The Preston City Oval 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 ...

stadium in Cramer Street in

Preston, Victoria Preston is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Darebin local government area. Preston recorded a population of 33,790 at the 2021 census. History Settleme ...

, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. It has a main grandstand and the ground is capable of holding around 5,000 spectators.

The Ground

The ground was the home of the Preston Football Club in 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 ...

, and remained one of its two primary home grounds in the club's final incarnation as the

Northern Blues The Preston Football Club, which trades and plays as the Northern Bullants, is a long-established Australian rules football club based in Preston that plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL). It plays its home games at the Preston City O ...

, before the club folded in 2020. It is also the home of the Northern Knights

TAC Cup The NAB League Boys (also referred to as simply the NAB League and formerly known as the TAC Cup) is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victo ...

side and the Preston Bullants Junior Football Club. It was also the venue for the

Victorian Women's Football League The Victorian Women's Football League (VWFL) was the oldest and largest Australian rules football league for women in the world, consisting of 47 clubs from Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, across seven divisions and a total of ove ...

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

in 2007, where a new VWFL crowd record was set. In the 1960s, the then- VFL's

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

was interested in moving its base from the

Brunswick Street Oval The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria. History Australian Rule ...

to Preston, owing to a poor relationship with the Fitzroy Cricket Club, and in 1962 it made a request to the Preston Council for a 40-year lease of the venue; but, the council decided that the lease could be granted only if the Fitzroy and Preston football clubs came to agreeable terms, which they did not. In summer the ground is used by the Preston Cricket Club, who play in the VSDCA as their home ground. The PCC uses the ground for their 1st and 2nd XI as well as the Under 15 RM Hatch Team.

Redevelopment

In the summer of 2009/10 the ground was redeveloped. Drought tolerant couch grass has been in the summer so that the ground was ready for football season.

References

Victorian Football League grounds Cricket grounds in Australia Sport in the City of Darebin Buildings and structures in the City of Darebin {{Australia-sports-venue-stub