Encompassed by the green sheen of its synthetic turf oval, the blue hue of modern netball courts, croquet rinks and cricket wickets is the Morwell Recreation Reserve’s beating heart – a Category A grass football oval as good as any across the country.
The 16,760 square metre field is a premier sporting surface by day or under lights and has played host to numerous AFL and AFLW fixtures over the years.
A $9 million upgrade, funded by Federal and State Governments, was completed in 2020 to elevate the ground as a regional leader and AFL Centre of Excellence.
The expansion included construction of a full-size multipurpose synthetic training oval with lighting, new plexipave netball courts, a shared cricket and netball pavilion, upgraded change rooms, new lights to the main oval and an upgrade to the neighbouring Keegan Street Reserve.
Now a level 2 cricket ground with turf wicket blocks, the Keegan Street Reserve also includes synthetic training nets and clubrooms.
Morwell Recreation Reserve is home to several elite sporting associations including AFL Gippsland, Netball Victoria and TAC Cup side Gippsland Power.
The venue also includes the Power’s indoor centre of excellence, complete with a gym, indoor training facilities, kitchen, film review room, massage and storage areas and more.
This diverse and historic venue is easily accessed from the Princes Highway and is in close proximity to the Morwell CBD, Centenary Rose Garden, accommodation and public transport.
David Emerson, Collingwood Football Club Director of Stadia and Community
“Collingwood Football Club has been in partnership with the Victorian State Government through the Latrobe Valley Authority (LVA) to deliver the $85 million LVA Sports and Community Initiative since its inception in 2017. This has been an exciting project and we are immensely proud of all that has been achieved over the past four years. It is wonderful to see the major sports infrastructure projects now coming to life and on the back of this unprecedented investment in state-of-the-art sporting facilities Collingwood has been thrilled to host AFL, AFLW, VFL, and VFLW matches at the new AFL Centre of Excellence at the Morwell Recreation Reserve. The development of this facility over the past four years has delivered a venue that can cater for many different sporting activities in one place. Collingwood is proud to call this our Gippsland home with a brand-new multi-use synthetic oval for all weather conditions, new netball…
It takes a lot of moving parts to bring together a great event. It’s difficult to host events in some regional centres, because they simply don’t have the services and suppliers you need to make it work. It’s costly to bring everything with you, and we understand that in the Latrobe Valley.
