Where's the rumpus?
Collingwood are playing Essendon in today's ANZAC day match - again!
Balls!
For me today's game is not so much a highlight of the footy season, but the salient symbol of the inequities of the current football draw... sorry, schedule. Sadly, the publicity, the lure of the equalisation fund, and Collingwood and Essendon fans' sense of entitlement have browbeaten dissenting fans into acceptance.
The schedule's a crock, we all know that, but that sense of entitlement bites just as hard.
Yesterday the boss, a Collingwood fan, asked me whether I was going to the game. He knows I'm an MCC member, that I live across the road, that I can get in for free. "Why should I go? I don't follow either team?" Despite being shocked at this outrageous admission, he pressed on, stressing that it's Collingwood AND Essendon, ANZAC Day, HUGE game.
He's the boss, so the diplomat in me refrained from saying "So what!" But the truth is I don't care. What I care about is the underlying sentiment that he was inviting me to his big day.
Actually, that's not strictly true about the not caring. I care in respect to my tips - this particular match, despite almost everyone tipping Collingwood, is a toughy to pick. I'm also a footy fan, and for all it's attendant hype, today's match is still a footy match.
The first ANZAC day match in 1995 was a draw and a good game, which was nice. But each subsequent clash has been a little less interesting than the previous one. For me, it's currently somewhere between just another footy match and passing interest.
As for the 90,000 supporters who will be at the game today. They are not there because of their burning desire to commemorate the spirit of ANZAC, they are there because of their burning desire to watch their team stomp a traditional rival on a public holiday. It's not as if big teams on ANZAC day haven't drawn big crowds. Richmond Collingwood in 1977 drew 90,000. Carlton Essendon at Waverley in 1975 drew 77,000 when the capacity of the ground was 70,000. Here's an idea. It's Richmond's VFL/AFL centenary. Why not have them play Carlton today? With the same backing Essendon and Collingwood get now, you could virtually guarantee that a Carlton Richmond match would drum up around 90,000 punters.
You're just jealous, go Pies etc.
I'm looking forward to next year's inaugural Good Friday Carlton/Collingwood blockbuster when, in a moving ceremony, Chris Judd gets nailed to the Ponsford Stand before the bounce.
Posted by: carneagles | 25 April 2008 at 16:01
Not jealous, just sick of Collingwood and Essendon fans skyting about their ownership of ANZAC day. Give the other teams a go. Even up the schedule. Get rid of the compromise solutions.
"The draw is uneven. How about we make it more uneven."
~~ My... THE... minutes from a 1996 AFL commission meeting.
Posted by: Tony T | 25 April 2008 at 16:17
I ended up tipping Essendon, which ended up stupid.
Posted by: Tony T | 25 April 2008 at 17:15
Nah, I was joking about being jealous. That's how any Pies or Bombers supporter responds to any discussion about the Anzac Day game.
Posted by: carneagles | 25 April 2008 at 19:59
On 3AW today, Eddie McGuire was asked how he responded to complaints about Collingwood's grip on ANZAC day. "I don't bother listening anymore."
Posted by: Tony T | 25 April 2008 at 20:04
it's a conspiracy!
a game that dull was played just to underline your POV Tone. Yawwnnnn, and your tea leaves work with crowd potential is spot on.
I'm told the papers were full of it today. I don't bother to look anymore. Same way Sir Edsworth doesn't bother to listen really.
Posted by: via collins | 25 April 2008 at 21:05
OTH: The NRL's Dragons vs Roosters ANZAC match is always a game to watch and today didn't dissapoint. I was going for the Roosters as my brother and his 10 bazillion boys all go for them but I just couldn't refrain from a "Go, you mighty Dragons" once they hit 18-6.
Fair dinkum, one of the only solaces a Parra fan has is the ST George agony. The coach is a good bloke, a top bloke even, who's been through the wringer. I can't believe the club has put up with his non results though for so long. Vale Nathan Brown.
We all stood for the Bugle's Reveille and Last Post, in silence.
After the long marches from all our Diggers today, the medals, the sombre ceremonies, the crowd roar at kickoff was the perfect way to end all our reflections. The ball kicked, game on.
PS> And even better yet, another nail in the Crowe/Holmes à Court Rabbitohs. Get another one up your arrogant fat arse Russ.
Posted by: pat | 25 April 2008 at 21:58
Dissenting fans browbeaten into acceptance? They never shut up about it. The topic is raised every year and it's become as tedious as the 2000 or 2001 end of the millenium kerfuffle.
I believe the AFL should have certain dates set aside for particular matches between particular teams, including Essendon vs Collingwood on ANZAC Day. The only sense of entitlement anyone should feel about this is that these become traditions and build into terrific football occasions. Supporters are entitled to have these occasions. Lord knows, going to the Grand Final is out of the question for most footy followers these days.
Other examples could include Round 1 always featuring a re-match between the previous season's Grand Finalists. Maybe Good Friday showcasing the Tigers vs the Blues. Let these fixtures sit for a while and establish the tradition that the ANZAC Day clash has built, by virtue of having the same two clubs go at it each time.
I know clubs with small support bases will find this difficult to do. But it's a matter of clubs attempting to find an equivalent festival-type clash and seek to have it programmed into the fixture and then all hands to the pump to promote and support it. Would rotating ANZAC Day around the clubs devalue what's been built up around it as it stands? I think it would.
Essendon and Collingwood have built a positive football tradition around a particulr day. Finding and building a day like this of their own is what other clubs need to do. Your time started in 1995.
Posted by: Lad Litter | 26 April 2008 at 13:48
I'm sure I overheard some advertising for a VFL game this weekend where the venue was described as "the house of pain" -- which I always thought was a NZ rugby union ground.
Posted by: Professor Rosseforp | 26 April 2008 at 20:02
No, Fuck off. Your mob can come up with their own day to play instead of ripping into the pies/bombers allotted money-raking day.
Anyway, what do we all think about the Rollerboy/Shree incident? Dunno about you guys but I'm loving every minute of it - those two deserve each other.
Posted by: Vindicate | 27 April 2008 at 03:04
Lad & Vindi: I hate you both.
Prof: Judging from the rare grabs of Union I see, I thought ALL the EnZed grounds were called the House of Rain. OR, more correctly, the House of Torrential Downpour, Gale and Frostbite. Our HOP is Subiaco Oval in Perth where visiting teams have been known to cop a pounding. Until recently. Now it's Wet Toast and the Wanchors who are copping the pain.
Posted by: Tony T | 27 April 2008 at 12:23
Tony - what did they do with the extra 7,000 at Waverley in '75? (And well done Pies.)
Posted by: genevieve | 03 May 2008 at 00:25
They squeezed into the standing areas, concourses, peeked down the tunnels that led from the food stands, bars and toilets to the seats. You could do that back then. Footy officialdom back then wasn't much interested in where people watched from. Customer comfort was a foreign and future concept. Just as long as punters paid before they went through the turnstiles.
Posted by: Tony T | 03 May 2008 at 22:16