Thebarton Oval is a sports ground in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

currently used for a variety of sports including

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

. It was the home ground of

South Australian National Football League The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

(SANFL) club West Torrens between 1922 and 1989, and since 2008 has been the home of the

South Australian Amateur Football League The Adelaide Footy League (AdFL), formerly known as the South Australian Amateur Football League (SAAFL), is a semi-professional Australian rules football competition based in Adelaide, South Australia. Comprising sixty-seven member clubs play ...

(SAAFL) now called the Adelaide Footy League.

History

Thebarton Oval has a rich sporting and cultural history; being home over the years to a number of other sports including

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, gridiron,

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

, and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

In the 1920s and early 1930s Thebarton Oval hosted weekly harness racing meetings. Brooklyn Park locals and popular SA harness racing pioneers Malcolm Allan and his wife Mary McGowan were weekly winners, riding horses such as Woodnuts Choice, Huon Wood, Western Queen, Seaweed and Silent Ways. (see Brooklyn Park for information about Allan and McGowan). Thebarton Oval was also the home ground for the West Torrens District Cricket Club and home oval for Ron Hamence (member of Bradman's 1948 Invincibles),

Bruce Dooland Bruce Dooland (1 November 1923 – 8 September 1980) was an Australian cricketer who played in three Test cricket, Test matches for the Australian national cricket team during the late 1940s. During the war Dooland was in an Australian Command ...

, Phil Ridings and much loved local boy and

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to established ...

hero

David Hookes David William Hookes (3 May 1955 – 19 January 2004) was an Australian cricket player and coach. He played for the Australia national cricket team and domestic cricket for South Australia, later coaching Victoria. An aggressive left-handed ba ...

. The record crowd at Thebarton was set on 26 May 1962 when 20,832 fans turned up to see West Torrens take on SANFL rivals Norwood. After first playing their home games at Jubilee Oval (1887-1904) and Hindmarsh Oval (1905-1921), West Torrens moved from Hindmarsh to the nearby Thebarton Oval in 1922. Thebarton would remain the home of West Torrens until 1989. During these years players such as Bob Hank, Lindsay Head MBE, Fred Bills, Matt Rendell, Bruce Lindsay and Michael Long called Thebarton Oval home. The Eagles moved to

Football Park Football Park, known commercially as AAMI Stadium, was an Australian rules football stadium located in West Lakes, a western suburb of Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, Australia. It was built in 1973 by the South Australian N ...

for 1990 before their perilous financial situation forced them into a merger with the

Woodville Football Club Woodville Football Club was an Australian rules football club that competed in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1964 to 1990, when it merged in 1991 with the West Torrens Football Club to form the Woodville-West Torre ...

from 1991. The new club would be known as the

Woodville-West Torrens Eagles Woodville-West Torrens Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). The club was formed in 1990 from a merger of the neighbouring Woodville Football Club, Woodville and Wes ...

and would use the Warriors ground Woodville Oval as their home base. West Torrens played their last game at the ground in on 2 September 1989 ending a run of 68 seasons at Thebarton Oval. After the Eagles left, the ground subsequently deteriorated through lack of maintenance, though other sports would regularly use the oval including

, gridiron and

. The

(SAAFL) also regularly used Thebarton Oval. In 2008 the SAAFL set up their headquarters at the ground, which saw a permanent return of football to Thebarton. Due to Woodville Oval's use by

Grade Cricket Grade cricket (also known as premier cricket) is the name of the senior inter-club or district cricket competitions in each of the Australian states and territories. The term may refer to: *Victorian Premier Cricket * NSW Premier Cricket * Queens ...

in the summer months, Woodville-West Torrens used Thebarton as their pre-season base until 2016, as well as having played two games there (2009 and 2012). This has seen efforts made to upgrade the ground in the past few years including, upgrading the areas surrounding the ground, replaced the perimeter fencing, installing new seating in the stands, and a complete replacement of the grounds light towers. In March 2012, it was announced that Thebarton Oval would be renamed Adelaide Airport Stadium, following a sponsorship agreement with

Adelaide Airport Adelaide Airport, also known as Adelaide International Airport, is an International airport, international, Domestic airport, domestic and general aviation airport serving Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. Located approximately 6 km ...

. Following this agreement the oval was named Aldi Arena in a further three year sponsorship agreement which ceased at the end of the 2018 season. On Friday 23 March 2012, Thebarton Oval hosted its first SANFL match since 2009, and its first night game since the 1983 Escort Cup Grand Final, when the reigning premier Eagles hosted their hated rivals from

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide city centre, Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is t ...

to open the 2012 SANFL season. The game was taken to Thebarton not only to take advantage of the upgraded lights and open the season with a Friday night game, but because of the unavailability of the Eagles usual home ground Unleash Solar Oval due to being in use for Grade Cricket. The Magpies spoiled the Eagles' first game under lights at the former West Torrens home ground with a 55-point win 18.13 (121) to 10.6 (66) in front of 4,566 fans. On 4 February 2017, Thebarton Oval hosted the first ever

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

(AFLW) game held in Adelaide. This was the first premiership game for the and AFLW teams. The Crows played two of their four 2017 home games at the venue. They attracted 9,289 fans to their first game, against GWS, and 9,006 to their second game, against Carlton. Their other two home games were played at

Norwood Oval Norwood Oval (currently known as Coopers Stadium due to sponsorship from the Adelaide-based Coopers Brewery) is a suburban oval in the western end of Norwood, South Australia, Norwood, an inner eastern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. The ...

and

Marrara Oval Marrara Oval, currently known as TIO Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially ho ...

, Darwin. All games held in Adelaide moved to Norwood Oval for the 2018 season. The Woodville-West Torrens Eagles still play pre-season games at the ground .

Facilities

The ground consists of concrete terracing all around the oval with a mound extending the entire outer wing as well as two grandstands on the north-west wing with seating in the Hank Brothers Stand and the Phil Ridings Stand for up to 3,500 people. The grounds current football dimensions are 160m x 130m. The Hank Brothers Stand was originally going to be named the Bob Hank Stand in honor of West Torrens two-time

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Willi ...

list. However, at Hank's insistence, the name was changed to recognize his brothers Bill and Ray and their contribution to the club. All three brothers were prominent members of the strong West Torrens teams of the 1950s (including the 1953 SANFL premiership win, the last West Torrens would win as a stand-alone club), and thus the name became the Hank Brothers Stand. Thebarton Oval is owned by the

City of West Torrens The City of West Torrens is a local government area in the western suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. Since the 1970s, the area was mainly home to many open spaces and parks, however after the mid-1990s (1993–1995) the LGA became more resid ...

which has leased out the ground to a series of tenants since 1991. The current major tenant is the

(SAAFL), who use the venue as an administrative and training base, as well as a venue for some matches during the season including grand finals. The SANFL Umpires department is also based at Thebarton, with umpires training there during the SANFL Season. With Woodville-West Torrens looking to play selected SANFL night games at the venue after Friday night games at other suburban grounds that had lights installed had proved popular, the SAAFL made efforts to upgrade the six light towers at the oval. The lights had been installed when night football became popular in the 1950s, and along with

, Thebarton was a regular host of the SANFL night series, including hosting most of the night Grand Finals until

's lights were first used in 1984. The original six light towers that had been in place for almost 60 years, despite no longer being in use by the SANFL (though they were used by the SAAFL and other sports until 2011), were finally torn down in mid-2012. In their place four new light towers, each holding 18 lights giving three different levels of lighting, were installed and ready for use by March 2012 and were first used in full for the opening game of the 2012 SANFL season. The three levels of lighting are: * Level one for training * level two for SAAFL night games * Level three (full) for SANFL night games Thebarton hosted the last ever SANFL Night Grand Final held at a suburban ground when the 1983 SANFL Escort Cup Grand Final was played between West Torrens and South Adelaide. The Glenn Elliott coached Eagles won their last SANFL championship by defeating the

Graham Cornes Graham Studley Cornes OAM (born 31 March 1948 in Melbourne, Victoria) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach, as well as a media personality. From 1995 until early 2013, Cornes co-hosted a weekday drivetime sports program that he ho ...

coached Panthers 7.15 (57) to 5.7 (37). It would be the last SANFL night game played at a suburban ground until Norwood started playing night home games in the early 2000s.

Adelaide Football Club headquarters

In August 2022 officials at the

Adelaide Football Club The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 199 ...

announced the club would move its training and administrative headquarters away from

in West Lakes to an expanded and redeveloped Thebarton Oval precinct. The club later received federal and state government funding of $30 million and a further $11 million from West Lakes Council to partially finance the project, which received planning approval in June 2024. The upgrade of Thebarton Oval includes a two-storey, 150-metre long building, which will wrap around part of the ground. Indoor and outdoor training facilities will be added for the club's AFL and AFLW teams, and a cafe and members lounge and function viewing centre will incorporate the club's museum. Broadcast-quality floodlights and additional seating will also be include in the upgrade. Construction of the facility commenced in February 2025.

References

External links

Thebarton Oval
at austadiums.com
at Gridiron Association of South Australia
{{NRC Grounds Sports venues in Adelaide Rugby league stadiums in Australia Rugby union stadiums in Australia AFL Women's grounds