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The immediate disappointment is understandable. I was slain by it too. So were the Swiss guy, the British couple and the Argentinian bartender that I had converted to the St Kilda denomination of the cult of our code over the two and a half hours.
The siren sounded in the bar in Buenos Aires just after 4am. “They don’t play extra time?¨chants the Swiss guy repeatedly. “So we’ll see you here next week” chime the British pair. The bartender now tells a handful of Pies fans to go home.
I had realised just minutes earlier after the Goddard mark that I was going to cry more if we won than if we lost. But after the ruder shock of experiencing neither I realised something greater: rarely had I been so proud of our game, or this historical quirk of it which for the first time in my lifetime had reared its little head.
Both sides went through moments a couple of minutes before the siren when they dared to believe they were about to win the flag. Being told to come back in a week’s time is very firm slap in the face.
That, I guess, is why Nick Maxwell said what he did, and why so many fans and sections of the media reacted with what was for me a surprising amount of vitriol in response to the proper application of a rule that should not have surprised anyone.
It is a rule that anyone who plays or follows the game previously seemed to treasure like a magical little piece of trivia, and one that I had never before heard seriously questioned.
Perhaps that is because away from the brick wall that our adrenalin took a run at on grand final day this year, it is superb. Rare, yes, counterintuitive to some, but so firmly ingrained as one of the rules of Australian Rules that it demands a certain respect. It is endearing because it is capable of creating legends and legendary teams in a way that extra time, tie-breakers and penalty shootouts will never get close to. In our game, the test of the premier is uncompromising.
We should embrace the fact that it bows to nothing. All over the world sporting traditions are bending over for sponsors, venues and broadcasters who want reliable products for their budgets and scheduling.
Their customers seem to be generations of fans that are now accustomed to getting their entertainment as they want it, money shot on cue, and many people seem to think it is sport’s challenge to match that.
Media coverage of the reaction of supporters after the drawn game was dominated by the voices of those incensed to have forked out for a grand final ticket but not seen the cup lifted.
They paid for blood. I prefer the view that every one at the MCG on Saturday had the privilege of witnessing an historic moment in the sport and an absolute classic of a grand final, painful and poetic. They should hold onto the moment like a treasure. God knows they won’t forget it.
We might be up against it, but we should hope that a few days of reflection settles everyone down and that the instant gratification crowd doesn’t win the day.
It is winning out in other sports. In tennis, the US Open now plays tie-breakers to determine the result of any set which reaches 6-all. Admirably, the other Grand Slams maintain the two game advantage rule for final sets, a rule which saw the names John Isner and Nicolas Mahut etched into the sport’s history this year after Isner won the fifth set of their Wimbledon match 70-68.
That set alone lasted 8 hours and 11 minutes and broke the electronic scoreboard which was only programmed to go up to 47-all.
The match consumed all the records for the sport in one afternoon. John McEnroe, talking on BBC television, called it “the greatest advertisement for tennis,” and summed up what fellow players were feeling as they jostled among spectators to get a look at what was taking place on the outside court: the feat of physical and mental fortitude made him proud to be a part of the sport. It is a match that will make the transition to legend.
At the US Open it wouldn’t have happened. One of the players might have hit an arsey shot one point and clipped a net cord the next and it would have all finished up 7-6 in the fifth, two and a half days earlier. We would have been poorer for that.
Of course, the comparison with other sports can only go so far.
The tennis match was not suspended with the players instructed to return the following week. However the example has something to say about the most honourable way to determine sporting contests that are too close to call, in the face of the convergence of sport and entertainment and the increasingly powerful trend towards prime-time driven gratification.
Money is an issue. The AFL has found itself happily working through a seven day goldmine. More tickets for club members is a start, but it would certainly be preferable to see the sport’s governing body do as much as it can to rid us of the perception that it is the biggest winner when the grand final throws up this result. But all that is a question of how to manage the replay. Just the mechanics of it.
Others have had a shot at the perceived inconsistency of the rule. A draw is a legitimate result during the season. Teams share the points for one.
You can’t share a flag. Meanwhile, we can forgive the decision to go to extra time in the first three weeks of the finals. This change, implemented after Collingwood drew with West Coast in their qualifying final in 1990 and delayed the grand final by a week, reduced the possibility of an October grand final by nine times, and the decision was celebrated by brides and auctioneers alike when the new rule prevented that contingency in 1994 and 2007.
The grand final replay was history’s survivor, left for the big one and the big one alone. Like something sacred. Traditions are not things we should hastily condemn during the chaos of this week.
In the hiatus, having already come so close, some people say that Saturday’s replay won’t reach the heights of the first installment. It is an awkward feeling we are forced to carry through to Saturday; not one that is instantly digestable, and certainly not on that is in step with modern day sport being peddled like it is MTV.
But I see no reason why the sequel can’t lead to a greater tale.
When the players go at it again in the replay the vindication of the premiers will be absolute and their story in the history of the game will be richer and more satisfying than any result that might have been knocked together last week.
So let’s save the chat about the rules of our game for a calmer time and we will see how all this pans out. Be patient. It will be great.
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