Punt Road Oval, also known by naming rights sponsorship as the

Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as ''Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

Centre, is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

ground and former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

oval located within the

Yarra Park Yarra Park (35.469 hectares) is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct, the premier sporting precinct of Victoria, Australia. Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and numerous sporting fields and ovals, in ...

precinct of

East Melbourne, Victoria East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

, situated a few hundred metres to the east of the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

(MCG). The oval is a former venue of the

Victorian Football League 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 ...

(now Australian Football League), with 544 VFL/AFL premiership matches played there between 1908 and 1964. The venue is the training and administrative headquarters of the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...

, and also hosts the club's reserves and women's premiership matches.

History

In October 1855 an application was made for the Richmond Cricket Club to play matches on the

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

paddock next to the site occupied by the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground ...

. The first documented

match on the oval was played on 27 December 1856. The venue remained the home ground for the Richmond Cricket Club until the end of the 2010/11 season. In 2011/12, the club moved to

Central Reserve Central Reserve is a cricket and Australian rules football ground in the suburb of Glen Waverley, in the south-east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located at the intersection between Waverley Rd and Springvale Rd. It is the current h ...

Glen Waverley Glen Waverley is a list of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government ...

. It was used as the home ground by the

in the

Victorian Football Association 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 ...

(VFA) from 1885 to 1907 then in the

(VFL) from 1908 to 1964. It was also used by the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

during and immediately after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when the MCG became a military base. Not until late 1946 were Melbourne able to play the MCG again. In round 4 of the 1956 season, Melbourne played a one off home game at Punt Road against Fitzroy, this time due to renovations at the MCG in preparation for the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

. Owing to the arrangement of the draw for 1942,

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 ...

played one home game there against

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

when Richmond had the bye. After the 1964 season, the capacity of the venue was to be reduced to only 22,000, after much of the outer was to be lost to the widening by 50 ft of

Punt Road Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by the n ...

, a notorious traffic bottleneck. Under the stewardship of President

Ray Dunn Raymond Hudson Dunn (21 June 1910 – 26 August 1971) was a noted lawyer and football administrator with VFL club Richmond. Ray Dunn was one of the towering figures at Richmond who laid the foundations for the club's greatest era of success ...

, Richmond negotiated to move its home games to the

starting from 1965. The last senior VFL game was played at the venue on 22 August 1964, between

and

, where Richmond was beaten by 31 points. The club retained the venue as its training and administrative base, despite moving its home games. In November 1999 it hosted a

Mercantile Mutual Cup The One-Day Cup, known as the Marsh One-Day Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an Australian domestic List A 50-over limited-overs cricket tournament. It has had many different names, formats and teams since the inaugural 1969-1970 season. Initi ...

match between Victoria and Canberra.

Ground records (VFL/AFL)

*Most Goals (Individual) in a Match: 14 by

Doug Strang Francis Douglas Strang (12 July 1912 – 28 March 1954) was an Australian rules footballer who played as a full forward in the VFL between 1931 and 1935 for the Richmond Football Club. Family He married Ina Lillian McCullough, at Geelong on 1 ...

(Richmond vs , Round 2 1931) *Highest Score: 199 (Richmond 30.19 (199) def. 4.7 (31), Round 2 1931) *Lowest Score: 16 (Richmond 8.6 (54) def. 1.10 (16), Round 15 1910) *Greatest Winning Margin: 168 (Richmond 30.19 (199) def. 4.7 (31), Round 2 1931) *Drawn Matches: 6 *Record attendance: 46,000 (Richmond vs , Round 9 1949) NB: In 2017, Richmond's reserves team exceeded the above record for highest score and winning margin - Richmond 33.21 (219) def. North Ballarat 4.7 (31) - in Round 1 of the VFA/VFL.

Current use

The ground is still used for training by the

and it remains the club's administrative headquarters. A statue of Tigers legend

Jack Dyer John Raymond Dyer Sr. OAM (15 November 1913 – 23 August 2003), nicknamed Captain Blood, was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1931 and 1949. One of the ga ...

is outside the ground. A $20 million redevelopment was completed in 2011. The redeveloped sports facilities at Punt Road Oval accommodate a range of business and community sports organisations, including Klim Swim, the VRI Fencing Club and the Indigenous Youth Education Centre known as the Korin Gamaji Institute. The naming rights for the ground were then sold to ME Bank. In 2017 it was commercially re-branded as the

Centre at Punt Road Oval. Since being re-established in 2014, the Richmond reserves team has played its VFL home games at the venue. The club's

VFL Women's VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victorian Women's Football Le ...

team, which began playing in 2018 though was dissolved at the end of the following season, also played home matches at the venue. The Richmond senior women's team, of the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

competition, played their first home match at Punt Road on 31 January 2021, after playing the previous season home matches at the larger capacity Princes Park in

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

. When Richmond defeated

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

in the 2017 Grand Final to win their first flag in 37 years, the venue hosted an official Richmond viewing party that attracted 15,000 people. In November 2020 the Richmond Football Club announced its intention to oversee the redevelopment of the venue; to incorporate a larger playing surface, the demolition of the historic Jack Dyer Stand to make way for a new grandstand with public seating and amenities, and construction of additional playing facilities and a function space. The proposed $60 million redevelopment has received approximately half the necessary funding from the Victorian and

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

, with the remaining amount to be raised by the club and the AFL. One year later the club unveiled the designs and schematics for the proposal, featuring the new stand built on the club’s current carpark and feature two levels of seating, including some undercover, boosting the ground’s capacity to 8,000. There are also enhanced facilities for players, function and community spaces and underground carparking for 280 vehicles. The club has stated it hopes for the facility to be completed before the 2024 season.

References

External links

*
"Around the Grounds" - Web Documentary - Punt RoadRichmond Football Club websiteAustralian Football League website
from AFL Tables {{Melbourne Football Club Defunct Australian Football League grounds Victorian Football League grounds Sports venues in Melbourne Cricket grounds in Australia Sports venues completed in 1856 1856 establishments in Australia Sport in the City of Melbourne (LGA) Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA) East Melbourne, Victoria Richmond Football Club