake Oval 173 x 140; Windy Hill 165 x 139; Moorabbin 173 x 138; Junction Oval 172 x 133; Punt Rd 160 x 129; Arden St 173 x 128; Whitten Oval 184 x 130 (later reduced to 161 x 123); Princes Park 165 x 150; VFL Park 181 x 140 (later reduced?); Victoria Park 165 x 141; Docklands 160 x 129; SCG 155 x 136; Gabba 156 x 138; MCG 161 x 138; Sydney Olympic 164 x 128; Adelaide Oval 167 x 123; Manuka Oval 162.5 x 138; Carrara/Metricon 158 x 134; Perth 165 x 130; York Park 175 x 145; Darwin/Marrara 175 x 135; Ballarat 160 x 129; Cairns 165 x 135; Shanghai 160 x 136; Alice Springs 168 x 132.

VFA Ground sizes :
Toorak Park 160 x 125; Chirnside Park 160 x 117; Williamstown 165 x 135 (once longer); Box Hill 169 x 151; Frankston 185 x 110; Elsternwick Park 165 x 145; North Port Oval 150 x 125; Sandringham 160 x 120; Skinner Reserve 175 x 155; Northcote/Lawry Oval 160 x 125; Central Reserve/Waverley 165 x 145; Shepley Oval 166 x 120.

Missing Springvale, Mordialloc, Princess Park Caulfield; Warrawee Park/Oakleigh; Yarraville Oval; Geelong West Oval; Kilsyth; Berwick's two grounds; Selwyn Park Sunshine; and any other VFA grounds missed like the Motordrome and Moorabbin's second incarnation grounds.

Any help, additions, or corrections appreciated.
 

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Last edited:
Aut Vincere Aut Mori said:
I'm after the ground sizes of former VFL, VFA and AFL grounds. Hoping people out there can assist;
Grounds required are : Glenferrie Oval, Brunswick Street Oval, WACA, Football Park and possibly Corio Oval and East Melbourne CG. Also Arden Street was shortened in the 1960's when the greyhound track was built in 1965 - anyone know the original dimensions.

For the benefit of others I have ground sizes as:
Kardina Park 170 x 116; Coburg 165 x 140; Lake Oval 173 x 140; Windy Hill 165 x 139; Moorabbin 173 x 138; Junction Oval 172 x 133; Punt Rd 160 x 129; Arden St 173 x 128; Whitten Oval 184 x 130 (later reduced to 161 x 123); Princes Park 165 x 150; VFL Park 181 x 140 (later reduced?); Victoria Park 165 x 141; Docklands 160 x 129; SCG 155 x 136; Gabba 156 x 138; MCG 161 x 138; Sydney Olympic 164 x 128; Adelaide Oval 167 x 123; Manuka Oval 162.5 x 138; Carrara/Metricon 158 x 134; Perth 165 x 130; York Park 175 x 145; Darwin/Marrara 175 x 135; Ballarat 160 x 129; Cairns 165 x 135; Shanghai 160 x 136; Alice Springs 168 x 132.

VFA Ground sizes :
Toorak Park 160 x 125; Chirnside Park 160 x 117; Williamstown 165 x 135 (once longer); Box Hill 169 x 151; Frankston 185 x 110; Elsternwick Park 165 x 145; North Port Oval 150 x 125; Sandringham 160 x 120; Skinner Reserve 175 x 155; Northcote/Lawry Oval 160 x 125; Central Reserve/Waverley 165 x 145; Shepley Oval 166 x 120.

Missing Springvale, Mordialloc, Princess Park Caulfield; Warrawee Park/Oakleigh; Yarraville Oval; Geelong West Oval; Kilsyth; Berwick's two grounds; Selwyn Park Sunshine; and any other VFA grounds missed like the Motordrome and Moorabbin's second incarnation grounds.

Any help, additions, or corrections appreciated.
Click to expand...


If you can't find them published anywhere, you can use the Google Earth ruler tool to obtain a fairly accurate guide to the lengths and widths of some of those VFA grounds. Naturally you'd have to ensure that the dimensions haven't been altered since they were used for association games. Oakleigh is still the same size. The two Berwick grounds are also unchanged, and I think that goes for Springvale, Mordialloc, Yarraville and Geelong West too. If I remember correctly, Princes Park in South Caulfield might have been extended during Caulfield's time in the VFA. Fred Cook once called it the 'biggest basketball court in the VFA'. It would be interesting to see how the Google Earth measurements compare with the published info from Michael Riley's post above.

Sounds like an interesting project you're working on.
 
Thank you to those that have provided some information and some links to a 1937 Herald article that detailed the ground sizes at that time. By comparing the 1937 dimensions to the dimensions I have in a 1974 publication or from 2020 websites , it would seem that the 1937 ground sizes may have been fence to fence rather than boundary to boundary measurements. There are a number of grounds where there are significant differences between the two years. This is not to say that some grounds may have undertaken redevelopments to alter ground sizes. Port Melbourne's North Port Oval was 173.7 x 105 in 1937 but listed in 2020 as 150 x 125 - losing 23m in length and gaining 20m in width!! Military use of some grounds during WW2 may have caused some realignment. I am also surprised that Glenferrie Oval was 170.9m long - nearly 1m longer than the MCG. At 124m wide it was clearly the narrowest ground with Punt Rd 153.6 and Brunswick Street 155.4 the narrowest. Arden Street at 184.7 x 134.4 (fence to fence according to the 1937 article) was reduced to 173 x 128 by the greyhound track. Coburg 144 x 150.8 went to 154 x 132 (longer but narrower), Toorak Park 150 x 137.1 to 160 x 125 (longer and narrower), Beach Rd Oval 146 x 109.7 to 160x 120 (gaining 14m in length and 10.3m in width).
I have done a table of comparisons but as I'm new to the site, I'm not sure how to attach.

​
 
Some of the ground sizes seem to change depending on what publication prints them.
Could be a bit of confusion between yardage and meterage.

Launceston's York Park/University of Tasmania Stadium used to measure as 158m x 126m in its days as an NTFA and TFL ground before it was extended for AFL level use.
Better surface now but far too big these days.

Bellerive Oval/Blundstone Arena used to measure up as 156m x 134m in its TFL days.
I think it had some dimension changes when the ground was renovated in 1986 for cricket to move there the following year when it left the TCA Ground.
Bellerive had rather odd shaped pockets and a very large hump in the middle before that, not to mention very basic spectator facilities.

Other TFL grounds -
North Hobart Oval (North Hobart) - 154m x 112m
Queenborough Oval (Sandy Bay) - 156m x 112m
KGV Oval (Glenorchy) - 160m x 134m
Boyer Oval (New Norfolk) - 172m x 118m
TCA Ground (Hobart) - 149m x 143m
Devonport Oval (Devonport) - 164m x 130m
West Park Oval (Burnie) - 147m x 124m
Youngtown Oval (South Launceston) - 160m x 130m
Windsor Park (Launceston) - 175m x 145m
 
Gersman said:
Some of the ground sizes seem to change depending on what publication prints them.
Could be a bit of confusion between yardage and meterage.

Launceston's York Park/University of Tasmania Stadium used to measure as 158m x 126m in its days as an NTFA and TFL ground before it was extended for AFL level use.
Better surface now but far too big these days.

Bellerive Oval/Blundstone Arena used to measure up as 156m x 134m in its TFL days.
I think it had some dimension changes when the ground was renovated in 1986 for cricket to move there the following year when it left the TCA Ground.
Bellerive had rather odd shaped pockets and a very large hump in the middle before that, not to mention very basic spectator facilities.

Other TFL grounds -
North Hobart Oval (North Hobart) - 154m x 112m
Queenborough Oval (Sandy Bay) - 156m x 112m
KGV Oval (Glenorchy) - 160m x 134m
Boyer Oval (New Norfolk) - 172m x 118m
TCA Ground (Hobart) - 149m x 143m
Devonport Oval (Devonport) - 164m x 130m
West Park Oval (Burnie) - 147m x 124m
Youngtown Oval (South Launceston) - 160m x 130m
Windsor Park (Launceston) - 175m x 145m
Click to expand...

Depends how they’re measured too. Some measure fence to fence, others use the goal and boundary lines. And the boundary lines can and do change.

Pretty hard to get comparable sizes for grounds.
 

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