The Hawks At Princes Park

[qman]

Yes, spot on. Kosta Tszyu on the undercard.

Yeah mate, Kostya Pro debut v Daryl Hiles. Johnny Lewis tells him pre fight 'make sure you win the 1st round". Lost in translation to 'ko him in the 1st round"....lol! I missed Kostya though, arrived later during the Spike Cheney- Alberto Cortes fight.

 

[timokane]

Who went to the egypian show aieda was huge and like a pyrimid there on the princess park in the middle was around 1990 was in jan as well so nice and hot like the sharhra desert.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

Went to many games there - some absolute classics and some horrors. It's a shame it wasn't retained for use in the AFL because contrary to popular opinion:

1. It has three trams running close to it (19 plus the 1 and 6 on Lygon St)
2. A train station around 10 minutes walk away
3. A great atmosphere
4. Pubs and restaurants close by

Unfortunately with the new development and the removal of the Heatley and Hawthorn stands, it's a shadow of the ground it once was. That being said, my 15 year old son loves it and he's going there with his mates on Saturday to watch the Dogs-Roos practice match simply because that's the venue.

 

[Partridge]

If he was available for that years grand final then you possibly could have won it. Malcolm Blight wanted that Geelong side to go to war with the Hawks and try and bully them into submission.

I think you might have been better off if you focused more on playing footy! Still though Geelong came close to winning it, and if you won that flag the end would have justified the means i suppose.

Honestly I think that part is overblown. They didn't spend the first quarter trying to knock guys out, they were just overexcited and undisciplined. It was much more giving away dumb free kicks than anything untoward. Darcy gave away a clumsy 50 against Dunstall for one. Obviously what Yeates did was premeditated but that was it (and it was also payback which a lot of people forget about).

 

[Partridge]

Went to many games there - some absolute classics and some horrors. It's a shame it wasn't retained for use in the AFL because contrary to popular opinion:

1. It has three trams running close to it (19 plus the 1 and 6 on Lygon St)
2. A train station around 10 minutes walk away
3. A great atmosphere
4. Pubs and restaurants close by

Unfortunately with the new development and the removal of the Heatley and Hawthorn stands, it's a shadow of the ground it once was. That being said, my 15 year old son loves it and he's going there with his mates on Saturday to watch the Dogs-Roos practice match simply because that's the venue.

Point 3 cannot be understated. We hardly ever won there but I still loved going. I'll add another one:

5. You were close to the action.

You could really "feel" the game. Even when the ball was at the other end, it didn't seem that far away (especially compared to Geelong or Footscray). Probably my favourite game there was in 1991 when Ablett came back from retirement in the reserves. The ground was absolutely packed. Then we beat Hawthorn for the first time in 6 years - Bairstow played absolutely out of his skin and kicked 6 (to go with 36 touches).

 

[PowerBaz]

Was a 'blue-coat' early 90's showing people to their seat. $50 bucks a game cash.

 

[Hawksboy72]

Saw alot of games at Princess Park in the 80's & very early 90's.
Saw some insane Hawthorn performances in that time at that venue.
In 1982 Saw us kick 20.7 in the first half against North which included 13.3 in the 1st quarter.
Haw: 32.14.206
Nth: 15.22.112.
In 1986 saw possibly the greatest half of football I ever saw. Saw Hawthorn pile on 25.7 (12.4,13.3) in the second half against Geelong in Round 21.
Haw: 35.15.225
Geel: 13.12.90.
Saw the R6 '89 game...simply amazing.

 

[Redo]

I played Little league for Fitzroy at VFL park in the 80’s.
Kicked out whole score 1.1, that was my 15 min right there.

Played on the whole ground and you couldn’t even see the kids at the other end

likewise, i played on the wing for the cats against the blues at PP in the 80's. Your game was high scoring for a little league game back when you used the full length of the ground and a full sized ball. From memory our score was 1 point each, a lot had to go right to score when it took 10 kicks to get from one end to the other! It was also the only game i ever punched a kid, i was trying to handball and he tapped the ball from my palm as i swung through and clocked him in the face. He went down like a sack of spuds and the ump called play on!

 

[parsons nose]

Saw alot of games at Princess Park in the 80's & very early 90's.
Saw some insane Hawthorn performances in that time at that venue.
In 1982 Saw us kick 20.7 in the first half against North which included 13.3 in the 1st quarter.
Haw: 32.14.206
Nth: 15.22.112.
In 1986 saw possibly the greatest half of football I ever saw. Saw Hawthorn pile on 25.7 (12.4,13.3) in the second half against Geelong in Round 21.
Haw: 35.15.225
Geel: 13.12.90.
Saw the R6 '89 game...simply amazing.

I remember that game well. Michael Byrne, who we picked up from Melbourne kicked about 5 goals in the first quarter, prompting Lou Richards to anoint him Barassi’s blunder.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

I went to quite a few games at Princes Park, two stick out in my memory.

The 1989 Queens Birthday game against the Hawks, we beat them in a mudheap which was little consolation for the shellacking we copped in the previous GF but still sweet to win nonetheless. Usually we sat in the outer but my dad must have reserved seats for this one or scored tickets through work as we were undercover up near the coaches boxes from memory.

The final game at Princes Park, we were sitting in the Legends Stand surrounded by Carlton supporters with a sprinkling of red here and there amongst the blue. We were doing it easy before Carlton came home strong but we ended up winning by a couple of goals. This was the terrible Pagan coached Blues. After the game they played the Blues song even though we'd won, my brother and decided to sing Grand Old Flag as we walked from our seats out of the ground to the dirty looks of the Carlton faithful

I also remember going to a couple of games with my uncle who barracks for Carlton, can't remember who it was against but would have been early 90s - we'd stand on the hill in front of the scoreboard and I'd try and catch glimpses of the game. The suburban grounds were great, we miss so much these days having lost them all.

 

[raymond35]

I remember that game well. Michael Byrne, who we picked up from Melbourne kicked about 5 goals in the first quarter, prompting Lou Richards to anoint him Barassi’s blunder.

Barassis Blunder, I remember that
Byrne came to my junior club as we were in Melbourne's zone. We had no idea who he was, I think he played for Melbourne reserves at the time.