On a tour of the MCG I was puzzled. Then I was annoyed

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Opinion

On a tour of the MCG I was puzzled. Then I was annoyed

Justine CostiganContributor

September 11, 2026 — 5:00am

September 11, 2026 — 5:00am

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The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is a Melbourne icon, and not just for people who love sport. Even if you’ve never watched a live football or cricket match, seeing spectators streaming out of the grounds on a winter Saturday afternoon is like observing a sacred ritual: a symbol of one of the things that bring so many people together in this great city.

Today it hits another milestone, becoming the first place in Australia to host an in-season game for America’s National Football League, with 100,000 fans expected to attend the sold-out match between the LA Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.

The MCG opened in 1853, but tours only began in 1977. Run by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), which also administers the grounds, there are about 200 volunteer tour guides, all MCC members. Even though I live in Melbourne, I’ve never been on an MCG tour, so when I was given the option to try it, I couldn’t resist.

The MCC offers two experiences – the tour of the grounds, and a visit to the Australian Sports Museum. For anyone interested in the history of Aussie sport, the museum is the obvious choice. For anyone wanting to explore the stadium itself, the MCG tour is for you. Many people combine the two.

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Each tour is slightly different depending on the interest of the group, the guide and which areas of the MCG are open on the day. My group was mostly visitors from the UK and India, keen to set foot on the grounds they had only ever seen on TV. We went down into the stands, to the media centre and the team rooms, up into the corporate boxes and into the Members’ Reserve. We heard about Shane Warne, Brad Hodge, Sachin Tendulkar and Don Bradman. We walked past walls covered in photographs of sporting heroes and a members’ section devoted to great men in cricket.

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After a while, I started to wonder when we would hear some other stories. Perhaps a little more about the history of the land we were standing on – an important gathering space for the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Boonwurrung peoples – or about the history of women at the MCG. Beyond Betty Cuthbert and Shirley Strickland, whose extraordinary athletic achievements peaked in the middle of the last century, the only other woman mentioned on this tour was the MCG-filling performer Taylor Swift. I was puzzled, then annoyed. Mostly I felt sad for the two small girls trailing their dad around the tour. What were they making of this largely female-free zone?

I decided to go back and do the tour again just to see if it was a one-off. This time, the MCG location on an important Aboriginal meeting place was mentioned, and we saw Vincent Fantauzzo’s painting of the 2020 World Cup-winning Australia Women’s cricket team. It was in a side corridor.

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On some level I get it. For various reasons (lack of opportunity and sexism being two that come to mind) women’s sport wasn’t heavily featured at the MCG until relatively recently. Women couldn’t even become MCC members until 1984. But since then, women’s participation and achievement has grown exponentially. This didn’t feel right, so I decided to find out more.

Karlie Hawking is the venue dressing curator, museum and heritage services at the MCC and is passionate about giving women’s sport equal space at the MCG. She invited me to take a walk with her through the stadium. It gives me a welcome new perspective. A few days before we meet, Hawking had been finalising a floor-to-ceiling photograph in the Ponsford Stand of AFLW star Daisy Pearce. We pass another massive image of cricketer Beth Mooney, the first Australian woman to score a century in all three international formats, and at the cricketers’ suites, evocative images from the 1940s of Betty Wilson, considered one of the greatest cricketers of all time, greet visitors.

Hawking show​s me Fantauzzo’s painting of the women’s cricket team, now (coincidentally) moved to an impossible-to-miss, prominent position in the members’ area. The MCC/MCG is evolving as women’s sport becomes more prominent, she tells me. Already the change can be seen in the names on the honour boards and faces on the photo walls. As those additions grow, these spaces will start to look completely different.​

In the meantime, the MCC is adding to the museum’s 100,000-strong collection including everything from beads scattered on the MCG grounds at those Taylor Swift concerts, to building the Peggy Antonio collection – Antonio was a pioneering cricketer and the first to have her name added to the cricket honour boards.

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I wish I had seen all of this on my tours, but perhaps my guides intuited the audience wanted just the classics – a rundown of the undeniably awesome achievements by male sportspeople at the MCG. A record of women’s achievements is undoubtedly now there too, but on my tours, simply not highlighted. The MCC, and First Nations and women’s representation in sport in general have come a long way. Why not shout it from the rooftops?

The good news is, this inspiring history is there to discover for anyone who is interested. Any guide should be able to point it out to you if you ask. Should you have to ask? That’s another question entirely. As someone who is privileged to experience many guided tours, it’s a timely reminder: there’s always more to the story.

THE DETAILS

VISIT

MCG Tours and the Australian Sports Museum opening hours vary depending on event days, and are subject to change. See the website to check specific dates. MCG Tour adults $38, concession $26, child (five to 15) $17, family (two adults, two children) $91. Combined MCG tour and Australian Sports Museum tickets $50/$32/$22/$120. For anyone interested in how the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Boonwurrung peoples used the land the MCG is built on, the Koorie Heritage Trust’s Birrarung Wilam walking tour is a must-do. Weekdays at 1pm, tickets $20-$40.

mcg.org.au

kht.org.au

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FLY

Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar have daily flights from all major Australian cities. Rex Airlines, QantasLink, and Link Airways offer direct flights from a range of regional cities across Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Tasmania.

STAY

Laneways by Ovolo is within walking (or tram) distance of the MCG and everything else the city has to offer. From $250 a night. 19 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, (03) 8692 0777.

See ovolohotels.com

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visitvictoria.com

The writer was a guest of Journey Beyond on the first tour, and paid for the second herself.

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Justine Costigan is a Melbourne-based travel and food writer with a soft spot for food markets, mountain villages and the kind of small-town piazza where everyone seems to know everyone. She’s just as happy tracking down Marseille’s best street food as she is cycling through wine country or bathing under at the stars. Follow her on Instagram @justcostigan

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