Inside Australia's sporting heart: what most fans at the MCG never get to see

Were you a kid who dreamed of walking onto the MCG, the roar of the crowd in your ears? I wasn't. But as I step onto the grass of this Australian icon, my heart beats faster with excitement ... even if the roaring is just in my head.

You don't need to be a sports star to stand in the centre of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. While there are standard behind-the-scenes tours of the stadium, I'm on the Premium Access Tour that adds a walk out to the centre of the pitch and ventures even deeper into the bowels of the stands.

"It's exciting because there's always something going on - it's a living village," says my volunteer guide, Barrie Jackett, a Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) member for 39 years. We walk through the change rooms with their ice baths and warm-up rooms. ("This is where the AFL players would stand and sing the team song if they win," Barrie shows us.) We sit at the desk in the media room where the coaches give their interviews. Right next door, often they can hear their opponents celebrating while they discuss their loss.

Along the underground roads beneath the seating, past the indoor cricket nets, and up into the exclusive members' area, this tour blends sport with heritage, taking in the portrait-lined MCC Long Room, dedications to cricket greats like Donald Bradman and the MCC Library with its endless tomes of statistics. For more history, you can also take the exclusive behind-the-scenes Keepers' Collection Tour into the secret storage rooms of the Australian Sports Museum. Hidden beneath the stadium, most of the collection hasn't been seen by the public for years and there's a thrill walking through the nondescript entrance into the trove of more than 70,000 items. Looking around, I easily spot a Melbourne Cup, a State of Origin ball and plenty from the 1956 Olympics.

"We're not just celebrating success ... the bad things are here too," says the MCC's James Tranter, referring to controversies like cricket's 2018 ball-tampering scandal. But it's this roughness that brings the behind-the-scenes collection to life. There are no flashy exhibitions, just raw sporting heritage with all its cracks and creases. And when you book the tour, you can even specify your interests so the keepers will bring out items that are of particular interest.

The writer was a guest of Cultural Attractions of Australia