Jared Brennan of Brisbane gets the ball away ahead of Jordan Roughead of the Bulldogs during the AFL NAB Cup Round 01 match between the Western Bulldogs and the Brisbane Lions at Manuka Oval. Slattery Images
It’s Good Friday. It’s a public holiday, a day off. The hot cross buns have been eaten, and now it’s time to relax. But what’s on? No live footy. Why not?
On a quiet day, would a game of footy be in order?
The NRL certainly think so, and have two games scheduled. Super 14 rugby plays on Good Friday. Overseas, football leagues around the world schedule games; so too does the NBA and Major League Baseball.
But the AFL continues to hold out and no games are scheduled on Good Friday.
But do the reasons stack up?
The first reason given is religious sensitivities, showing respect to Christian traditions. But are AFL fans more religious than fans of other codes that makes it okay for them to play and not the AFL?
And is it a problem for Christians to attend football on Good Friday? As a Christian myself, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. My church has a Good Friday service at 9am. Most other churches have their Good Friday services at a similar time.
By the afternoon, the religious observances are over – so there’s plenty of time to get to the footy.
There is no clash.
Christian footy fans have been used to 1pm starts on Sundays for years. We know how to get from church to the footy.
And not all Australians are Christians. We have people of other faiths, and play on during their religious occasions. We play during the Jewish Sabbath, during Passover and Yom Kippur.
We play day games during Islam’s Ramadan. And through the holy days of other religions. Even within Christianity not all dates are aligned, and we play on Orthodox Good Friday. Why do we show respect to one branch of one religion but not to others?
The second reason given is the Royal Childrens’ Hospital Appeal, which Channel 7 televises in Victoria. It’s a valid concern – it’s a big event in Melbourne and to have another event on could detract from that.
But the Hospital Appeal is only shown in Victoria, and isn’t a factor around the rest of Australia. Matches involving a Victorian team may divert attention from the Hospital Appeal, but not all the AFL’s teams are Victorian.
In two years’ time our league will have 18 teams, 8 coming from outside Victoria. A match between the non-Victorian teams would have little impact on the Hospital Appeal, but provide a footy fix for the non-Victorian supporters.
That could easily be arranged by Channel 7 showing the Appeal in Victoria but taking an additional game elsewhere in the long weekend in Victoria only; while televising the Good Friday game around the rest of Australia.
Two new teams are coming, in Gold Coast and West Sydney. And although the tradition has been to not play on Good Friday, new teams provides the opportunity to create new traditions.
GWS v Gold Coast FC on Good Friday evening would be a winner.
Televised on Channel 7 except in Victoria, it would showcase the game on an otherwise quiet evening. It would have little if any impact on the Hospital Appeal in Victoria, but provide an extra opportunity to show some footy to the rest of Australia.
How about it AFL?
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March 31st 2010 @ 8:23am
Ken said | March 31st 2010 @ 8:23am | Report comment
As a Sydneysider I was a little bemused to hear that it was minor scandal that the Storm were playing a game in Melbourne on Good Friday. I imagine though it’s more a legacy than an actual sign of Melbourne’s piousness – although as you rightly point out there’s nothing especially anti-religon about playing football on that day. If I were an AFL supporter I’d be making the same complaints, it’s a great day for footy – although as a RL supporter I wouldn’t mind if you let us have this big day to ourselves in your great city!
March 31st 2010 @ 8:48am
Michael C said | March 31st 2010 @ 8:48am | Report comment
Ken – as the article points out – - it’s more to do with the Good Friday Appeal,
and traditionally Ch.7 has hosted Good Friday Appeal (for the Royal Childrens Hospital) all day long and all evening.
There’s no reason a game couldn’t be held interstate – and available on Foxtel at very least.
THere’s probably no reason a game couldn’t be held at a reasonable time with a major fund raising focus.
As it is – the Storm game is NOT to be televised into Victoria.
March 31st 2010 @ 11:03am
Brett McKay said | March 31st 2010 @ 11:03am | Report comment
and MC, here’s why: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/appeal-clash-delays-tv-coverage-of-big-match-20100330-rbjn.html
March 31st 2010 @ 11:14am
Michael C said | March 31st 2010 @ 11:14am | Report comment
interesting quote :
In a twist, Channel Seven is televising a telethon to raise funds for the appeal from Etihad Stadium, which it owns with the AFL
Channel 7 sold it’s stake in Docklands stadium back around 2005/2006,
and the AFL has zero ownership stake in the venue presently…..wait until 2025.
Channel 7 broadcast from the Docklands stadium precinct because…..that’s where their studios/offices are……they generally do some outside broadcast around the concourse with things happening and there’ll be countless AFL players coming and going through the day.
funny – a lot of Sydney folk probalby don’t understand just what makes up the Docklands Stadium precinct with Ch. 7 and the AFL HQ both attached to the Stadium………….a fair bit to do with it’s unsuitability for becoming a ‘clean’ FIFA WC venue. (just takes Frank Lowy a while to recognise it!!).
March 31st 2010 @ 1:58pm
BigAl said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
That article infers that the name of the new rectangular stadium is AAMI Park !!
Is that right ? – first I’ve heard of it .
March 31st 2010 @ 2:15pm
Michael C said | March 31st 2010 @ 2:15pm | Report comment
Yup
back to March 16 in the H-S,
you’re a bit behind there BigAl!!!!, what’s going on???
March 31st 2010 @ 2:20pm
Brett McKay said | March 31st 2010 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
I’d not heard it either Al, AAMI Park sounds a bit how-you-going actually…
March 31st 2010 @ 2:27pm
BigAl said | March 31st 2010 @ 2:27pm | Report comment
Yes ! , even, dare I say it, a bit . . . girlie !
Still, it’ll only be for 8 years
March 31st 2010 @ 3:33pm
mds1970 said | March 31st 2010 @ 3:33pm | Report comment
Announcement was made a couple of weeks ago.
It gets a bit confusing having AAMI Stadium and AAMI Park, same as two Skilled grounds and formerly two Telstra grounds. And two seperate grounds, one in Brisbane and one in Sydney. have been called ANZ Stadium.
The bubbledome was always going to have a sponsor name. But it does get confusing.
April 1st 2010 @ 5:24pm
Matt said | April 1st 2010 @ 5:24pm | Report comment
The News Corp/Channel 9 cartel that controls the NRL strikes again…
March 31st 2010 @ 11:34am
Gibbo said | March 31st 2010 @ 11:34am | Report comment
the game could be worked into the tellecast, surely – get the two teams to wear special jumpers and have dennis and bruce sprucing the tally raised, encouraging donations throughout the broadcast, reading out names during the breaks, then back to the studio post-match.
March 31st 2010 @ 1:51pm
BigAl said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:51pm | Report comment
Good idea – similar to how the NRL coverage continually refers to and displays the latest gambling odds and spreads !
March 31st 2010 @ 1:00pm
mds1970 said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
There were a few feathers ruffled the first time the NRL played on Good Friday, back in the 1990s. But that soon died down, and no-one in Sydney sees it as a controversial issue at all now.
The only real issue is the Hospital Appeal, and that only applies in Victoria. But the AFL doesn’t only exist in Victoria, so why not schedule a game involving non-Victorian teams?
March 31st 2010 @ 1:13pm
Michael C said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
I was thumbing through an old footy record the other day, back to 1981 or 1982, and there was a section about the 2 Sunday games for that year because we had that whole Sunday trading and Sunday sports controversy back in the ’80s.
March 31st 2010 @ 3:24pm
Beast-A-Tron said | March 31st 2010 @ 3:24pm | Report comment
“I imagine though it’s more a legacy than an actual sign of Melbourne’s piousness…”
I agree, it stems from tradition in my opinion rather than from religious observance.
With regards to the Good Friday Appeal perhaps the AFL can arrange to donate $X from the proceeds of the match. Question: when people give to charity, would they rather get nothing (materially) out of it? Or a game of football?
April 1st 2010 @ 9:47am
Anthony said | April 1st 2010 @ 9:47am | Report comment
I am a practising christian (Anglican) & I am more offended by the AFL having a game on Maundy Thrusday night. That is an important night when christians go to church, & I would rather that was footy-free & have a game on Good Friday.
March 31st 2010 @ 10:21am
Republican said | March 31st 2010 @ 10:21am | Report comment
No there shouldn’t.
March 31st 2010 @ 1:00pm
mds1970 said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
Would you like to expand on that comment?
Why not?
March 31st 2010 @ 2:01pm
BigAl said | March 31st 2010 @ 2:01pm | Report comment
Sorry Republican, normally I’m not, but on this issue I’m with Jesus.
March 31st 2010 @ 10:56am
Jesus said | March 31st 2010 @ 10:56am | Report comment
I don’t object to it.
April 1st 2010 @ 8:26pm
Michael C said | April 1st 2010 @ 8:26pm | Report comment
ha ha, only saw this now……good one J-Naz.
March 31st 2010 @ 11:06am
bever fever said | March 31st 2010 @ 11:06am | Report comment
I would welcome a game on good friday night. really its not the churches making it a religious day, its the AFL not playing a game then.
March 31st 2010 @ 11:45am
Dan Dresden said | March 31st 2010 @ 11:45am | Report comment
Here in UK we’ve had all codes played on Good Friday for over 100 years. This Friday I’m going to Saints and Wigan derby at a packed and emotional Knowsley Road for the last time (Saints moving to new ground).
I couldn’t believe when I read that there was no Good Friday game in Melbourne until now. People from here who have gone to Australia and Aussie tourists I’ve met poke fun of Australian rules, saying Melbourne is a backward city and that Australian rules is the long lost English football code.
I can’t believe its the 21st century and you people won’t hold a football match because of a telethon. No one stopped here for the ITV telethons.
March 31st 2010 @ 1:11pm
Michael C said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:11pm | Report comment
It is a relic – sure and simple – but, sometimes it’s nice to retain perhaps just one.
It’s been so intertwined over the years the HSV 7 (Herald and Sun, + Victoria) broader interests with the papers and footy – - that it was never overly questioned.
Anzac Day has some fairly achaic limitations too that still get enacted when the day falls on a Saturday or Sunday.
I don’t mind that there are still some days that aren’t just like any other.
Otherwise, why not start the Boxing Day test match on the 24th, and play through the 25th Dec as well…….
however, pragmatically, Good Friday is a huge day for cinema’s and movie rental……so, why should the AFL give all these other ‘entertainment’ businesses a free kick, in part at the expense of the AFL???
March 31st 2010 @ 1:37pm
Dan Dresden said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:37pm | Report comment
It’s remarkable how it was transported to Melbourne as an English game and managed to survive against rugby and soccer even though here in the UK all the other unique codes died out. As you say it is a relic football code but nevertheless it is a valuable window to the past.
March 31st 2010 @ 3:27pm
Beast-A-Tron said | March 31st 2010 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
Oh Dan, Dan, Dan.
You are up to your old tricks again, telling lies (like that one about Sheedy).
Australian Football was created here, not transported.
You can cite all the marn grook, gaelic, rugby and English football rules you like, but none of them resemble Australian Football. There are just as many dissimilarities as there are similarities.
There is a clear distinction between all of these sporting activities, no matter how many times you keep chanting it until you’re blue in the face.
Dan, when will you stop lying?
March 31st 2010 @ 1:20pm
LeftArmSpinner said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:20pm | Report comment
roy and hg would have a field day with this notion. geez, this demonstrates, if it occurs, the AFL is becoming or already as rabid and the maddie over in soccer. you know shankley’s comparison of soccer and life…………
March 31st 2010 @ 1:26pm
JK said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
Would the players get double time for working the public holiday?
March 31st 2010 @ 1:31pm
Lu said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
actually shocked that the AFL has allowed this “free kick” to NRL.. but in true AFL-desire-to-be-a-monopoly spirit, NRL won’t have it all to themselves for very long..
March 31st 2010 @ 1:40pm
DB said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:40pm | Report comment
What’s the NRL’s, desire?
March 31st 2010 @ 1:43pm
Michael C said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:43pm | Report comment
yeah,
as DB implies,
how are you able to twist this as an attack on the AFL???
If this were reversed and in Sydney we’d have all the regular raining on our parade style rhetoric from RL circles such as the reaction when it was disclosed that the AFL had (at the request of the GAA) investigated availability regarding a potential Int Rules game in Sydney perhaps a couple of days before the kick off of the RLWC……..yep…..those RL folk have a welcoming spirit!!!!!! NOT!!.
March 31st 2010 @ 2:12pm
Dogz R Barkn said | March 31st 2010 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
If anything, it makes a lie of people’s assertions that the AFL is megalomaniac and wanting to stomp out all other sports.
The NRL will have Melbourne all to themselves on that day, and hopefully we’ll get a good turnout. Good on ‘em both.
I find it rather quaint that Melburnians do not wish to watch any footy on Good Friday, and it’s sort of healthy as well (that there can be a holiday during the footy season with no footy).
March 31st 2010 @ 1:54pm
Moonface said | March 31st 2010 @ 1:54pm | Report comment
AFL every day I’d reckon.
March 31st 2010 @ 2:05pm
Republican said | March 31st 2010 @ 2:05pm | Report comment
No, there is no need to expound further mds 1970, it’s blatantly obvious really and has something to do with the word ‘Easter’.
Yeah, we simply want it ALLL – all the time don’t we!