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West Park Oval

West Park Oval
Burnie-west-park-oval-20120203-003.jpg
Location Burnie, Tasmania
Coordinates 41°2′45″S 145°53′54″E / 41.04583°S 145.89833°E / -41.04583; 145.89833Coordinates: 41°2′45″S 145°53′54″E / 41.04583°S 145.89833°E / -41.04583; 145.89833
Owner Burnie City Council
Operator Burnie City Council
Capacity 12,000
Opened Circa 1900
Tenants
Burnie Dockers Football Club - TSL
Burnie Athletics Club - Tasmania cricket team
City of Burnie Cycling Club

West Park Oval is an Australian Rules football, cycling and athletics venue located on the shores of Bass Strait in Burnie, Tasmania. It is the current home of the Burnie Dockers in the Tasmanian State League and previously in the NTFL and in the original TFL Statewide League.

West Park Oval was also home of the former Cooee Football Club (later renamed Burnie Hawks in 1987 and the former Burnie Tigers Football Club in the North West Football Union (NWFU) and later of the NTFL until both clubs amalgamated in early 1994.

The ground hosted five Tasmanian State Grand Finals between 1961 and 1978, including the final State Premiership decider held in 1978, and was also the site of some of Tasmanian football's most infamous matches.

During an NWFU match in 1936 a hurricane hit West Park in the final quarter of a match between Burnie Tigers and Penguin, and as players were unable to keep their feet in the blinding rain and wind, many lay flat in the mud as there was great panic in the crowd as the hurricane threatened to demolish the Main Stand. Burnie (finishing the match with eleven men on the field) won 8.10 (58) to Penguin (who finished with six men on the field) 2.5 (17).

Arguably, Tasmanian football's most controversial match was the 1967 Tasmanian State Premiership Final between Wynyard and North Hobart, where hundreds of Wynyard fans invaded the field and tore down the goalposts as North Hobart's Dickie Collins went back to take a kick after the siren with Wynyard leading by one point. Umpires, players, team officials and police attempted to clear a path for Collins to take his kick, but Collins was eventually escorted from the ground under police protection, taking the match ball with him as a souvenir. The Tasmanian Football League declared the match a "no result" and withheld the 1967 State Premiership.

In 1967, a ground record crowd for a football match of 12,951 attended an exhibition match between the North Western Football Union representative team and the defending Victorian Football League premiers, St Kilda. St Kilda 35.27 (237) defeated NWFU 13.7 (85).

In 1996, visiting side Hobart became the first side in the TFL in 38 years not to register a goal in a senior match, managing a paltry 0.5 (5) against the Burnie Dockers and losing by 97 points in atrocious conditions.


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