Williamstown has mastered the playing conditions of its home ground, but won’t be playing any finals there this September. 85452_17 Picture: DAMIAN VISENTINI
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
AFL Victoria has deemed the newly refurbished Burbank Oval unsuitable to host VFL finals games this season.
Despite Williamstown finishing fifth and listed as the home team to play Bendigo in this Saturday’s elimination final, the game will take place at Port Melbourne’s North Port oval.
AFL Victoria Football operations manager John Hook said it was up to the league where elimination finals were played.
“We have an obligation to play finals with the ABC at Port Melbourne in week one for both days, and week two we’re doing the same at Casey,” Hook said.
“We’ve got two knockout finals, so we do need two other grounds. What those grounds will be, I’m not sure (until) after the draw, but it won’t be at Williamstown, I can tell you that.”
Although the VFL finals format is the same as the AFL’s, Hook said only the top two teams on the ladder were guaranteed home ground advantage if their preferred venue was available.
Jurisdiction over the playing surface falls with the Hobsons Bay City Council, which maintained the ground is “in a safe and playable condition.”
The muddy and slippery condition of the ground hasn’t affected Williamstown on the field, with both its senior and development teams performing well since returning to the venue in June.
However, club CEO Brendan Curry said the team tried to stay off the playing surface as often as it could.
“We’ve trained up at Crofts Reserve (in Altona) a couple of times, we’ve trained indoors and we’ve trained at the Whitten Oval, so we’ve done about three or four different things,” Curry said.
It is expected the ground will no longer host any more football games this season, giving the council until 6 October to have it ready for Williamstown Cricket Club’s opening match of the summer.
