Anzac Day match: Difference between revisions

The ANZAC Day clash is an annual

During many wars, Australian rules football matches have been played overseas in places like northern Africa and Vietnam as a celebration of Australian culture and as a bonding exercise between soldiers.^[2][3][4] Despite this, professional football was not played on ANZAC Day for many years; in 1959 for example, when all VFL games were played on Saturday afternoons and when ANZAC Day also fell on a Saturday, the entire round was withheld and played on the following Saturday.^[5]

The first VFL matches played on ANZAC Day occurred in 1960 following an Act of Parliament which lifted the previous restriction on this activity.^[5] Over the years these games sometimes drew huge crowds, with the 1975 Carlton versus Essendon game attracting 77,770 fans to VFL Park, a then record for the day, while two years later in 1977 Richmond and Collingwood would easily surpass this, drawing 92,436 to the MCG.^[5][6]

In 1986 the league used ANZAC Day to attempt its first ever doubleheader. Held at the MCG, Melbourne and Sydney played in the afternoon, followed after a short break by a North Melbourne and Geelong match in the evening under lights; with a total crowd of only 40,117 and various logistical problems, the league has never attempted another doubleheader.^[5][6] Through the years until the mid-1990s it was common for at least two matches to be played on the ANZAC Day public holiday.^[7]

The modern version of the ANZAC Day clash was conceived by then Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy while pottering in his garden in the mid-90s.^[5] Sheedy, who had done two years service in the army after being drafted in 1969, thought back to the success of the huge 1977 game when he was playing for Richmond, and considered how the football on ANZAC Day could pay suitable tribute to those who had served their country.^[5]

Sheedy organised a meeting with officials from Essendon and Collingwood, and the then Victorian Returned and Services League (RSL) President Bruce Ruxton, who was also a keen Collingwood supporter, and proposed his concept for the match day and game which would honour the Anzac spirit.^[5] Despite their previous opposition to football on ANZAC Day, Ruxton and the RSL agreed with Sheedy's proposal, as did the AFL, and the first match in its current form was played in 1995 in front of the league's second biggest ever home-and-away crowd of 94,825, with up to 20,000 further fans estimated to have been turned away at the gate.^[5]

Today, this game is often considered the biggest match of the AFL season outside of the finals, sometimes drawing bigger crowds than all but the Grand Final, and often selling out in advance.^[8][9] As a point of comparison, in the National Rugby League, the Sydney Roosters and St. George Illawarra Dragons have played on Anzac Day since 2002, but generally without the increase in crowd numbers compared to other games as seen in the AFL.^[10]

In recent years, other clubs and some sections of the media have lobbied for the game to be shared amongst all clubs, not just Collingwood and Essendon.^[11][12] Since 1996^[13], one year after the team's inception, Fremantle has held the Len Hall Tribute Game, named in honour of Western Australia's last Gallipoli veteran.^[14] This game is regularly held on Anzac Day as a Western Australian featured game.^[13] With Anzac Day falling on a Saturday in 2009, four games were scheduled for the day,^[15] yet the largest fixture (the MCG) continued to host Collingwood and Essendon at the exclusion of other clubs. Critics have argued that this fixture should be shared.^[16][17]

Conversely, other commentators such as Liz Porter, Chris Fotinopoulos and Ruby Murray have criticised the Australian Football League for the way it promotes of event, alleging that it has exploited the sacredness and solemnity Anzac story for the purpose of financial profit.[19]^[20][21][22] According to Porter:

The commodification of "the Anzac spirit" as an AFL marketing device appears to have begun with the 1995 Essendon-Collingwood clash, after which a commemorative poster of the game was produced, bearing the words "Lest we forget". A solemn pledge was reborn as an advertising slogan.^[19]

Also the subject of criticism have been the comments often made in relation to the game by the AFL, sports journalists, media personalities, club officials, coaches and some sections of the media which conflate the Anzac spirit at Gallipoli with the fighting spirit on the football ground.^[21][22] In the opinion of Fotinopoulos, "the real meaning of Anzac Day has become distorted by slick marketing campaigns designed to pass footballers off as war heroes."^[21] These criticisms were highlighted following the Anzac Day game in 2009, when Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse stated that his team had "let the Anzacs down", and that "Essendon showed true Anzac spirit, the reason why we play here."^[23] Journalist Patrick Smith argued that this comparison between the game of football and the sadness and bravery of war "belittles and trivialises the suffering of the men and women which Anzac Day is set aside to remember and thank."^[24]

ANZAC Medal

A best-on-ground player has been named for each of the ANZAC Day clashes. Since 2000 the player in the match considered to best exemplify the

(Notes: * signifies 'Best-on-ground' - no official ANZAC Medal awarded until 2000,[8]

^ Capacity of ground reduced due to redevelopment for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games)

References