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The VFL/AFL Grand Final has been played at the MCG every season since 1902, except in 1924, when no Grand Final was held because of the season's round-robin finals format (it hosted three of the six games in the Finals Series), 1942–1945, when the ground was used by the military during World War II; and in 1991, as the construction of the Great Southern Stand had temporarily reduced the ground’s capacity below that of Waverley Park. All three Grand Final Replays have been played at the MCG.
Before the ground was fully seated, the Grand Final could draw attendances above 110,000. The record for the highest attendance in the history of both the venue and the sport was set in the 1970 VFL Grand Final, with 121,696 in attendance.
Since being fully seated, Grand Final attendances are typically between 95,000 and 100,000, with the record of 100,016 attending the 2010 AFL Grand Final.
In the modern era, most finals games held in Melbourne have been played at the MCG. Under the current contract, ten finals (excluding the Grand Final) must be played at the MCG over a five-year period. Under previous contracts, the MCG was entitled to host at least one match in each week of the finals, which on two occasions required a non-Victorian club to play a "home" final in Victoria.
For many years the VFL had an uneasy relationship with the MCG trustees and the Melbourne Cricket Club. Both needed the other, but resented the dependence. The VFL made the first move which brought things to a head by beginning the development of VFL Park at Mulgrave in the 1960s as its own home ground and as a potential venue for future grand finals. Then in 1983, president of the VFL, Alan Aylett started to pressure the MCG Trust to give the VFL a greater share of the money it made from using the ground for football.
In March 1983 the MCG trustees met to consider a submission from Aylett. Aylett said he wanted the Melbourne Cricket Club’s share of revenue cut from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. He threatened to take the following day’s opening game of the season, Collingwood vs Melbourne, away from the MCG. The money was held aside until an agreement could be reached.
Different deals, half deals and possible deals were done over the years, with the Premier of Victoria, John Cain, even becoming involved. Cain was said to have promised the VFL it could use the MCG for six months of the year and then hand it back to the MCC, but this never eventuated, as the MCG Trust did not approve it. In the mid-1980s, a deal was done where the VFL was given its own members area in the Southern Stand.
Against this background of political manoeuvring, in 1985 North Melbourne became the third club to make the MCG its home ground. In the same year, North played in the first night football match at the MCG for almost 110 years, against Collingwood on 29 March 1985.
In 1986, only a month after Ross Oakley had taken over as VFL Commissioner, VFL executives met with the MCC and took a big step towards resolving their differences. Changes in the personnel at the MCC also helped. In 1983 John Lill was appointed secretary and Don Cordner its president.
Shortly after the Southern Stand opened in 1992, the Australian Football League moved its headquarters into the complex. The AFL assisted with financing the new stand and came to an agreement that ensures at least 45 AFL games are played at the MCG each year, including the Grand Final in September. Another 45 days of cricket are also played there each year and more than 3.5 million spectators come to watch every year.
As of the end of 2011, Matthew Richardson holds the records for having scored the most goals on the MCG, and Kevin Bartlett holds the record for playing the most matches at the MCG. Two players have scored 14 goals for an AFL or VFL game in one match at the MCG: Gary Ablett, Sr. in 1989 and 1993, and John Longmire in 1990.
Before an AFL match between Richmond and Carlton on 27 August 1999, the city end scoreboard caught on fire due to an electrical fault, causing the start of play to be delayed by half an hour.
During World War II, the government requisitioned the MCG for military use. From 1942 until 1945 it was occupied by (in order): the US Army Air Forces, the Royal Australian Air Force, the US Marine Corps and again the RAAF.[15] Over the course of the war, more than 200,000 personnel were barracked at the MCG. From April to October 1942, the US Army’s Fifth Air Force occupied the ground, naming it "Camp Murphy", in honor of officer Colonel William Murphy, a senior USAAF officer killed in Java. In 1943 the MCG was home to the legendary First Regiment of the First Division of the United States Marine Corp. The First Marine Corp were the heroes of the battle of Guadalcanal (and later Okinawa) used the "cricket grounds", as the marines referred to it, to rest and recuperate.[15] On 14 March 1943 the marines hosted a giant "get together" of US and Australian troops on the arena.[15]
In 1977, Melbourne Cricket Club president Sir Albert Chadwick and Congressional Medal of Honour winner Colonel Mitchell Page unveiled a commemorative plaque recognizing the Americans' time at the ground.[15]
In the 2010 TV miniseries, The Pacific, episode 3, members of the US Marines are shown to be camped in the war-era MCG.
The MCG’s most famous moment in history was as the main stadium for the 1956 Olympic Games.[16] The MCG was only one of seven possible venues, including the Melbourne Showgrounds, for the Games’ main arena. The MCG was the Federal Government’s preferred venue but there was resistance from the MCC. The inability to decide on the central venue nearly caused the Games to be moved from Melbourne. Prime Minister John Cain, the Prime Minister, deputy opposition leader Arthur Calwell, all State political leaders, civic leaders, Olympic officials and trustees and officials of the MCC. Convening the meeting was no small effort considering the calibre of those attending and that many of the sports officials were only part-time amateurs.
As 22 November, the date of the opening ceremony, drew closer, Melbourne was gripped ever more tightly by Olympic fever. At 3 pm the day before the opening ceremony, people began to line up outside the MCG gates. That night the city was paralysed by a quarter of a million people who had come to celebrate.
The MCG's capacity was increased by the new Olympic (or Northern) Stand, and on the day itself 103,000 people filled the stadium to capacity. A young up and coming distance runner was chosen to carry the Olympic torch into the stadium for the opening ceremony.
Although Ron Clarke had a number of junior world records for distances of 1500 m, one mile (1.6 km) and two miles (3 km), he was relatively unknown in 1956. Perhaps the opportunity to carry the torch inspired him because he went on to have a career of exceptional brilliance and was without doubt the most outstanding runner of his day. At one stage he held the world record for every distance from two miles (3 km) to 20 km. His few failures came in Olympic and Commonwealth Games competition. Although favourite for the gold at Tokyo in 1964 he was placed ninth in the 5,000 metres race and the marathon and third in the 10,000 metres. He lost again in the 1966 Commonwealth Games and in 1968 at altitude in Mexico he collapsed at the end of the 10 km race.
On that famous day in Melbourne in 1956 the torch spluttered and sparked, showering Clarke with hot magnesium, burning holes in his shirt. When he dipped the torch into the cauldron it burst into flame singeing him further. In the centre of the ground, John Landy, the fastest miler in the world, took the Olympic oath and sculler Merv Wood carried the Australian flag.
The Melbourne Games also saw the high point of Australian female sprinting with Betty Cuthbert winning three gold medals at the MCG. She won the 100 m and 200 m and anchored the winning 4 x 100 m team. Born in Merrylands in Sydney’s west she was a champion schoolgirl athlete and had already broken the world record for the 200 m just before the 1956 Games. She was to be overshadowed by her Western Suburbs club member, the Marlene Matthews. When they got to the Games, Matthews was the overwhelming favourite especially for the 100 m a distance over which Cuthbert had beaten her just once.
Both Matthews and Cuthbert won their heats with Matthews setting an Olympic record of 11.5 seconds in hers. Cuthbert broke that record in the following heat with a time of 11.4 seconds. The world record of 11.3 was held by another Australian, Shirley Strickland who was eliminated in her heat. In the final Matthews felt she got a bad start and was last at the 50 metre mark. Cuthbert sensed Isabella Daniels from the USA close behind her and pulled out a little extra to win Australia’s first gold at the Games in a time of 11.5 seconds, Matthews was third. The result was repeated in the 200 m final. Cuthbert won her second gold breaking Marjorie Jackson’s Olympic record. Mathews was third again.
By the time the 1956 Olympics came around, Shirley Strickland was a mother of 31 years of age but managed to defend her 80 m title, which she had won in Helsinki four years before, winning gold and setting a new Olympic record.
The sensational incident of the track events was the non-selection of Marlene Matthews in the 4 x 100 m relay. Matthews trained with the relay team up until the selection was made but Cuthbert, Strickland, Fleur Mellor and Norma Croker were picked for the team. There was outrage at the selection which increased when Matthews went on to run third in both the 100 m and 200 m finals. Personally she was devastated and felt that she had been overlooked for her poor baton change. Strickland was disappointed with the way Matthews was treated and maintained it was an opinion held in New South Wales that she had baton problems. One of the selectors, Doris Magee from NSW, said that selecting Matthews increased the risk of disqualification at the change. But Cuthbert maintained that the selectors made the right choice saying that Fleur Mellor was fresh, a specialist relay runner and was better around the curves than Matthews.
The men did not fare so well. The 4 x 400 m relay team, including later IOC Committee member Kevan Gosper, won silver. Charles Porter also won silver in the high jump. Hec Hogan won bronze in the 100 m to become the first Australian man to win a medal in a sprint since the turn of the century and despite injury John Landy won bronze in the 1500 m. Allan Lawrence won bronze in the 10,000 m event.
Apart from athletics, the stadium was also used for the soccer finals, the hockey finals, the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and an exhibition game of baseball between the Australian National Team and a US armed services team at which an estimated crowd of 114,000 attended. This was the Guinness World Record for the largest attendance for any baseball game, which stood until a 29 March 2008 exhibition game between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers at the Los Angeles Coliseum (also a former Olympic venue) drawing 115,300.
The MCG was also used for another demonstration sport, Australian Rules. The Olympics being an amateur competition meant that only amateurs could play in the demonstration game. A combined team of amateurs from the VFL and VFA were selected to play a state team from the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). The game was played 7 December 1956 with the VAFA side, wearing white jumpers, green collars and the Olympic rings on their chests, winning easily 81 to 55.
The MCG’s link with its Olympic past continues to this day. Within its walls is the IOC-endorsed Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum.
Forty-four years later at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, the Grounds served as host to several football preliminaries, making it one of a few venues ever used for more than one Olympics.[17] It is quite possible the ground may be one of the first to be used in three Olympic games, as Melbourne's Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, and Premier Ted Ballieu are considering bidding for either the 2024 or 2028 Olympic games, using the MCG as a selling point.
The Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2006 Commonwealth Games were held at the MCG, as well as athletics events during the games. The games began on 15 March and ended on 26 March.
The first game of Rugby Union to be played on the ground was on Saturday, 29 June 1878, when the Waratah Club of Sydney played Carlton Football Club in a return of the previous year’s contests in Sydney where the clubs had competed in both codes of football. The match, watched by a crowd of between 6,000 and 7,000 resulted in a draw; one goal and one try being awarded to each team.[18][19]
The next Rugby match was held on Wednesday 29 June 1881, when the Wanderers, a team organised under the auspices of the Melbourne Cricket Club, played a team representing a detached Royal Navy squadron then visiting Melbourne. The squadron team won by one goal and one try to nil. [20]
It was not until 19 August 1899 that the MCG was again the venue for a Union match, this time Victoria v the British Lions (as they were later to be called). During the preceding week the Victorians had held several trial and practice matches there, as well as several training sessions, despite which they were defeated 30-0 on the day before a crowd of some 7,000.[21]
Nine years later, on Monday, 10 August 1908, Victoria was again the host, this time to the Australian team en route to Great Britain and soon to be dubbed the First Wallabies. Despite being held on a working day some 1,500 spectators attended to see the visitors win by 26-6.[22]
On Saturday, 6 July 1912 the MCG was the venue, for the only time ever, of a match between two Victorian Rugby Union clubs, Melbourne and East Melbourne, the former winning 9-5 in what was reported to be ‘... one of the finest exhibitions of the Rugby game ever seen in Victoria.’ It was played before a large crowd as a curtain raiser to a State Rules match against South Australia.[23]
On Saturday 18 June 1921, in another curtain raiser, this time to a Melbourne-Fitzroy League game, a team representing Victoria was soundly beaten 51-0 by the South African Springboks in front of a crowd of 11,214 [24]
It was nine years later, on Saturday 13 September 1930, that the British Lions returned to play Victoria, again before a crowd of 7,000, this time defeating the home side 41-36, a surprisingly narrow winning margin. [25]
The first post war match at the MCG was on 21 May 1949 when the NZ Maoris outclassed a Southern States side 35-8 before a crowd of close to 10,000.[26] A year later, on 29 July 1950, for the first and only time, Queensland travelled to Victoria to play an interstate match, defeating their hosts 31-12 before a crowd of 7,479.[27] In the following year the MCG was the venue for a contest between the New Zealand All Blacks and an Australian XV . This was on 30 June 1951 before some 9,000 spectators and resulted in a convincing 56-11 win for the visitors.[28]
Union did not return the MCG until the late ‘nineties, for several night time Test matches, both Australia v New Zealand All Blacks. The first, on Saturday 26 July 1997, being notable for an attendance of 90,119, the visitors winning 33-18 and the second, on Saturday 11 July 1998, for a decisive victory to Australia of 24-16. The two met again at the MCG on 30 June 2007, the hosts again winning, this time by 20 points to 15. [29]
Rugby league was first played at the ground on 15 August 1914, with the New South Wales team losing to England 15–21.
The first ever State of Origin match at the MCG (and second in Melbourne) was Game II of the 1994 series, and the attendance of 87,161 set a new record rugby league crowd in Australia. The MCG was also the venue for Game II of the 1995 State of Origin series and drew 52,994, the most of any game that series. The third game of the 1997 State of Origin series, which, due to the Super League war only featured Australian Rugby League-signed players, was played there too, but only attracted 25,105, the lowest in a series that failed to attract over 35,000 to any game.[30]
The Cronulla Sharks on 24 June 2000. Once again, the Storm won 22–16.
It was announced in June 2014 that the ground will host its first State of Origin match since 1997, with Game II of the 2015 series to be played at the venue.[31]
On 9 February 2006, the then Victorian premier Steve Bracks and Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy announced that the MCG would host a world class football event each year from 2006 until 2009 inclusive. The announcement came as the game gained further popularity in the country following the qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.[32]
The agreement sees an annual fixture at the MCG, beginning with a clash between Australia and European champions Greece on 25 May 2006 in front of a sell-out crowd of 95,103, before Australia left to contest in the World Cup finals. Australia beat Greece 1–0. The Socceroos also hosted a match in 2007 against Argentina, losing 1–0, as well as 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification matches in 2009 against Asian Football heavyweights (Japan) which attracted 81,872 fans as Australia beat Japan 2–1 via 2 Tim Cahill trademark headers after falling behind 1–0 late in the 1st half. In 2010 it was announced that as a warm up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup which the Australians had qualified for, they would play fellow qualified nation New Zealand on 24 May at the MCG.
Other matches played at the MCG include the following:
In 1878 the Melbourne Cricket Club’s Lawn Tennis Committee laid an asphalt court at the MCG and Victoria’s first game of tennis was played there. A second court of grass was laid in 1879 and the first Victorian Championship played on it in 1880. The first inter-colonial championship was played in 1883 and the first formal inter-state match between NSW and Victoria played in 1884 with Victoria winning.
In 1889 the MCC arranged for tennis to be played at the then Warehousemen’s Cricket Ground, now the Albert Ground, at Albert Park, rather than the MCG.
It was at the MCG in 1869 that Australia’s first bicycle race was held. The event was for velocipedes, crude wooden machines with pedals on the front wheels. In 1898 the Austral Wheel Race was held at the MCG attracting a crowd of 30,000 to see cyclists race for a total of £200 in prize money.
Last updated: 1 October 2013
Outside of the MCG are statues of famous Australian athletes donated by Tattersalls and known as the Parade of Champions, including many Australian rules football and cricket legends.
They include:
The MCC, in association with Australia Post, commissioned five statues for the Australia Post Avenue of Legends. Three have been erected so far:
A statue is also planned for cricket player Neil Harvey.[41][42]
Ron Barassi
Leigh Matthews
Dick Reynolds
Don Bradman
Dennis Lillee
Essendon Football Club, Norm Smith, Hawthorn Football Club, Jim Cardwell, Carlton Football Club
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Carlton Football Club, Sydney Swans, Collingwood Football Club, Essendon Football Club
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Football Club, Hawthorn Football Club, Carlton Football Club, North Melbourne Football Club
Renaissance, Middle Ages, Lazio, Roman Forum, Colosseum
Sydney Swans, Hawthorn Football Club, Greater Western Sydney Giants, West Coast Eagles, St Kilda Football Club
Hawthorn Football Club, Melbourne Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club, Greater Western Sydney Giants, Sydney Swans
Essendon Football Club, Hawthorn Football Club, West Coast Eagles, St Kilda Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club
Sydney Swans, Hawthorn Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club, Essendon Football Club, Brisbane Lions
Port Adelaide Football Club, Melbourne Football Club, Hawthorn Football Club, Brisbane Lions, Essendon Football Club