Worst AFL surface ever seen? Waverley Park, 1993 Foster's Cup | Footscray vs Carlton

[@twomindz79]

I played on this ground a bit in the 90's. Always loved it . Huge and a great surface .

[@fosjam6421]

Same. Only had unreal experiences. The showers were the best though. Monster shower heads, with awesome hot water!

[@apelletier1886]

2:25 - A candidate for WORST mark of all-time. Hell of a good catch though.

[@melthoidserendipity1332]

Lucky the lights didn't go out that night! Would have been 36 ACL's done just trying to get back to the rooms...incredible! The Ron DeLulio bit...I've never seen anything like that...that alone should have got the match stopped! Oakley sucks!

[@saustfootball]

The Docklands surface wasn't too flash in the first season at least

[@TheCleaner76]

Apparently the ground curator was later hired to look after the surface at Colonial stadium 😂😅

[@lachlach3449]

They did move matches because of this surface, incredible to see how bad it was

[@Magpie_Mark92]

Thats correct alot of 93 fosters cup games were played at Princess Park

[@sentimentalbloke185]

@@Magpie_Mark92 *Princes

[@tameandhigginsareliars]

The Adelaide Crows VS NTH Melbourne match was moved to Football Park because of this surface. NTH was smashed and Schimmelbusch was sacked. At this time the Crows were hopeless away from Football Park. If the match had of gone ahead Schimmelbusch almost certainly would of kept his job and who knows what could have happened.

[@darrenmiles-morland8038]

Schimmelbusch probably would have gotten sacked soon after anyway, even if the match against the Crows hadn't been moved to Adelaide and the Kangaroos hadn't gotten belted by 147 points. Schimmelbusch never got the best out of that playing group during his previous 3 years as coach, and he'd clearly lost his players. The Crows surprisingly had a fairly good record at VFL Park at the time, despite not playing there very much (probably because the ground was similar in size and shape to their own Football Park home). I think that they would have beaten North Melbourne there anyway, but not by nearly as much as 147 points.

[@jimpaull94]

Should have called the game off.

[@EdukingdomJoe]

How was this match not called off?

[@EdukingdomJoe]

Footnote: Luke O'Sullivan did his knee in this match. The AFL GM Barry Capuano was sacked, as was the Waverley groundsman. Unbelievable.

[@HoratioFitzbastard]

Worst condition I ever saw Waverley in. This is still way better than the G in the middle of 89 though.

[@darrenmiles-morland8038]

Waverley's surface was even worse than that after the ground had been abandoned once the last ever Aussie rules match got played there in 2000. During the following 3 year period thereafter the playing surface was reduced to a field of weeds.

[@Ash_18037]

Sorry but this is FAR worse then the MGC mid 89. A mud heap is one thing but this was literally dangerous to the players well being, as opposed to unpleasantness of a mud bath. This VFL Park surface directly caused O'Sullivan knee reconstruction for example.

[@HoratioFitzbastard]

@@Ash_18037 I thought Rhino stood on a sprinkler.

[@Reboundfifty]

that is shocking, never seen anything like it