Hands Oval: What you need to know about AFL's newest venue
Hands Oval is in South Bunbury, a five-minute drive from Bunbury's city centre, and a two-hour drive south from the Perth CBD. The home of South West Football League powerhouse South Bunbury FC, it's about a half-hour drive north of Busselton Margaret River Airport, which is where North Melbourne will fly into on Friday ahead of Sunday afternoon's clash.
Hands Oval's recently-completed upgrades were planned to increase capacity for the game to 15,000 people, though Sunday's crowd may be slightly lower. Around half the crowd will have access to seating, with six temporary grandstands in place alongside the newly-completed 750-seat grandstand building. Liam Baker in action in March's pre-season game at Hands Oval. Credit: James Worsfold / Getty Images
No. The first batch of general admission tickets were released in March and sold out inside half an hour, with some later smaller releases going just as quickly.
Yes. There's been a total of 784 AFL/VFL games in WA, spread across three venues: 545 at Subiaco Oval, 167 at Optus Stadium, and 72 at the WACA Ground. This will be the first regional match for premiership points. Federal member for Forrest Nola Marino, City of Bunbury mayor Jaysen Miguel, SWFL president Barry Tate, Member for Bunbury Don Punch and SWFL general manager Jason Crowe take in the Hands Oval refurbishment earlier this year. Credit: Amber Lilley/South Western Times / South Western Times
Hands Oval is named after former Bunbury mayor J E Hands, who had two stints in charge of the city between 1928-1933 and 1937-1938. Hands Oval is ready for its moment in the national spotlight. Credit: Amber Lilley/South Western Times / RegionalHUB
Hands Oval has hosted six AFL pre-season games — four involving Fremantle and two featuring West Coast — as well as six WAFL games, an International Rules practice game and a Perth Glory pre-season fixure in 2009. When the cricket pitch was in place, it staged three domestic One Day Cup games between 2009 and 2011, the first of which saw Mitch Marsh become the State's youngest ever player. Matthew Pavlich and Chris Judd matched up on each other in a pre-season game between Fremantle and Carlton in 2009. Credit: Mal Fairclough / WA News
The typical south-west wind favours the north-east or city end of the ground, which will be left-of-screen when watching Sunday's broadcast. That end produced 15 of the game's 20 goals - and 29 of 40 scoring shots - in the pre-season match between West Coast and North Melbourne in March. The Hands Memorial Oval redevelopment features new dug-outs. Credit: Amber Lilley/South Western Times / RegionalHUB
Hands Oval will be the 52nd venue to stage an AFL/VFL game, and the 36th in the AFL era (since 1990). Bunbury will replace Subiaco Oval as the western-most location for a game, with China's Jiangwan Stadium the northern-most, New Zealand's Wellington Regional Stadium the eastern-most, and Hobart's Ninja Stadium the furthest south.
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