The Lockett end at Marvel Stadium. Picture: AFL Photos

THE SIGNS are clear. Or in this case, the signs are near. 

The Coventry and Lockett ends of Marvel Stadium – named after legendary goalkickers Gordon Coventry and Tony Lockett – are set to officially return to the ground.

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The mystery of the missing signs began at the start of 2022, when the AFL revealed it had installed two new state-of-the-art scoreboards hanging from either end of the venue.

Former chief executive Gillon McLachlan even called the scoreboards "the sexiest things you can possibly imagine".

But questions quickly swirled to the whereabouts of the Lockett and Coventry signs that had adorned the opposite ends of the ground – Lockett at the northern end of the ground and Coventry at the southern – since the Docklands venue opened in 2000.

False hope rose in mid-2022 among Docklands devotees that the ends and signs would be reinstated by the close of that season, but it was to no avail. 

A general view during the R19 match between Essendon and Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium on July 21, 2023. Picture: AFL Photos

However now, with the AFL's latest Marvel Stadium redevelopment phase complete, they're coming home, with Marvel Stadium spokespeople saying the signs will be returning shortly.

So, too, may the club-specific ground ends that came with the evolution of the ground, such as the Matthew Lloyd and Dustin Fletcher ends that tenant club Essendon used for its home games before the new scoreboards.

Collingwood champion Coventry kicked 1299 goals and held the VFL/AFL goalkicking record for more than 60 years before St Kilda and Sydney legend Lockett broke it in 1999. Lockett remains the game's greatest ever goalkicker with 1360.