Victoria Park

The Collingwood Football Club has enjoyed overwhelming support from it's very first game on May 7th 1892 when an estimated 16,000 patrons watched Collingwood play Carlton at Victoria Park. At that point in time there were no structures for viewing the game but a £600 grand stand was under construction and would be ready by mid June. Grassed embankments were raised up to help spectators get a good view of the action and one in particular would remain and is still a feature of the ground. At the Yarra Falls or Trenerry Crescent end of the ground is One-Eyed Hill. For 107 years Collingwood fans stood on that embankment and cheered on their beloved players and tormented the opposition. It was a tough area to view footy from, while the ground become and more and more built up with facilities, One-Eyed Hill maintained its link to the very earliest days of the Collingwood Football Club.

The Lady's Stand was next to be built, shortly followed by a new Members' Stand that required the old original wooden stand to be moved further South. The Ladies Stand was removed to make way for the new Jack Ryder Stand that was opened in September of 1929 when The Machine Team was at the absolute height of their powers. They had just completed the home and away season undefeated and were steam rolling towards a third consecutive premiership, which would become an unequaled four in row in 1930. No other team has gone through an entire season undefeated.

Almost thirty years would pass before any further major development would take place at Victoria Park. A lack of council cooperation and a Club that was heavily restricted in what it could do at the ground resulted in the existing structures deteriorating to a very unsafe state. The acquisition of a long term leasehold on the ground gave the Collingwood Football Club the long awaited opportunity to finally bring the ground's facilities up to date. The Members' Stand was refurbished and repainted over and over again and not replaced until 1969 when the first third of the Sherrin Stand was constructed. Collingwood was in full swing once the 40 year was in place. Over £200,000 pounds were spent of a new Social Club Building were the old tennis courts once stood. Opened in 1969 by Sir Dallas Brooks and named the the Syd Coventry Pavilion it was a massive achievement for the club and reflected a booming membership following a stunning, against all odds, premiership victory in 1958.

Just seven years later and a new sweeping covered Grand Stand gave patrons in 'the outer' on the Turner Street (South) side of the ground the best viewing facilities of they time at any suburban sports ground. Only major arenas such as the MCG and SCG boasted such facilities. Three years later and the aforementioned Sherrin stand replaced the sixty year old Members' Stand. Victoria Park was now by far the best place to view a footy match outside the MCG. The last third of the Sherrin Stand was completed in 1978 and grand stands now ringed more than 3/4 of the ground with One-Eyed Hill the only grassed embankment left.

In 1989 the thirty year old Social Club building received a major face lift with floors added and the interior completely redesigned. A new glazed cantilevered viewing area was constructed into the second floor over hanging the standing room in front of the stand and named after one the Club's greatest champions, Bob Rose.

During the 80's John Hickey had ambitious plans to construct a new stand on One-Eyed Hill and duplex the Ryder and part of the Rush stand. The council and residents opposed the plans and when John was thrown out by the 'New Magpies' in 1982 the plans were forgotten. Alan McAlister tried to revive the idea of redeveloping the ground and creating a 'Magpie World', but things had gone past the point of no return. The VFL's failed attempt to create a suburban football Mecca out at Waverley had doomed all suburban home grounds to an early death. The ground rationalisation policy of the league was resisted by Collingwood for as long as they could hold out, but by 1996 just three games were being played at Victoria Park and they were against lowly interstate sides like Fremantle, the Camry Crows and the Brisbane Bears.

In 1999, with the club on the verge of falling to only its second ever wooden spoon, the Magpies played their last game at Victoria Park

The Victoria Park Facebook page, and the views expressed herein, are in way connected to, or a part of, The Collingwood Football Club or any organisation associated with the Collingwood Football Club.