Alberton Oval

Alberton Oval

The Fos Williams Family Stand (Left) and Robert B. Quinn MM Grandstand (Right) seen from the Allan Scott Power Headquarters.
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Former names	Queen and Albert Oval
Location	cnr Brougham Place and Queen St, Alberton, South Australia
Coordinates	34°51′52″S 138°31′10″E / 34.86444°S 138.51944°E / -34.86444; 138.51944Coordinates: 34°51′52″S 138°31′10″E / 34.86444°S 138.51944°E / -34.86444; 138.51944
Public transit	Cheltenham Station Alberton Station
Owner	City of Port Adelaide Enfield
Operator	Port Adelaide Football Club
Capacity	15,000[2]
Record attendance	22,738 (Port Adelaide vs Norwood, 11 June 1977)
Field size	170 by 130 metres (185.9 yd × 142.2 yd)
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1877
Opened	8 November 1877 (144 years ago)
Construction cost	Property: Donated by John Formby. Construction: £500 [1]
Tenants
Port Adelaide Football Club (1880-present) Port Adelaide Cricket Club (1896-1996)

Alberton Oval is located in Alberton, a north-western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The ground is a public park and is exclusively leased to the Port Adelaide Football Club for Australian rules football.

History[]

John Formby donated the land for Alberton Oval to the people of Port Adelaide for a sporting oval.^[3]

With the nearby Queenstown Oval built upon in 1876, the Alberton and Queenstown Council opted to construct a cricketing ground on the land adjacent Brougham Place in 1876.^[4] The land was donated by the former Mayor of Port Adelaide, John Formby.^[5] The Queen and Albert Oval was officially opened on 8 November 1877 for a game between the touring Tasmanian cricket team and a selected eleven of the Queen and Albert Cricket Association.^[6]

Port Adelaide Football Club[]

While several teams played at the Alberton Oval in the ground's early days, it is most famous for being the training and administration base for the Port Adelaide Football Club since it played its first game on 15 May 1880 and defeated the original, now-defunct Kensington Football Club 1-nil.

Port Adelaide still plays its SANFL games at the ground, although AFL games are played at Adelaide Oval and, between 1997 and 2013, at AAMI Stadium.

All of the club's teams, including its AFL team and its SANFL League and Academy teams, conduct their principal trainings at the ground.

The Allan Scott Power Headquarters stands adjacent to the oval. So too does The Port Club, a social venue for the club's supporters and players, which was opened on 14 November 1954.^{[citation needed]}

Alberton is regarded as the "spiritual home" of Port Adelaide^[7] due to the club (in the SANFL) playing almost all of their homes games there since commencing its tenancy. The club's AFL team usually plays one or two trial games at the ground during the pre-season.

Many notable Australian rules footballers have played for Port Adelaide on the ground, including 3 time Brownlow and Sandover Medalist Haydn Bunton Sr, four time SANFL Magarey Medal winner and club games record holder (392) Russell Ebert, nine time premiership coach Fos Williams, local junior and future Carlton player Craig Bradley, 1992 Best and Fairest winner Nathan Buckley, 1993 Brownlow Medallist Gavin Wanganeen and Port Adelaide's first ever AFL coach, John Cahill who also coached the club to 10 SANFL premierships.^[8]

Cheltenham cemetery curse[]

For a long time such was the Port Adelaide Football Club's dominance at Alberton Oval with a win percentage of 78% from its first year at the ground in 1880 to joining the AFL in 1997 there has been conjecture that opposition teams became cursed as they passed by Cheltenham cemetery on the way to the ground.

Your fellows are beaten as soon as they pass the Cheltenham Cemetery.

— Unknown Port Adelaide player, Adelaide Advertiser, 10 May 1946, ^[9]

Malcolm Blight as coach for Woodville played up the curse for his players in the lead up to a match, parking the bus before the cemetery, and making his players walk past Cheltenham cemetery. Unfortunately it didn't work and Woodville still lost but Blight suggests his team would've lost by more if he didn't make everyone walk past.^[10]

The adage, you lose five goals every time you came to Alberton Oval as soon as you passed Cheltenham Cemetery.

— Malcolm Blight, Sportsday SA, 2 July 2018, ^[11]

Interstate friendlies[]

• 1888 September 17 – Port Adelaide vs. Broken Hill
• 1913 July 26 – Port Adelaide vs. North Fremantle
• 1925 August 25 – Port Adelaide vs. South Fremantle
• 1931 October 15 – Port Adelaide vs. Geelong
• 1968 – Port Adelaide vs. Melbourne
• 1968 – Port Adelaide vs. South Melbourne
• 1969 March 22 – Port Adelaide vs. Melbourne
• 1971 March 14 – Port Adelaide vs. Melbourne
• 1979 March 31 – Port Adelaide vs. Footscray
• 1981 March 14 – Port Adelaide vs. Richmond
• 1997 February 9 – Port Adelaide vs. Richmond
• 2014 March 8 – Port Adelaide vs. St Kilda
• 2019 March 9 – Port Adelaide vs. North Melbourne

Ground records[]

Highest score[]

• 33.24 (222) – Port Adelaide def. South Adelaide (1988).^[12]

Largest margin[]

• 160 – Port Adelaide def. West Adelaide (1903).^[13]

Most goals in a match[]

• 16 – Tim Evans, Port Adelaide (1980)

Longest winning streak[]

• 31 – Port Adelaide (1909, Round 9 → 1915, Round 7)

Cricket[]

Alberton Oval was used as a cricket ground during summer between 1877 and 1996.^{[citation needed]}

Following the opening game between Tasmania and the Queen and Albert Cricket Association in 1877, the ground became the home of the new Port Adelaide Cricket Club in 1897 and remained so until the end of 1996.^{[citation needed]}

In the early years attention needed to be paid to the state of the outfield. An example of this need was when Port Adelaide batsman G.S.P. Jones was able to run 8 while making 143 not out against West Torrens in 1904-05 because the fieldsman could not find the ball amongst the weeds.^[14]

Cricket and football shared the use of the oval for a century, until the Port Adelaide Football Club was elevated into the AFL in 1997 and required the full-year use of the ground.^[15]

The cricket club now plays games at the Port Reserve in Port Adelaide.

Structure[]

Williams Family Stand in 2018.

The grounds main stands and features are:

Fos Williams Family Stand[]

Opened in 1903. The oldest remaining structure at Alberton Oval, the Fos Williams stand houses the SANFL change rooms, coaching and media boxes. It also is the location of plaques commemorating members of the Williams family.

Robert B. Quinn MM Grandstand[]

Opened in 1964, the grandstand houses the Port Club bistro, Bob McLean sportsbar, Port Store and upstairs function room.

Allan Scott Power Headquarters[]

Built with donations provided by businessman Allan Scott, government grants and funding provided by the sale of personalised pavers laid around the Oval precinct, the Headquarters house the administration of the Port Adelaide Football Club along with the AFL training facilities. The Headquarters also have a balcony that overlooks the ground. In 2010 the HQ was upgraded, the cornerstone of which was the Mark Williams Facility, which allows players to train indoors during extreme weather conditions.

N.L. Williams Scoreboard[]

Named after Port Adelaide and South Australian cricketer Norman Williams, the scoreboard is located on the South East pocket.

Attendance[]

The attendance record at the ground for an Australian rules football match was 22,738 during a match against Norwood on 11 June 1977.

Attendance record (football)[]

Attendance record (concert)[]

References and notes[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alberton Oval.

• Official website of the Port Adelaide Football Club
• Port Adelaide Cricket Club
• Alberton Oval at Austadiums