Memories of windy Hill

Was he the one who used to wear the sleeveless Essendon jumper when on the drums?

No he was the rhythm guitarist. in them old days you could see bands like Aussie Crawl, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel and many others playing at local venues/pubs. They were great days for live music, pity most of the venues are gone.

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one of my finest memories was being in the social club on the night of the 1984 premiership win. That was fun

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Do you remember seeing a kid asleep under the table - that was me :wink:

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If you weren’t bagging Dodoro,he wouldn’t have realised it was you…even 15 years before he had a gig at the club.

You will have to be more specific, there were a few

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Might be thinking of Goanna. Their drummer wore one in the Solid Rock video and was a cousin of the Madden brothers (who i think contributed in some form on a song of theirs).

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I was there at Moorabbin too. I was eight, but I remember it well because of the occasion and it was the only time I went there. I have a great photo of my old man with me my brother and my sister. Treasured memories :slight_smile:

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Made it into the Social Club with Dad through an Engineering mate. The best on ground got some award or mention, I don’t remember exactly. At some stage TD, Nobby Clark, Glenn Hawker and one of their wives all chatting while I stood in awe waiting for my Record to be signed. They looked like Gods to me and seemed so big as they do, I was only 8 and patient but they were pleasant. After a huge win no doubt, it was 1985.

That was really special to just another kid who lurked behind the two rows of seats anywhere between the cheer squad and the windsock but preferably nearer the wing. If you ventured closer the School End goals there was that mixture of losers who supported teams like Fitzroy, North, FC or whoever but not many of them. Once when I was about 13, I remember being somewhere on that dry area wing a bit behind the cheer squad. This St Kilda supporting kid bit shorter than I who obviously had dragged his Mum and younger siblings along (probably from somewhere like Cheltenham) kept nagging them to “Put the flags down!” The kid had pluck I’ll give him that but to me it was gall and I gave that runt a few nudges, stares and an exchange of words when Mum wasn’t looking. Know your place, pleb.

Both times I went to Vic Park, 85 and 86 (Fish’s comeback and a R1 thumping of them in Matthews first game as head coach, Ezard tore them a new one) you generally kept it low key and knew your place but relished in their squalor and misery on days like that. It was bloody sweet. Following footy now, seats and comfort is relaxed while there still might be a bit of niggle, some banter but really compared to back then, there’s absolutely no spice to it. Windy Hill was a fortress for a majority of the 80’s until the end, more often than not opposition fans walked away, an outright minority, defeated. I miss that. It was often 80-90% us, to them or neutrals.

Football aside, one of the things I do remember about Windy Hill and the suburban grounds was the omnipresent smell of Winfield Reds or Blues, Peter Jackson’s, Marlboros, Longbeach, Holidays, Benson & Hedges but possibly not Dunhills or Pall Malls cos this is suburbia mate. If it wasn’t the tar of the windsock hill, it was in the air. When this momentarily wasn’t prominent it was either Merri creek mud stink, hot chips, bloke on the beers flatulence, beer and awful wet duffel coats. I’m not exactly sure of the type of tree but the other standout that comes to mind were the peppercorn trees by the scoreboard. I can’t recall another ground in that era that had trees within its confines.

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Apologies for the crappy phone photo but recently read this and thought it was worth sharing here.
From a 1993 book This Game Of Ours, which featured a range of musings on footy from all sorts of people.

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I was never lucky enough to get into the Essendon rooms but I did go with a friend to the South Melbourne room at half-time at the lake ground. It was Bobby Skilton’s first game and surprisingly he did very well against Hutcheson…
Although South were well ahead of us at half-time their coach really berated their players and said they had to do something about Doug Bigelow who was throwing his weight around.

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The best “Four’n Twenty” pies this side of Antarctica.

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What’s the deal with the current windy hill venue thing? Do they show games and is there a bar and do people go?

Could be a good thing for people who can’t get a ticket to reduced crowd covid games?

I was probs at that. Mark Williams called my name out at the end as we all sat in the Reynolds stand…was just to tell me infront of everyone that my dad was a prick and I would have to walk home

Posted in the other thread…but

Got to 1 game as a 10 yr old. We got dropped off and picked up but it was a mad house on the streets. I’m so glad I got to go… Essendon got beat by Richmond on a wet and cold day.
We stood up the scoreboard end, my brother says there was a bar under scoreboard that dad was frequently attending.

I still love going back for VFL games. Glad we didn’t move them to the Hanger

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They had a social bar but the screens would have been 50 inch at best…no real good setup.

Watched a few VFL games up there and then Freo games after…some times they would get the projector out…that was a few years back

They sold tinnies and pies under the scoreboard, hardly a bar. All the best drunks were there.

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And Chiko Rolls.
If you were particularly smashed and wanted to see what regurgitated cabbage looks like.

When I sold pies there in the late 1960’s, not a Chiko Roll anywhere. Maybe in the Members !

After the game, and the customary 20 pots at the Royal, it was Dim Sims from the Chinese near Essendon Station.

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A bar at country footy is a tin shed that sells cans too

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