Skinner Reserve
Skinner Reserve in 2014, prior to the demolition of the Chigwidden Stand
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| Location | Braybrook, Victoria |
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| Coordinates | 37°47′14″S 144°51′19″E / 37.78722°S 144.85528°ECoordinates: 37°47′14″S 144°51′19″E / 37.78722°S 144.85528°E |
| Owner | City of Maribyrnong |
| Field size | 175m × 155m |
| Surface | Grass |
| Opened | 1966 |
| Tenants | |
| Sunshine Football Club (1966–1989) | |
Skinner Reserve is an Australian rules football stadium located on Churchill Avenue, Braybrook, Victoria. It is most notable as the former home ground of the Sunshine Football Club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA).
Prior to Skinner Reserve being developed as a football ground, the primary sports venue in the City of Sunshine was Selwyn Park, Albion. In 1964, the Sunshine Council agreed to lease Selwyn Park to the George Cross soccer club, which was playing in Victoria's top level soccer league at the time; but, the Sunshine Football Club, as well as the local baseball and sub-district cricket clubs, still had three years to run on their lease. To secure agreement from the Sunshine Football Club to end the lease, the Sunshine Council committed to developing a new VFA-standard venue at Skinner Reserve. The venue was built during the 1965 season, with the football club signing a seven-year lease to begin from 1966. The venue had a very wide playing surface, high grassed embankments for spectators, and a grandstand – narrow, but quite tall by suburban standards – named the J. A. Chigwidden Stand after long-serving Sunshine Football Club committeeman Jack Chigwidden.
During 1965, before the venue was finished, the Victorian Football League's Footscray Football Club made an application to the Sunshine Council to permanently move its playing and administrative base to the venue, and to develop it further to a VFL-standard venue; this came at a time when fellow VFL clubs St Kilda and North Melbourne had just moved their bases to VFA venues (Moorabbin Oval and Coburg City Oval respectively). The council ultimately honoured its existing agreement with the Sunshine Football Club, and rejected Footscray's application, and Sunshine began playing at the venue in 1966.
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