Which old ground do you prefer?

[Locals322]

Moorabbin
or
Junction Oval, St Kilda

[stevie]

Etihad

[ripplug66]

Moorabbin. Its an impossible question to answer for more than 90% of our supporters.

[borderbarry]

I attended many games at each venue. The Junction oval by a mile. Had more character, and was St.Kilda.

[St Plugger]

I also saw games played at both grounds and both had character. The stands literally rocked at the JO. Moorabin had the animal enclosure. JO is in St Kilda, is easy to get to, and had a great surface, but parking was terrible. Moorabin was where we won our Premiership, is not so easy to get to and had a very dodgy surface, but there was plenty of parking! Had JO come off, that would have worked, now it's Moorabin and it'll work!

[Enrico_Misso]

Strange that no-one has mentioned Waverley!

[George27]

I did not see the Saints play a home game at Junction Oval, as I only started supporting in 65 when they moved just up the road from me at Moorabbin. The few subsequent away games against Roys obviously did not give a true impression of the atmosphere. However as a Dandenong VFA fan ( thanks to Alan Morrow , and then Bongo Payze , Bugsy Moran et al heading over to Shepley Reserve ) I saw some cracking finals matches from the Blackie- Ironmonger Stand that had brilliant atmosphere and gave an indication of how exciting it must have been for Saints fans. Moorabbin had less character , but the team and the fans made it a real fortress ( sometimes with the moat in the middle of the ground ) .

[samuraisaint]

Toorak Park

[The Fireman]

The JO is the GO

[samuraisaint]

Alpaca Paddock

[saynta]

Etihad

pius one

[8856brother]

Peanut Farm in St Kilda.

[saintspremiers]

Moorabbin still shytes over Waverly and Etihad.

I've been to Saints games regularly since the early 80's and the atmosphere at Moorabbin was awesome.
I was lucky to have a prime undercover seat right on the wing so that helped.

[Wrote for Luck]

1965: a watershed year for the Victorian Football League. It can be argued that this year was the birth of the modern game. Barassi threw the long held ideal of loyalty into disarray, while three teams vacated their traditional homes in search of greener pastures. While North’s venture to VFA side Coburg’s ‘City Oval’ was short lived, Richmond’s move to the MCG propelled it to it’s most successful period, as did St.Kilda’s move from their home by the sea to Moorabbin, another VFA ground taken over by a league club, another glimpse into the future.

The Moorabbin Football Ground was previously home to VFA team the Moorabbin Kangaroos. Cutting a long story short, St.Kilda saw that the south east of Melbourne was in effect, unclaimed territory, and decided upon the shift. Though the move to Moorabbin brought with it heartache, all was quickly forgotten as St.Kilda made back-to-back-back grand finals, winning their one and only flag in 1966.

the above was taken from holy boots football emporium. the move to Moorabbin sounds similar to the reason for Seaford.

stupid question; when all is refurbished and rebuilt will we, to an extent, be able to recreate the animal enclosure for VFL games?

[MCG-Unit]

Waverley

[Verdun66]

I was very young, but the Junction was a special place. Great location. I did like Moorabbin, but the Junction had the old stands, terrific playing surface and was St Kilda. We had to move from there for reasons we know, but we did lose something.

[avid]

FOR CONVENIENCE:
1 Junction (I live in St Kilda)
2 Etihad
3 The 'Bin
4 Waverley

FOR SPECTATOR VIEWING COMFORT
1 Etihad
2 Moorabbin
3 Junction
4 Waverley

FOR ATMOSPHERE:
1 Moorabbin
2 Junction
3 Etihad
4 Waverley

FOR SENTIMENT:
1 Junction
2 Moorabbin
3 Eithad
4 Waverley

Clearly I was not a big fan of Waverley

[Linton Lodger]

For heaven's sake! There can only be one! The mighty Moorabbin Oval.

[saynta]

FOR CONVENIENCE:
1 Junction (I live in St Kilda)
2 Etihad
3 The 'Bin
4 Waverley

FOR SPECTATOR VIEWING COMFORT
1 Etihad
2 Moorabbin
3 Junction
4 Waverley

FOR ATMOSPHERE:
1 Moorabbin
2 Junction
3 Etihad
4 Waverley

FOR SENTIMENT:
1 Junction
2 Moorabbin
3 Eithad
4 Waverley

Clearly I was not a big fan of Waverley

Clearly not if you put viewer comfort at the JO ahead of Waverley.

[Superboot]

I did not see the Saints play a home game at Junction Oval, as I only started supporting in 65 when they moved just up the road from me at Moorabbin. The few subsequent away games against Roys obviously did not give a true impression of the atmosphere. However as a Dandenong VFA fan ( thanks to Alan Morrow , and then Bongo Payze , Bugsy Moran et al heading over to Shepley Reserve ) I saw some cracking finals matches from the Blackie- Ironmonger Stand that had brilliant atmosphere and gave an indication of how exciting it must have been for Saints fans. Moorabbin had less character , but the team and the fans made it a real fortress ( sometimes with the moat in the middle of the ground ) .

Nice to hear of another Dandenong fan!

Some great teams in the late '60s. Pat Flaherty also had StK connections, and later Alan Harper and one or two others. And Elshaug was captain-coach of their last premerieship side in 1991.

I only saw the Saints play away games at the Junction, so I tend to see it as an away ground. One that springs easily to mind was a 23.23 to 7.9 win against Fitzroy, where Barry Pascoe kicked 4 goals in a quarter and was promptly beaten up in the middle of the ground by three Lions.

So, for me, it's Moorabbin. Atmosphere is 80% of the enjoyment.

[Sainternist]

Moorabbin, hands down. Mind you, I never saw the Saints play at the Junction Oval.

The heart of St.Kilda FC (since 1965) has always been at Moorabbin.

[evertonfc]

Some great answers popping up here.

It's a shame we haven't cultivated our past better at both Moorabbin and the Junction Oval. They're both incredibly important places in our history and I hope that once Moorabbin is done, we can have a small presence at Junction.

Waverley was a bitch of a place at times but, geez, it could rock with noise. Someone posted something on BigFooty and it struck me: Waverley could, with a massive crowd, get really, really loud. The wave of noise of an impending goal seemed to ripple so loud, especially in tight games.

[longtimesaint]

I started watching the Saints in 1958 at the Junction Oval.
I have some wonderful memories there of drumming our feet on the old wooden stand when the Saints got a run-on.
That said Moorabbin was also great and memories of Baldock, Stewart and Cowboy Neale were also special.
Probably the best atmosphere was when Plugger was at his unstoppable best.
The return to JO was never an option after the change of state government, so I think to return to Moorabbin with an elite facility is the best possible outcome.

[evertonfc]

What makes Moorabbin special is that it was distinctly ours.

Our Animal Enclosure.
Our Social Club.
Our grandstand.
Our outer wing.
Our sausage sizzle.
Our Scoreboard, with the old-style minute-hand ran that bit faster when the Saints were running out of time.
Even our sponsor boards: so iconic in their own ways - Moran's maroon, Jefferson Ford's clover, hell, even 3UZ.

Everyone had their spot. People stood in those spots for years.

Moorabbin gave us a sense of belonging. It's not that the Junction didn't - but Moorabbin was where most people under the age of 60 had their first taste of being a Saint.

Being a Saint at Waverley had its own charms [a certain hardiness acquired through sitting through the pouring rain, watching a rubbish team of 1993-4-5 steadily get better in 1996-7-8 and the collapse in 1999], but never was it ours.

Going to "away" games against Hawthorn and seeing their home game banners "We Love - Our Club - And We - Play to Win" cut me quite deep because reinforced whose home it really was. They'd had so much success there during the 1970s and 1980s, won a flag there in 1991, and won all their subsequent flags with that as their training base. And Hawthorn's supporter base was already well-established in the area.

Docklands offered us a fresh start and we certainly took to it as a "home" in the way we played - and to an extent, still do. We'd push Hawthorn if we played them there tomorrow.

But it has been the catalyst to create a check-in, check-out type connection between fan and club: You pay lots of money to watch the players play a fairly homogenous brand - that the opposition also plays - and then go home.

You'd buy drinks and food at Moorabbin, because it helped the club. I never would at Docklands. I'd watch the reserves at Moorabbin before the big game. Go to the social club afterwards. Meet family and friends (these days, we'll head to a nearby pub or restaurant).

I think it's one thing to be nostalgic, but it's another thing to actually be aware of what we've lost, and how we can work to get as much of it back as possible.

If the Bulldogs can activate this plan to play low-drawing games against GWS and Gold Coast at the Whitten Oval inside five years, many clubs will be watching. We should be one of them.

[samuraisaint]

Hey Evertonfc - seen Creed yet?