Olympic Park Oval is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

ground located on the site of the former

Olympic Park Stadium An Olympic Park is the central sports complex of an Olympic Games (and that article includes a list of Olympic Parks). Olympic Park or Olympic Park Stadium may also refer to: Olympic parks and stadia called "Olympic Park" Australia * Olympic Par ...

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

. The Oval's is primarily utilised as the training ground of the

Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed the Magpies or colloquially the Pies, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The club ...

and as a venue for some of the club's

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) matches. It is located alongside the club's other tenanted facility, the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre (known commercially as the AIA Vitality Centre).

History and usage

As part of a larger redevelopment of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment precinct, the

was torn down in 2012, two years after the adjacent

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, known as AAMI Park for sponsorship reasons, is an outdoor sports stadium on the site of Edwin Flack Field in the Sports and Entertainment Precinct in the Melbourne central business district. When complete ...

was built for Olympic Park's former tenants.. Olympic Park Oval was created in stadium's former location. The oval opened for use on 11 April 2013. The

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

and

announced in April 2012 the additional construction of indoor community and training facilities on the site. These were opened in October 2015. Olympic Park Oval plays host to some of 's reserves matches in the

(VFL). In addition, each of the club's four teams (

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

AFLW AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

, VFL and

VFLW VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victorian Women's Football Le ...

) regularly train on the Oval, while administration of the club is conducted in the associated "Glasshouse" building and the connected Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre (

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thr ...

Centre). It was the primary home ground for in the

AFL Women's AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football league for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the league ...

competition during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, before the team shifted home matches to Victoria Park in Abbotsford. The Oval remains public land and is available for casual use, though the Melbourne Olympic Park Trust restricts use for official training and sporting usage.

Design

The oval features a grass playing surface in the standard shape for

and

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

. It boasts a two-lane running track around its exterior. For viewing purposes the oval features limited concrete terracing and four light towers for evening play. The associated indoor structure (known as The Glasshouse) is a multi-use community and events space. The building includes a gym, cafe, theater and office space and is internally connected to the older Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre. OlympicParkOvalPanorama16

External links

Official website of the Collingwood Football Club
*

References

{{AFL Women's grounds AFL Women's grounds Sports venues in Melbourne Victorian Football League grounds Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA) Sport in the City of Melbourne (LGA)