1250 CARLTON footballers – from Jimmy Aitken to Flynn Young - have represented the Football Club at senior VFL/AFL level since the League’s inception of 1897. But only 19 of them can lay claim to meeting Melbourne in a match for Premiership points on the long-gone Motordrome, now the site of the Melbourne rectangular stadium AAMI Park.
It happened some 93 years ago, in the 6th round of 1932, when 12,500 fronted for the fixture, which was relocated from the MCG as the people’s ground was being resurfaced. It was one of just three League home and away matches staged at the Motordrome, the others involving Melbourne’s opponents Richmond in Round 2 and Geelong in Round 4.
Following the acting Carlton Captain Frank Gill onto the Motordrome for the 6th Round contest were fellow players Vin Arthur, Horrie Bullen, Ron ‘Socks’ Cooper, Creswell ‘Micky’ Crisp, Jim Crowe, Charlie Davey, Fred Gilby, Jack Green, Eric Huxtable, Maurie ‘Moccha’ Johnson, Joe Kelly, Eric Little, Gordon Mackie, Aubrey Martyn, Leo Opray, Ted Pollock, Charlie Street and Harry ‘Soapy’ Vallence.
For the record, Carlton won the match – 12.15 (87) – 9.9 (63) – with ‘Micky’ Crisp booting four in a best afield performance.
The Motordrome, previously the Friendly Societies’ Ground, was also known as the Olympic Park Speedway, the Melbourne Speedway and the Victorian Speedway. According to Wikipedia, Melbourne Carnivals Pty. Ltd, a company established in 1923 by Jack Campbell and Jim DuFrocq, developed and leased a large site known as the Amateur Sports Ground from the Crown with the help of local entrepreneur John Wren. On the site, the Motordrome was constructed, and speedway, motorcycle and sidecar races were staged.
The stadium comprised a grassed oval suitable for football set inside a saucer-shaped concrete oval track suitable for motor racing; the track was a third of a mile long and banked at a 46 degree angle.
Although Melbourne Carnivals originally had visions for the stadium to accommodate 100,000 spectators, it was ultimately built to accommodate around 32,000. The Motordrome was opened on November 29, 1924, and 32,000 spectators attended the inaugural race meeting.
On December 11, 1926, the venue hosted a shambolic ostrich racing event. A full program of races was scheduled, but the program was cancelled after three farcical attempts at races – in which startled ostriches imported from South Australia and ridden by inanimate jockeys ran in opposite directions - and ostriches attached to sulkies failed to break out of a walk.
In 1933, the ageing concrete surface of the motor racing track was no longer suitable for the higher powered vehicles on it, so it was demolished and replaced with a dirt track which continued to be used for motor racing.
In the same year, the Amateur Sports Ground was renamed Olympic Park, and the name was generally used for both the former Motordrome stadium, and the wider park in which it was situated.
Sadly, the roar of the engines sputtered to a halt with the advent of World War Two and petrol rationing was enforced.
Melbourne Carnivals lost the park’s licence in 1941, with ownership reverting to the Parks committee of management. Notwithstanding a few charity events after the war, the Motordrome’s speedway days were over and when a fire set the grandstand alight in 1951 the oval was demolished.
