vinm

What happens when you turn a footy stadium into a housing estate? Your end up with apartments on the half-back-flank, in the forward pocket and wherever the scoreboard used to be.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the only AFL premiership played at the now decommissioned Waverley Park. Hawthorn fans paying a visit to mark the anniversary may be disappointed, or relieved, to find there's not much left of Waverley Park, which hosted its last game in 1999.

There's one grandstand still standing, the Sir Kenneth Luke Stand, and the huge playing surface is still there. But you won't find the terraces or the seating or the hot dog stands or the scoreboard. Or even the vast car-park.

You'll find neat houses in neat streets with names like Edgbaston and Lords and Notre Dame and Waverley Park. You'll find three storey apartments overlooking the green, green grass of home.

It's all a bit disorienting at first but if you had one of those homes that's almost right on the boundary line then you've got a huge backyard - and someone else mows it for you.

Hawthorn Football Club is based at Waverley these days, so you might look out from your balcony or your lounge room and see Luke Hodge slotting a few goals during training.