Albury Sports Ground (also known as "Albury Oval") is a sporting ground located close to the central business district of

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – the ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The oval is near the

NSW ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

bank of the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

, with a historic grandstand on the north-western flank, and a members' club with a grandstand and changing rooms on the eastern wing. The venue also incorporates a

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

court in the north-eastern corner, while the Albury Swim Centre is adjacent to the west. The ground is part of a string of parks and gardens between the

and Wodonga Place that include the

Albury Botanic Gardens The Albury Botanic Gardens are a botanical garden located in the city of Albury, New South Wales, Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continen ...

, Hovell Tree Park, Noreuil Park, Australia Park, and Oddies Creek Park. The venue is the home ground for the

Albury Football Club The Albury Football Club, nicknamed the ''Tigers'', is an Australian rules football and netball club based in Albury, a major regional city in New South Wales. Albury football and netball squads compete in the Ovens & Murray Football League. C ...

in the

Ovens & Murray Football League The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales and the Ovens and Murray are ...

, and most seasons it hosts the Ovens & Murray preliminary final. In summers the venue is used for cricket, with a turf wicket, and in this capacity serves as the home of the Albury Tigers side in the Cricket Albury-Wodonga Provincial competition. In May 2020, the Albury Sports Ground hosted the Melbourne Storm for a pre-season training capacity in preparation for recommencing the delayed 2020 NRL Season. The Storm were originally slated to train at Albury community Rugby League venue Greenfields Park, however a decision by the Albury City Council led to the Storm requiring an alternate venue at short notice.

History

* 1910: The Murray River broke its banks and flooded the park. * It has a capacity of about 5,000, and historically had a capacity of at least 15,000.

2016 Proposed Redevelopment

On 28 February 2014 the

Border Mail ''The Border Mail'' is a daily newspaper and online news brand published in Albury-Wodonga, Australia, serving the twin cities and the surrounding region. It was originally published as ''The Border Morning Mail and Riverina Times'' and later a ...

published an article titled "Lavington Oval 'in the wrong spot' for major events" in which Andrew Boyd Barber (a University of Melbourne post-graduate urban design student) said: "Albury Council should start planning for an upgraded sportsground precinct." He went on to cite the AFL's decision to sell its ground at Waverley in favour of the Docklands stadium in central Melbourne. "Waverley is an incredible oval in the middle of suburbia that now has this radiating pattern of houses," ... "People couldn’t really access it that easily,". Mr Boyd Barber said Lavington Oval contained the same elements as Waverley, in that it had simply become nonviable to have a huge stadium in such a residential location. "You’ve got an oval on the outer fringe of an urban area that is slowly being encroached on by development,". On 9 March 2016 the

published an article titled "Urban designer promotes plan to link new Albury aquatics centre with upgraded sportsground". ...

International & National usage

Australian Rules Football

Round 8 of the

1952 VFL season The 1952 VFL season was the 56th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 19 April until 27 September, and comprised a 1 ...

was declared "National Day Round" where all matches were held away from traditional

VFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

venues, and as part of this, Albury Sports Ground hosted a fixture that saw

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

18.10 (118) defeat

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

14.12 (96).

Rugby League

In May 2020, due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

lockdown in the state of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

utilised the training facilities in preparation for the resumption of their

2020 NRL season The 2020 NRL season was the 113th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 23rd season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 14th consecutive year. ; Notes : : : Pre-season ...

Other

Whilst its role as Albury's main sporting venue has been superseded by the establishment of the Lavington Sports Ground in the 1970s, it has in the past hosted the O&MFL grand final ( including the notorious 1990 "Bloodbath" decider between Lavington and Wodonga Bulldogs), as well as representative Australian Rules football and cricket matches. It was also the venue for the rugby league tour game in 1951 where a team of virtual unknowns representing Riverina upset France, who at the time were possibly the best test nation in the world. Riverina won 20–10, thank mostly to the boot of their fullback Koch, who kicked 7 goals. It has also hosted cultural events such as rock concerts and carols by candlelight, as well as hosting a stage of the Royal Tour by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

in 1988 during Australia's bicentenary of colonisation, where thousands of schoolchildren were assembled on the oval to greet the Queen.

References

{{AFL grounds Australian rules football grounds Rugby league stadiums in Australia Sport in Albury, New South Wales Sports venues in New South Wales