WANGARATTA Council is hoping another successful staging of an AFL pre-season match will be the springboard to the city finally reclaiming the Ovens and Murray Football-Netball League after an absence of more than two decades.
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The official crowd of 7681 people, who witnessed reigning premiers Richmond dismantle Essendon by 87 points, was well below the sellout 11,000 crowd which watched the same two clubs do battle at the Norm Minns Oval in 2013.
Close to 8000 tickets had been pre-sold to Wangaratta’s latest AFL experience on Thursday night and even though there were some tickets remaining on match-day many agreed the official crowd figure released during the final term was light.
There were unconfirmed reports not all tickets were scanned as large crowds battled to get into the ground before the 4.35pm start time.
Other media outlets reported an estimated 11,000 people attending the match.
Cr Harvey Benton said the council was deadly serious about hosting the O and M grand final for the first time since 1994.
“I’m still happy with the crowd, the ground looked a picture and I’ve already patted the ground staff on the back for the job they’ve done,” he said.
“It’s up to us now to get the O and M grand final here and I’m serious as anyone to make it happen.
“We’ve done some advocacy work today and spoken to some of the board members of the O and M.”
O and M chairman David Sinclair and other board members Kim Odewahn, Jamie Ramage, David Kefford and Ken Jasper attended the official match-day function hosted by the council.
The O and M is hunting for a grand final venue with redevelopment works at Lavington Sportsground expected to rule it out of the equation.
Mr Sinclair said the presentation of the venue was first class including the bike track fenced off to enable spectators to be closer to the ground.
“They are as keen as mustard to host it,” he said.
“They can certainly do it no question, but it is a football-netball grand final.
"There are a few issues they need to sort out at the netball court.
“But I don’t think the issues are insurmountable.”
The concerns centre on the standard of the netball court and a lack of spectator viewing areas around the court.
Spectators at Saturday’s match have also contacted The Border Mail with complaints about the ticketing arrangements whereby they could only be purchased online and not at Wangaratta performing arts centre as was the case when other AFL matches have been held.
Other feedback centred on restricted viewing on the eastern side of the ground and no scoreboard on the grandstand side of the venue.
The tender to host the grand final has to be submitted by Wangaratta Magpies and not council.
Hosting arrangements will be made available to clubs next month and a decision made in May.
Further complicating Wangaratta Magpies’ bid to host the grand final is the real chance they will be playing on the day.
