1.
Melbourne Cricket Ground
–
The Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known simply as The G, is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre and is served by the Richmond railway station, Richmond, and it is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct. Since it was built in 1853, the MCG has been in a state of almost constant renewal and it served as the centrepiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympics, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and two Cricket World Cups,1992 and 2015. The annual Boxing Day Test is one of the MCGs most popular events, the stadium fills to capacity for the AFL Grand Final. Concerts and other events are also held at the venue. The MCG is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and was included on the Australian National Heritage List in 2005, journalist Greg Baum called it a shrine, a citadel, a landmark, a totem that symbolises Melbourne to the world. Founded in November 1838 the Melbourne Cricket Club selected the current MCG site in 1853 after previously playing at several grounds around Melbourne, the club’s first game was against a military team at the Old Mint site, at the corner of William and Latrobe Streets. The area was subject to flooding, forcing the club to move again and it was not long before the club was forced out again, this time because of the expansion of the railway. The South Melbourne ground was in the path of Victoria’s first steam railway line from Melbourne to Sandridge and this last option, which is now Yarra Park, had been used by Aborigines until 1835. Between 1835 and 1853 it was an agistment area for colonial troopers’ horses, in 1850 it was part of a 200-acre stretch set aside for public recreation extending from Governor La Trobe’s Jolimont Estate to the Yarra River. By 1853 it had become a busy promenade for Melbourne residents, an MCC sub-committee chose the Richmond Park option because it was level enough for cricket but sloped enough to prevent inundation. That ground was located where the Richmond, or outer, end of the current MCG is now, at the same time the Richmond Cricket Club was given occupancy rights to six acres for another cricket ground on the eastern side of the Government Paddock. At the time of the grant the Government stipulated that the ground was to be used for cricket and cricket only. This condition remained until 1933 when the State Government allowed the MCG’s uses to be broadened to other purposes when not being used for cricket. In 1863 a corridor of land running diagonally across Yarra Park was granted to the Hobson’s Bay Railway, the area closest to the river was also developed for sporting purposes in later years including Olympic venues in 1956. The first grandstand at the MCG was the original wooden stand built in 1854. It was during this tour that the MCG hosted the worlds first Test match, in 1881 the original members stand was sold to the Richmond Cricket Club for £55. A new brick stand, considered at the time to be the world’s finest cricket facility, was built in its place, the foundation stone was laid by Prince George of Wales and Prince Albert Victor on 4 July and the stand opened in December that year
2.
Essendon Football Club
–
The Essendon Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League, the sports premier competition. Formed in 1871 as a club and playing as a senior club since 1878. It is historically associated with Essendon, a suburb in the north-west of Melbourne, dyson Heppell is the current team captain. A founding member club of both the Victorian Football Association, in 1877, and the Victorian Football League, in 1896, the club claims to have over at least one million supporters Australia wide. Essendon has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition, the club was founded by members of the Royal Agricultural Society, the Melbourne Hunt Club and the Victorian Woolbrokers. The Essendon Football Club is thought to have formed in 1872 at a meeting it the home of a well-known brewery family, the McCrackens, whose Ascot Vale property hosted a team of local junior players. Robert McCracken, the owner of several city hotels, was the founder and first president of the Essendon club and his son, Alex, Alex would later become president of the newly formed VFL. Alexs cousin, Collier, who had played with Melbourne, was the teams first captain. The club played its first recorded match against the Carlton second twenty on 7 June 1873, Essendon played 13 matches in its first season, winning seven, with four draws and losing two. The club was one of the junior members of the Victorian Football Association in 1877. During its early years in the Association, Essendon played its matches at Flemington Hill. In 1878, Essendon played in the first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a field at Flemington Hill. In 1879 Essendon played Melbourne in one of the earliest night matches recorded when the ball was painted white, in 1883 the team played four matches in Adelaide. In 1891 Essendon won their first VFA premiership, which they repeated in 1892,1893 and 1894, one of the clubs greatest players, Albert Thurgood played for the club during this period. Essendon was undefeated in the 1893 season, at the end of the 1896 season Essendon along with seven other clubs formed the Victorian Football League. Essendons first VFL game was in 1897 was against Geelong at Corio Oval in Geelong, Essendon won its first VFL premiership by winning the 1897 VFL finals series. Essendon again won the premiership in 1901, defeating Collingwood in the Grand Final, the club won successive premierships in 1911 and 1912 over Collingwood and South Melbourne respectively. The nickname first appeared in print in the local North Melbourne Advertiser in 1889 and it was known firstly as Essendon Town and, after 1905, as Essendon
3.
Melbourne Football Club
–
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club, playing in the Australian Football League. It is named after and based in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Melbourne is the worlds oldest professional club of any football code. The clubs origins can be traced to an 1858 letter in which Tom Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, Melbourne has won 12 VFL/AFL premierships, the latest in 1964. The club celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008 by naming 150 Heroes as well as creating a logo which appeared on its official guernsey. The football club has been a section of the Melbourne Cricket Club since 2009. In the winter and spring of 1858, an organised football team known as Melbourne played in a series of scratch matches in the parklands outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Other figures associated with this embryonic Melbourne side include cricketers Jerry Bryant, William Hammersley, Thompson, and teacher Thomas H. Smith. During meetings held on 17 and 21 May 1859, Wills, Hammersley, Thompson and Smith met near the MCG at the Parade Hotel, owned by Bryant, the resulting ten codified rules are the laws from which Australian rules football evolved. The first mention of a match played under the new code was between Melbourne and South Yarra in July 1859, with Hammersley as Melbournes inaugural captain. In 1861, Melbourne participated in the Caledonian Societys Challenge Cup, the club pushed for its rules to be the accepted rules, however many of the early suburban matches were played under compromised rules decided between the captains of the competing clubs. By 1866 several other clubs had adopted an updated version of Melbournes rules, drafted at a meeting chaired by Wills cousin. Harrison was a key figure in the years of the club, he often served as captain and, in later years. Due to his reputation and administrative efforts, he was officially named Father of Australian Football in 1908. During the 1870s, Melbourne fielded teams in the Seven Twenties, after a visit to England by one of the clubs officials, the colours of red and green were officially adopted by the club. Shortly following, the club wearing a predominately red strip. The name Redlegs was coined after a Melbourne official returned from a trip to England with one set of red, Melbourne wore the red set while the blue set were, allegedly, given to the Carlton Football Club. This may be the source of Carltons nickname, The Blueboys, in 1877, the club became a foundation member of the Victorian Football Association. During the same year the took part in the first interstate football match involving a South Australian side, Victorian
4.
David Neitz
–
David Neitz, nicknamed Neita, is a retired Australian rules footballer. In 1994, Neitz was named to his first Victorian State of Origin team, after the retirement of Demons great Garry Lyon, Neitz moved to the full-forward position and began his successful run as one of the AFLs elite goal scorers. On 8 April 2005, Neitz became the 40th person in VFL/AFL history to kick 500 career goals, Neitz was appointed captain of Melbourne in 2000, and on 8 April 2005 he broke the club record for most games captained. He has been an All-Australian in 1995 and 2002, and played for Australia in the 1998 International Rules Series and 2002 International Rules Series against Ireland, in 2002, Neitz also won his first Melbourne Best and Fairest Award, the Keith Bluey Truscott Medal. On 8 April 2005, Neitz played his 250th career AFL game, Neitz became Melbournes all-time leading goal-kicker on 19 May 2006, surpassing Norm Smiths previous record of 546 goals. Two weeks later, he broke Robert Flowers long standing record of 272 games and he played his 300th AFL game for the Demons in the defeat against Collingwood on 17 August 2007. Individual Keith Bluey Truscott Medal,2002 Coleman Medal,2002 Melbourne F. C. Captain, in the round nine 2008 match Melbourne vs Hawthorn after the match Neitz was given a standing ovation by the players and the fans. He ended his career with several Melbourne records that hed broken during recent seasons. David Neitzs statistics from AFL Tables
5.
Norm Smith Medal
–
The Norm Smith Medal is the award given in the AFL Grand Final to the player adjudged by an independent panel of experts to have been the best player in the match. The Norm Smith Medal is named after former Melbourne player and coach and it was named in his honour mostly due to his coaching feats in Grand Finals, he coached six Melbourne premiership sides from eight appearances in Grand Finals. As with most individual awards in sports, the Norm Smith Medal is usually awarded to a player on the winning side. Only four players have won the award in losing sides, Maurice Rioli in 1982, Gary Ablett, Sr. in 1989, Nathan Buckley in 2002 and Chris Judd in 2005. It is notable that Ablett, Buckley and Judd won their medals in very close Grand Finals, whereas Rioli won his in the 1982 Grand Final, despite his team being convincingly beaten by Carlton. Judd is the player to go on and play in a winning premiership team after his Norm Smith medal in 2005 in a losing team. Lenny Hayes is the player to win the Norm Smith in a drawn Grand Final. No player has won the double of a Norm Smith medal in the same year as his Brownlow medal. Gary Ayres, Andrew McLeod and Luke Hodge are the players to have won the medal twice. In the 1997 and 1998 grand finals McLeod won consecutive Norm Smith Medals, the first winner of the medal, Wayne Harmes, was Norm Smiths nephew. The medal is voted for by a panel of five experts from the media, the panel-members independently award 3-2-1 votes to the players they adjudge to be the best three players in the game. These votes are tallied, and the highest number of wins the medal. In the case of a final being drawn and a replay being required. There has been criticism that the judging panel makes its decision late during the last quarter, before the game has ended. Therefore, the last minutes of the game are not taken into consideration when voting takes place,1 – Winner played on losing team. 2 – Two medals were awarded as the final was drawn. The following players have won the Norm Smith Medal multiple times, michael Tuck Medal Clive Churchill Medal The Red Fox - The Biography of Norm Smith, Legendary Melbourne Coach
6.
James Hird
–
James Albert Hird is a retired professional Australian rules football player and the former senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League. Hird played as a midfielder and half-forward, but was given free rein by then-Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy to play wherever he thought necessary. Hird was a highly decorated footballer, with including the 1996 Brownlow Medal. In 2008, he was listed by journalist Mike Sheahan as the 20th greatest player of all time in the AFL-commissioned book, Hird was appointed as the coach of the Essendon Football Club in September 2010. He returned to the following the 2014 season, but resigned in August 2015. Hird is the son of Allan and Margaret Hird and he was born in Canberra where his father worked in the public service and his mother was a teacher. After first living in the Canberra suburb of Ainslie, his family moved to Latham, when Hird was in high school, the family moved to the suburb of Reid. Hird participated in league and soccer in his youth. Due to injury Hird missed out on playing for most of 1991, at the end of the season, a vote was held on whether to delist him. The majority voted in favour of Hird being delisted, although coach Kevin Sheedy voted to keep him, eventually Hird remained with the club. He made his debut against St Kilda in 1992 at Waverley Park. Hird spent most of the season in the Essendon Reserves which, under Denis Pagan and he achieved regular selection in the Essendon senior team during the 1993 season. In that season he was a member of what was referred to as the Baby Bombers, in 1994, Hird won the first of three consecutive best and fairests, culminating in his 1996 season, when he won the Brownlow Medal. A series of injuries restricted Hirds appearances during the remainder of the 1990s and he played only seven games in 1997 and although he was named captain in 1998, he was restricted to thirteen games that year. An even worse year followed in 1999, when stress fractures in his foot kept him to two games. Both Hird and the Essendon Football Club experienced a successful year in 2000. Injury free, he received honours, including selection to the All-Australian team. The Essendon team also won the Ansett Cup pre-season competition, the team only lost one game – against the Western Bulldogs – in the entire calendar year
