Good Bye Punt Road, Hello MCG
It's been 50 years next season since we moved our home games to the MCG so I thought we might delve unto the history of our first ground; The Mighty Punt Rd Oval which is now the ME Bank centre.
It was used as our home ground in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1885 to 1907 then in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from 1908 to 1964. It was also used by the Melbourne Football Club during and immediately after World War II, when the MCG became a military base. Not until late 1946 were Melbourne able to play the MCG again. Owing to the arrangement of the draw for 1942, South Melbourne played one home game there against Hawthorn when Richmond had the bye. After the 1964 season, the capacity of the venue was to be reduced to only 22,000, after much of the outer was to be lost to the widening by 50ft of Punt Road, a notorious traffic bottleneck. Under the stewardship of President Ray Dunn, Richmond negotiated to move its home games to the Melbourne Cricket Ground starting from 1965. The last senior VFL game was played at the venue on 22 August 1964, between Richmond and Hawthorn. The club retained the venue as its training and administrative base, despite moving its home games. Ground records - VFL • Most Goals (Individual) in a Match: 14 by Doug Strang (Richmond vs North Melbourne Round 2, 1931) • Highest Score: Richmond 30.19 (199) (vs North Melbourne Round 2, 1931) • Lowest Score: St Kilda 1.10 (16) (vs Richmond 1910) • Greatest Winning Margin: 168 points (Richmond vs North Melbourne Round 2, 1931) • Drawn Matches: 6 • Record attendance: 46,000 (Richmond vs Carlton, 1949)
