{"id":229358,"date":"2025-06-04T12:28:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T02:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=229358"},"modified":"2025-06-04T12:31:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T02:31:49","slug":"aflw-fixture-prompts-windy-hill-turf-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=229358","title":{"rendered":"AFLW fixture prompts Windy Hill turf war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Essendon\u2019s cricket and football clubs are at loggerheads over the use of the famed Windy Hill ground, a venue they\u2019ve shared for over a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The AFLW season\u2019s overlap into coming cricket season means the Essendon Cricket Club will not play on their home ground until at least round five of the coming season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cricket Victoria chief executive Nick Cummins said for the past two years, the cricketers had agreed to find alternate accommodation and not play at Windy Hill during October, to accommodate the end of the AFLW season.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"584\" height=\"389\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-229359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-4.jpeg 584w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-4-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Essendon\u2019s AFLW team in action at Windy Hill.CREDIT:&nbsp;AFL PHOTOS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But he said the cricket club expressed to the AFL earlier this year that the arrangement was no longer working, stating its desire to return to its home of 152 years for the full season and for the Essendon AFLW team to play elsewhere from October onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not only did he say the AFL refused, but when the fixture for the AFLW season was released last week the Bombers boasted about the \u201crecord\u201d number of home games they\u2019d been allocated at the venue, with two of those games scheduled during what is traditionally the cricket season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEffectively, a professional sporting body in Victoria is looking to bulldoze a community cricket club that\u2019s run by volunteers,\u201d Cummins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cummins said Essendon Football Club, which is the primary lease-holder for Windy Hill, should instead work with the cricket club to come to an agreement that suited both outfits.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"584\" height=\"389\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-229387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-5.jpeg 584w, https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-5-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Windy Hill is spiritual home of the Bombers.CREDIT:&nbsp;JOE ARMAO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He pointed to the division of seasons agreement with the state government, which states the cricket season runs from October through to the end of March, while football gets from April to the end of September, and he said that tradition should be upheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Teams competing in a national competition are not bound by the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cummins said the two sports had always coexisted, to the benefit of the sports leagues and the people of Victoria, and negotiations would be necessary as both sports continued to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019d like to see the football club work with the cricket club for a mutual, agreeable outcome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Essendon\u2019s cricket and football clubs are at loggerheads over the use of the famed Windy Hill ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":229387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10578],"tags":[12995,12490,16936],"class_list":["post-229358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afl","tag-essendon","tag-essendon-football-club","tag-windy-hill"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229388,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229358\/revisions\/229388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/229387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}