Preston City Oval

37°44′28″S 145°00′04″E / 37.741°S 145.001°E / -37.741; 145.001Capacity5,000 (500 seated)^[1]SurfaceGrassTenants

Preston Football Club (VFL),
Preston Cricket Club
Northern Knights TAC Cup,
Preston Bullants Junior Football Club,

The Preston City Oval is an Australian rules football stadium in Cramer Street in Preston, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne. It has a main grandstand and the ground is capable of holding around 5,000 spectators.

The Ground

The ground was the home of the Preston Football Club in the Victorian Football League, and has remained one of its two primary home grounds in the club's recent incarnations as the Northern Blues, and since 2021, the Northern Bullants. It is also the home of the Northern Knights TAC Cup side and the Preston Bullants Junior Football Club. It was also the venue for the Victorian Women's Football League Grand Final in 2007, where a new VWFL crowd record was set.

In the 1960s, the then-VFL's Fitzroy Football Club was interested in moving its base from the Brunswick Street Oval to Preston, owing to a poor relationship with the Fitzroy Cricket Club, and in 1962 it made a request to the Preston Council for a 40-year lease of the venue; but, the council decided that the lease could be granted only if the Fitzroy and Preston football clubs came to agreeable terms, which they did not.^[2]

In summer the ground is used by the Preston Cricket Club, who play in the VSDCA as their home ground. The PCC uses the ground for their 1st and 2nd XI as well as the Under 15 RM Hatch Team.

Redevelopment

In the summer of 2009/10 the ground was redeveloped. Drought tolerant couch grass has been in the summer so that the ground was ready for football season.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Preston City Oval.

^ "Preston City Oval". austadiums.com. Austadiums. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
^ "Grounds row widens". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. 20 March 1962. p. 40.

Preston Football Club

Trades and plays as the Northern Bullants since 2000
Known as the Northern Blues from 2012 until 2020

VFA/VFL premierships

Division 1	1968 1969 1983 1984
Division 2	1963 1965

VFA/VFL seasons

Pre-affiliation	1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Carlton-affiliated	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Post-affiliation	2021 2022 2023 2024

Preston amalgamated with Northcote in 1912 but returned to the VFA in 1926
Club did not participate in the 2020 season due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic