Windy Hill, Essendon

Windy Hill is an Australian rules football ground located in Essendon, a northwestern suburb of the Melbourne metropolitan area.Windy Hill is the home base of the Essendon Football Club, one of the eighteen teams that makes up the Australian Football League. The phrase 'Windy Hill' is therefore often used to refer to the club itself. The club first played its home games there in 1922, having previously used the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, and used it continuously until 1991, after which it moved to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Their current home ground is Etihad Stadium, located at the Melbourne Docklands, which they moved to in 2000.Windy Hill is located on Napier Street, and is now primarily the team's training facility and administrative headquarters as well as the home to the Essendon Cricket Club. The ground also hosts the Grand Finals of the Essendon District Football League senior divisions. Over time a few of the stands and the manual scoreboard were demolished. Facilities include a gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool and lawn bowls/croquet club which is open to the public, as well as a bistro and the now famous Bomber Shop where fans can purchase merchandise.The name "Windy Hill" was bestowed on the ground in the mid-1950s by Melbourne "Sun News Pictorial" football columnist Lou Richards. Richards, who had been captain of Essendon's great rival Collingwood, had experienced the vagaries of the variable winds around the ground and the naming was typical of his expansive, humorous writing style.