Eric Tweedale Stadium (formerly Granville Park) is a multi-purpose sporting and recreation reserve in

Merrylands, New South Wales Merrylands is a suburb in Western Sydney, Australia. Merrylands is located 25 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is in the local government area of the Cumberland City Council. History Merrylands was named after the for ...

. It is located on 13.2 hectares of land approximately 24 kilometres west of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and was formally opened in 1887 by the then Mayor, John Nobbs. One of the first sports clubs to play at Granville Park was the Granville Royals Rugby Club in the late 1880s. The land was owned by the City of Parramatta until May 2017 when the newly created

Cumberland Council Cumberland Council is the local authority for Cumberland in England. It is a unitary authority, the structural change order names the new Cumberland Council as only a district council. It will operate as a shadow authority until taking up its pow ...

inherited the park, as a result of New South Wales council mergers. The main field, known for sponsorship purposes as Merrylands RSL Rugby Park, is now the home ground of the

Parramatta Two Blues Western Sydney Two Blues Rugby, formerly Parramatta Two Blues Rugby, is a rugby union club based in Parramatta, the second CBD of Sydney, Australia. The club was formed in 1879 and competes in the Shute Shield run by the New South Wales Rugby ...

club, founded in 1879, which competes in Sydney's premier

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

competition, the

Shute Shield The Shute Shield is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

. Total capacity for the ground is 5,000, of which 1,000 is seated. The clubhouse has a large hall suitable for hosting functions as well as changing room facilities and amenities. The main field has lighting suitable for hosting night time sports events. In 2021, the ground was renamed after the Australian rugby international and Two Blues player

Eric Tweedale Eric Tweedale (5 May 1921 – 16 October 2023) was an English-born Australian international rugby union player. He played club rugby for Parramatta Two Blues, provincial rugby for New South Wales and internationally for the Australia national ru ...

on the occasion of his 100th birthday.https://www.2gb.com/stadium-to-be-named-in-honour-of-living-legend-eric-tweedale/ Granville Park is also one of the home grounds for the

Greater Sydney Rams The Greater Sydney Rams, originally known as the Western Sydney Rams, is a former rugby union team from Australia that was disbanded in 2018. The Rams won the minor premiership in the 2007 Australian Rugby Championship (ARC), and then competed ...

team that plays in the

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

. The

New South Wales Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, ...

team plays occasional pre-season trial matches at the ground. There are also sporting facilities for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

, and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. A children's Splash Park was built in 2014, and the reserve also has barbeque and picnic facilities.

References

{{NRC Grounds Sports venues in Sydney Soccer venues in Sydney Rugby league stadiums in Australia Rugby union stadiums in Australia