| North Hobart Oval was constructed in 1921/22 in a hilly area in North Hobart. When it was first completed
the ground was tiered on one side (mostly standing room, with a few thousand seats at the front), and had the small Ryde
Street Stand (George Miller Stand) on the outer, which still stands today. The Argyle Street Stand (Horrie Gorringe Stand)
was constructed in 1923 in time for the first of three interstate carnivals held at the ground. The next major upgrade(s)
was in the mid 1960s when a series of upgrades built the Roy Cazaly Stand in between the Miller and Gorringe Stands, a new
terrace in place of “the hill” in the north-west corner of the ground, a ramp behind the eastern goals, new players’ races,
relocation of the scoreboard, clock and press boxes into one building on top of the roof of the Letitia Street Stand and
more tiered areas around the oval. It was supposed to have increased the stadium’s capacity to 25,000. Nothing major came
again until the demolition of the Letitia Stand and building of the Doug Plaister Stand in the 1980s. Although many
redevelopment ideas were put forward in the 1990s to upgrade the size of the playing surface, none went ahead. The best of
these ideas involved pushing the playing surface out to the Ryde Street (southern) wing, cutting out three rows if terrace
seating and rotating the goalposts 20m clockwise to increase the dimensions to 160m x 138m. The Miller Stand would then be
relocated to a position next to the Plaister Stand.
The ground became the home of football in Tasmania as soon as it was constructed, and has hosted three interstate carnivals
(in 1923, 1947 and 1966). Five VFL/AFL roster matches have been played at the small oval, with the first being between
Melbourne and Fitzroy on “National Day” in 1952 before a crowd of 18,337. The other four came in 1991/2 when Fitzroy made
Hobart its second home. Those matches attracted crowds of 13,354 (Hawthorn), 13,749 (St. Kilda), 8,819 (West Coast) and
10,265 (Essendon). The Lions were defeated by 157 points in their match against Hawthorn as the Hawks kicked their record
score. It was the scene of many state of origin matches, with the most memorable being Tasmania’s 33 point win over
Victoria in 1990 before 18,651 fans.
North Hobart have been the home team of the oval since it was built, and the oval has also been the main ground of the TFL
(until 1986), the TSFL/SWL (1986-2000) and now the SFL. This was except for the SWL in 2000, when the Grand Final was
played at York Park in Launceston instead. All TFL finals and Grand Finals were played at the oval, which attracted crowds
of up to 25,000 for Grand Finals and as many as 18,000 for the Preliminary, Semi, Qualifying and Elimination Finals. The
highest ever crowds at the ground were for TFL Grand Finals, with the biggest being 24,968 for the 1979 Grand Final between
Clarence and Glenorchy, 24,413 for the 1970 Grand Final between Clarence and New Norfolk, and 22,193 for the 1981 Grand
Final between Clarence and New Norfolk.
Many AFL practice matches and pre-season cup matches have been played at the ground, with perhaps the most memorable being
the 1997 practice match between Sydney and Essendon, which Essendon won by 11 points. The crowd in this match was very
important, because at the time Tasmania was pushing for a team in the AFL, and the bigger the crowd the bigger the chance
that Tassie would be in the AFL. In horrible rain and wind, 15,632 brave fans turned up, a crowd that was praised by both
coaches and the AFL - but Tassie never got that team. Other memorable practice matches include the 1938 game between
Fitzroy and Essendon. Champions such as Dick Reynolds and Haydn Bunton played in this game, which Fitzroy won by one point
before 8,944 fans. Another memorable match was in 1999 between St. Kilda and North Melbourne. This game was an Ansett Cup
(pre-season competition) Quarter Final, and the winner would advance into the Semis. The match being televised live
statewide did not help increase the crowd, with only 7,815 watching the Saints get up by just 9 points.
Aside from being Hobart’s main football oval, the ground has also hosted other sports such as Cricket, Athletics and
Soccer. In fact the ground has a long soccer history with some memorable games being: Tasmania 2 d. China 1 before 4,000
spectators in 1923, England 11 d. Tasmania 0 before 5,742 fans in 1951, Hong Kong 6 d. Tasmania 4 before 2,000 in 1953,
Hong Kong 11 d. Tasmania 2 before 1,500 in 1955, Hungary 3 d. Australia 2 before 3,000 in 1957, Heart of Midlothian 10 d.
Tasmania 0 before 3,000 in 1959, Chelsea 12 d. Tasmania 0 before 4,500 in 1965 and England 8 d. Tasmania before 4,390 in
1971.
Now the oval is a co-home (with York Park in Launceston and the Ulverstone Football Ground) of the Tassie Devils in the
VFL, Australia’s second best football competition, and in its debut season, 2001, attracted crowds of 3,610 (Frankston),
4,968 (Werribee), 2,641 (Port Melbourne) and 4,732 (Sandringham) for its four matches. Except for the Port Melbourne game,
which was played on a Saturday, all of the matches were played on Sundays.
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