My earliest memories of going to the footy were at Whitten Oval.

Of course it wasn’t called Whitten Oval back then but the slightly less glamorous ‘Western Oval’.

The good old days

I remember standing behind the goals on a fairly rickety wooden step my Dad had made for me.

It was a bloody fantastic place to watch footy. Even when the Bulldogs were playing the likes of West Coast or Adelaide in front of 10,000 people, there would always be plenty of atmosphere.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t perfect. The lineup for the toilets would always be epic.

The weather would always be horrendous with almost no cover whatsoever. Meaning the crappy $2 poncho was a must-have accessory.

But when you’d be watching Dougie Hawkins run riot on the wing, nobody seemed to care.

It’s now twenty years since the last ever AFL match at Whitten Oval.

Return could be on the cards

Unbelievably, Western Bulldogs President Peter Gordon has hinted that there could be a return to AFL footy at the iconic Bulldogs heartland. Yes there have been pre-season and AFLW matches played there but I am talking regular season matches for four points.

“We have ambitious plans to build that as a central home for women’s footy and VFL,” Gordon told the Western Bulldogs website.

“And if we get to the stage where we can comfortably accommodate 15,000 people seated there in the future, then we wouldn’t rule out saying that we’d want the odd heritage game of AFL fixtured there.”

“We want to build the Whitten Oval so it’s a great home for the growing generations populating the western region of Melbourne now, but we want to preserve its soul.” The idea of having games at Whitten Oval is not as crazy as some might think. Whitten Oval brings lots of advantages I believe sides get a huge advantage from playing for four points at their own distinct home ground. If the Dogs play games at Whitten Oval, they have two massive things in their favour. The ground: this is the ground that the Bulldogs train on five times a week. So they know the dimensions, the wind conditions, everything inside out. Playing at Whitten Oval will also mean playing in front of a boisterous red, white and blue home crowd. You just have to watch the Perth and Adelaide teams play to see the huge impact a loud home crowd can have in motivating a squad. (and the umpiring decisions) When the Bulldogs play home games against interstate teams at Etihad, the atmosphere is a little bit dead as the stadium is sometimes more than half empty. The atmosphere at Whitten Oval on the other hand would be electric. Make it happen Obviously the Dogs would have to spend a fair bit of money getting Whitten Oval up to scratch for an AFL match. There need to be more toilets, electronic turnstiles, food and bar facilities, etc. But I think it would be a worthwhile investment. It’s time to ditch the games in Cairns and Ballarat, bring the footy back to the people of Foot-as-ca-rayy!

by Michael T. Lynch – contributor