The Norwood Football Club unveiled the Aish Family Lawns on the Northern Hill of Coopers Stadium, a sight that will bring back fond memories for older Redlegs fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The lawned area was a popular viewing place for matches at The Parade up until the late 1970s,\u00a0however\u00a0in more recent years\u00a0it\u00a0has been replaced by concrete terraces.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a\u00a0significant\u00a0donation from Norwood Football Club\u2019s\u00a0Number One Ticket Holder and life-long Redlegs\u00a0supporter\u00a0Andrew Pridham\u00a0AO, the club have reinstated the lawns.<\/p>\n
The project took place over the summer months following the 2025 season, and on April 10, 2026, Mr Pridham AO officially opened the Aish Family Lawns.<\/p>\n
Originally from Adelaide and a passionate former member of the Norwood cheer-squad growing up,\u00a0Andrew\u00a0now resides in Sydney,\u00a0where he is the Chairman of the Sydney Swans.<\/p>\n
He studied at Rostrevor College and then\u00a0University of South Australia, before going on to spend more than 30 years in business and investment banking, co-founding MA Financial Group. He also spent 13 years at UBS and six years at JP\u00a0Morgan where he was Executive Chairman of its Investment Banking business in Australia.<\/p>\n
He was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2019 for his distinguished service to the investment banking\u00a0\u00a0& asset management sector, to sporting groups and to philanthropy.<\/p>\n
The Lawns have been named after the Aish family, true Norwood royalty. Five Aishes have represented the Redlegs across seven different decades from the 1950s to 2010s, including Peter Aish, his sons Andrew Aish and Michael Aish, and their sons Jesse Aish and James Aish.<\/p>\n
Peter played 162 games for Norwood from 1953 to 1962, captaining the club from 60-62, and playing five State Games, and was inducted into the NFC Hall of Fam in 2013.<\/p>\n
Peter\u2019s sons Michael and Andrew played in Premierships at Norwood, with Michael now known as one of Norwood\u2019s greatest ever players. Michael played 307 matches from 1979 to 1993, captaining the club for three seasons, and playing in the 82 and 84 Premierships.<\/p>\n
Michael is in Norwood\u2019s Team of the Century, won four Best and Fairests, the 1981 Magarey Medal, 14 State Games, and is in the Norwood, SANFL & Australian Football Hall of Fames. He\u2019s \u201cLegend Status\u201d in the NFC HOF.<\/p>\n
Andrew played 89 games for the Redlegs, including the 1982 Premiership, and two Reserves Premierships, before his career ended earlier than hoped due to ongoing injuries.<\/p>\n
Michael\u2019s son Jesse played 38 League games for Norwood, and Andrew\u2019s son James played 24 games for Norwood, including the 2012 and 2013 SANFL Premierships, before going on to have a 186-game AFL career with Brisbane, Collingwood and Fremantle.\u201cThe Aish family synonymous with the Norwood Football Club. \u00a0Their contribution to the club on and off the field over many decades has been enormous. As a family they exemplify athletic brilliance and integrity,\u201d Mr Pridham AO said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fitting that the lawns, \u00a0located at the Northern end of the Norwood Oval and designed to cater for children and their families, should be associated with the Aish family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been an honour to be able to assist in a small way the development of these gardens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norwood President Paul Di Iulio thanked Mr Pridham AO for his generous conrtibution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe creation of the Aish Family Lawns would not have been possible without the very generous contribution by Andrew Pridham,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing that although Andrew has gone onto to forge a very successful professional career and is the Chairman of the Sydney Swans, he has never lost his love and passion for the Norwood Football. His willingness to help us is very much appreciated and I couldn\u2019t think of anything better that creating a legacy at the northern end by connecting Andrew Pridham with the Aish family forever!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norwood Football Club unveiled the Aish Family Lawns on the Northern Hill of Coopers Stadium, a sight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-597491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}