For 85 years and 704 games Lake Oval was home for the Swans. Through good times and bad, the Club was based at the picturesque field located on the bank of Albert Park Lake, a few good punt kicks from true South Melbourne heartland.
It was one of the first major sporting grounds in Melbourne to install lighting, and hosted the League’s official night series from 1956 to 1971 as well as regular interstate night matches, including the 1958 interstate carnival.
It was where the Swans had 380 wins, played out eight draws and enjoyed a 55.1 per cent win ratio. Of the old suburban grounds before the nationalisation of the competition, the Club only had a better win ratio at Junction Oval (60.1 per cent).
It was the venue for many wonderful memories for Swans fans through generation after generation, but on this day 37 years ago, on August 29, 1981, it all came to the end.
South, having moved north to begin a new life as the Sydney Swans, played their last game at Lake Oval.
It was Round 22. South, ninth on the 12-team ladder with an 8-13 record and three weeks without a win, hosted eighth-placed North Melbourne, who were one game ahead at 9-12.
The Club’s last Lake Oval win had come five weeks earlier in game #702 against St Kilda in Round 16 on July 18. In extraordinary circumstances, the Saints led 9-0 to 3-0 at quarter-time before the Swans, after an 87-point turnaround, finished over the top of them 22.19 (151) to 16.4 (100). Shane Morwood and Silvio Foschini kicked four goals and Greg Smith and Mark Browning had 30 possessions.
In the farewell to Lake Oval, South were coached for the 111th and last time by triple Brownlow medallist Ian Stewart and captained by Barry Round in a year in which the big-hearted ruckman shared the Brownlow Medal with great mate and former Footscray teammate Bernie Quinlan
Stewart made seven changes to the Round 21 side that had lost to Essendon by 111 points, with Mark Fraser, Kevin Goss, Max Kruse, Peter Melesso, Paul Morwood, John Roberts and Peter Morrison, in his first game for the year, replacing the injured Tony Morwood, Francis Jackson and Max James, as well as Stephen Allender, Anthony Daniher, Phillip Moir and Phillip Plumb.
Nineteen-year-old Melesso, a 190-centimetre key-position player, made his debut in what turned out to be his only game for the Club. He was Swans player #1102.
Melesso later played seven games at St Kilda between 1983 and 1985 and after a fine career with Claremont in the WAFL added six games with West Coast across 1989 and 1990, before he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer midway through the 1990 season.
He found himself in the public eye again in 2005 when, after working at the Beaconsfield Hotel in St Kilda, he appeared as a witness in the manslaughter trial of professional boxer and bouncer Zdravko Micevic into the death of Test cricketer David Hookes.
Seventeen-year-old Foschini, in his 17th game, was the baby of the last South side to play at Lake Oval, while Round in his 258th game was the oldest at 31.
Bernie Conlen, who debuted for South a week earlier at Windy Hill, played his second and last game for the Club, while Fraser (20 games), Goss (24), Morrison (91) and Brownlow medallist Graham Teasdale (121) also played their last games in red and white.
It was Teasdale’s 50th game at Lake Oval before he joined Collingwood in 1982.
In the North side, Andrew Demetriou, later to become AFL chief executive, played his 12th AFL game and, like teammates Glenn Dugdale, Ross Glendinning, Kym Hodgeman, Phil Kelly (father of GWS star Josh Kelly), Peter Smith and Peter Spencer, his only game at Lake Oval. It was also Darryl Schimmelbusch’s 47th and last AFL game.
North were coached for the sixth time by Barry Cable, who had replaced first-year captain-coach Malcolm Blight in Round 17 when he was sacked after six losses in a row. Blight had taken over from Ron Barassi at the start of the year.
Dennis Carroll, who played just his 14th game before going on to skipper the Club and win Team of the Century selection, admitted it was a sad day in many respects because of the history and passion, but said most players accepted it was for the greater good of the Club.
But not everyone agreed – and the Swans cheer squad made a totally black banner in protest. Captain Round elected not to run through it and instead led the players around it.
“It was a really sad day … there were in the stands crying and we (the players) understood the emotion. But faced with the option of shutting the place down, merging with St Kilda or moving the Club to Sydney, we chose Sydney,” Round said.
“The Club was operating at a loss and that couldn’t continue so at least Sydney gave us some light at the end of the tunnel and it would keep the Club alive.
“We weren’t overly well resourced when we first moved to Sydney, but look at the Club now … it’s one of the strongest in the competition and has 60,000 members. And I’ve seen us win two flags.”
Despite all the emotion of the day, South trailed at every change and lost 15.17 (107) 10.14 (74) in front of a crowd of 8,485.
Round was unbelievable. He had 32 possessions, second-highest in his 328-game career, and a career-best 19 marks – five more than in any other game.
In talking about the game, Round also confirmed a long-suspected but unconfirmed fact that despite the Swans’ loss his standout performance in the last game of the year earned him throw votes in the Brownlow Medal and a share of the medal with Quinlan.
He was told as much by 131-game field umpire Tony Bryant, whose junior partner in the Lake Oval farewell, Graeme Marcy, also finished at the top level on that day.
Amazingly, Round also topped the team possession count for the year and won the Club Champion award.
Carroll, a 21-year-old first-year player, had kicked just two goals in his first 13 games but marked the occasion with an equal career-best four goals. And Mark Browning, in his 122nd game, topped 30 possessions for just the third time and kicked two goals.
Teams for the last game at Lake Oval (not in actual playing positions) were:
SOUTH MELBOURNE
B: Ian Roberts, Rod Carter, Peter Melesso
HB: Mark Browning, Max Kruse, David Ackerly
C: Paul Morwood, Greg Smith, Brett Scott
HF: Peter Morrison, Graham Teasdale, Dennis Carroll
F: Mark Fraser, John Roberts, Silvio Foschini
R: Barry Round (c), Colin Hounsell, Stevie Wright
Res: Kevin Goss, Bernie Conlen
Coach: Ian Stewart
NORTH MELBOURNE
B: Daryl Schimmelbusch, David Dench, Stephen McCann
HB: Ross Henshaw, Ross Glendinning, John Law
C: Xavier Tanner, John Byrne, Andrew Demetriou
HF: Michael Reeves, Arnold Breidis, Peter Spencer
F: Kym Hodgeman, Kerry Good, Glenn Dugdale
R: Gary Dempsey, Phil Kelly, Brian Wilson
Res: Peter Smith, Rodney Wright
Coach: Barry Cable
Scores
North 5-7 7-9 12-13 15-17 (107)
South 3-2 6-7 9-11 10-14 (74)
Goals: NM: Good 5,Breidis 3, Spencer 2, Dugdale 2, Demetrio, Hodgeman, Wright. SM: Carroll 4, Foschini 2, Browning 2, J Roberts, Round.
