First Impressions - Chaplin Reserve

I have never been to Sunshine George Cross's Chaplin Reserve before and I was fortunate to get my chance when the planned fixture I was going to photograph between Avondale Heights and Sydenham Park was moved to the venue presumably due to Avondale's Ground being unplayable.

Sunshine George Cross are probably one of the more recognisable names in Victorian football and have a rich history which includes a stint in the old National League and being able to walk onto a ground with such history was a bit of a buzz.

In hindsight I am glad I left my earlier match before half time, as at the moment, Chaplin Reserve has been surrounded by works due to the construction of the Regional Link Rail Link which has taken up some of the land which I assume was once part of the reserve and in turn made parking an absolute nightmare.

On arrival I was greeted with double parking on both sides of the packed entrance and only a small gap to travel down to the car park at the far end, I travelled down the narrow track, behind the pavilion as far as I could, but a person parked in the middle of the road had blocked the entrance to the small strip of vacant land behind the far goal, so I had to reverse the all the way back out to the road, as there was no room to turn around. I eventually found a spot in a nearby street about 500 meters away from the ground.

The ground itself and the buildings is very old and now thanks to the surrounding work very tightly packed in with the only standing room on the clubroom side of the ground and a small space behind the goal at the Anderson Road end.

The playing area is surrounded by high fences (chin high on me) which I imagine wouldn't be very appealing to the spectators and too high for me to be able to quickly jump over with my camera bag, so I had to find another way to access the pitch.

I walked past a recently built media box (which I assume was put in place as a Premier League requirement and now looks to be used as a VIP box) and towards the main pavilion where I could see a gate and a few marshals. The clubrooms were smaller than I expected them to be for a ground which did host regular NSL games in the 80's, but the change facilities were an even bigger surprise.

*EDIT - After doing some further research, the new media box is because of a fire which destroyed the previous media box in December 2011.

Portable change rooms hosted the home team and referees, while the away team had to settle for part of a converted shed! I was really shocked and these facilities don't look like short term temporary solutions, both had been standing there for a fair while as evident by the plants growing up the wall of the portables. I can only imagine what travelling NSL teams thought of playing there back in the day.

It is very hard for me to imagine the place hosting a few thousand people for a home game against clubs like Adelaide City or Sydney United, or even a local derby against Melbourne Croatia or Footscray JUST (for all I know, the ground could of been completely different back then as well, please feel free to correct me it that is the case).

But as the game went on, you got the sense of how intimidating such a place would of been back then and there was a certain character about the place which grew on me. It is something you simply don't get to experience as a spectator at the newer venues and the open reserves.

I hope George Cross will somehow benefit from the works being done to the rail line or at the very least will get some of the land back which is being used to aid the construction so they can better accommodate supporters as it really is a neat little suburban ground.