ANZAC Day belongs to Pies and Bombers

No mixing matching players/teams here. All other teams have had equal chance to play on this special day and all but two teams said no go. Not interested. Team Pies and team Bombers went ahead with the AFl's blessings. Now that it has been proven a success in more ways than one all the other teams are crying foul. Fair suck of the sauce bottle here mates, if you were too stupid to want to do anything different back in the olden days =1995 stay out of it for ever more, you hear !

Well to make all fair how about every team pick 2 of there best players create two whole new different teams to play Anzac day. Call the two teams after maybe Gallipoli or The zomme, and then they can battle it out in a game that would be set to be the best playing on best ... That way then a player who has played the best would then get a medallion at the end showing the Anzac day spirit. Every team will get an opportunity to play and a chance to say that there player has the guts. All profits then go towards RSL or The War graves commission ect. That is the only way you are goin to make it wholly fair for every team... That way no one get to profit from the day except the people that truly deseve it!!

So when they raise the banner at the game which lists the past players who died in wars that's a farce?? I think not!

Whoops, instead of Demons, insert Bombers!

I will take a RU game played between the two ANZAC countries,or a RL test played between the two ANZAC countries long before a game between two Melbourne suburbs as more fitting for a tribute/respect to the diggers. What upsets people is the AFL overload that ANZAC DAY is somewhat more special because of their game.. I remember last yr the AFL were criticised for the advertising around the game...I think it was to do with comparing the battle/war on field with soldiers in battle.

For the record, I watched an game that celebrated the Anzac spirit much better. It was friday's Super Rugby game between Melbourne and Auckland; the last post was played, teams wore black armband and a red poppy on their jerseys, and they observed a minute's silence. (Auckland won 40-23, by the way) This, to me and the likes of CN, symbolised the spirit of the Anzacs (especially when you consider the <elbourne side had Kiwis playing alongside Aussies). RedB, I understand that the Pies and Demon want to honour the Anzac spirit but the promotion of the game has gone overbeard. Capt Nemo is a veteran; that in my eyes qualifies him to talk about about the Anzac spirit. I'll listen to what he has to say over you, any day. (And I'm a kiwi so i support neither the Pies or the Demons, fyi)!:-)

we do these things in remembrance, so hopefully none of the people at the game or watching it will forget those who had to go before them, and hopefully will never have to learn the hardness of real war. Anything that teaches young people of this must be beneficial, be it a parade, a football match, a dawn service or a quiet drink with former comrades. And I know many people who will be doing all 4.

"The two clubs put in the hard yards and despite the moaning of clubs, the likes of Graham Cornes and fans, Essendon and Collingwood own the day and deserve it." Disagree. No club owns any day, and as for deserving it, well, just because you 'deserve' something (which is debatable), does not mean that you will get it or get to keep it. Speak to Tasmania about their football team. Additionally, it should be noted that North Melbourne originated Friday night football, and they rarely are involved these days. That said, I am not overly concerned if Collingwood and Essendon keep the day. I'm a Demons fan, and I love the Queen's Birthday match, so I can't blame Collingwood and Essendon fans for wanting to keep ANZAC day.

Guys, Some interesting comments here and no shortage of passion. The bottom line, however, is this; ANZAC day, AFL style, is just another game of footy. The fact that Essendon and Collingwood both saw the potential of marketing the day - and let's face it, it's marketing we're talking about here - is good luck to them and "piss off, you had your chance" for the rest. The other AFL clubs are only interested now because of what they've seen can happen with the right promotion - and they think they're missing out. They did, however, get a chance to participate but didn't see the value. Perhaps they just didn't want Sheedy to get any more credit than he already had. More fool them. Like johnhunt92, I'm a Crows supporter but I have no issue with this particular game being forever between Collingwood and Essendon. Had it been between North Melbourne and Brisbane it's more than likely the game would not have generated the interest, the excitement or, let's be real, the money that comes from the Pies and the Bombers. So I've no issue at all with the two teams that have hijacked the day. After all, a football match was always going to be played on this day - why not make it between two of the best supported clubs in the AFL. In fact, you'd be mad not to and the AFL is not mad - crazy, maybe, but not mad! I grew up with the SANFL where the tradition, at least in my time, was that ANZAC day was ALWAYS a Grand Final rematch. So different teams most years, but not always, and the possibility of the day being shared around the clubs (unless you were South Adelaide, Woodville, West Torrens or Central Districts). These days, of course, Centrals have a permanent booking. So, I love the drama of the day, special game and all the rest, but one thing still niggles.......... And it's the thing about footy taking a back seat to the smarties, the marketers. I'm pretty confident Kevin Sheedy meant well when he originally came up with the concept. Like most things, however, once the marketers get involved it takes on a life of it's own. In this my gut agrees with Sheek. At the end of the day it's just another game for four points. I also find myself lending a sympathetic ear to captain nemo. With the best intentions, what happens on the MCG on April 25th bears no resemblance at all to what happened to thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen who participated in any of Australia's various military adventures since that fateful day in 1915. When my father, a WWII veteran, died in 2009 I found among his papers a simple hand-written note inside a small folder. The note listed the injuries to his father, my grandfather, during the First World War. A bullet through the shoulder, shrapnel wounds to both legs, bayonet wound to the body, bayonet wound through the hand. The folder contained my grandfather's will, written the night before a particular battle on the Western front. He left everything to his mother. I'm not sure that, on his worst day, the Essendon player who gets handed the contract that is Dane Swan will see the need to write a will. Perhaps an apology! My father was born in 1920. I was born in 1949. If that bullet had been six inches over, that artillery shell ten feet closer - or ten feet further away, if that German soldier had known how to use a bayonet properly (though, to be fair, I imagine he was a tad stressed) then my father would never have been born. Nor me, my brother, my sister, my children, my grandchildren. It is a fine thread by which I hang and by which I savage my fellow Roarers from time to time. As a consequence, I get a little embarrassed, agitated, annoyed, even angry that in this day of political correctness and marketing (a foul combination if ever there was one) we have, via the AFL, successfully trivialised the whole day and turned it into a "show". It was always going to happen of course so you'll note I never said I was surprised. Back in the days of the SANFL GF rematch there was a simple recognition of the day then on with the footy. Much more dignified and sensible. Nowadays we can't possibly escape without flags being raised, bugles blown, national anthems sung, guys jumping out of aircraft, professional announcer voices being solumn as all hell, fireworks, smoke, you name it. Twenty minutes of artificial blather made up like reverence. The only saving grace is that I think they mean well. I think! Having said all that, I should add that I actually cringe every time an Australian sporting team runs out, whether it's at international or the domestic level, and the national anthem is dragged out to batter us all once again. Next time it happens, I swear I'm going to stay in my seat and f*ck the marketers and their idiot cronies who think we all need a dose of national jingoism to fire us up. These people should get a life - and leave mine alone!

How is it insulting having two highly traditional teams- who were traditional rivals before the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli, and who had players die in battlefields across the world throughout both world wars- to symbolically represent the 'spirit' of this tradition? Its wonderful that soccer has established an entirely appropriate friendly against Turkey. Yet as you question the relevance of two suburban teams you completely ignore the link the symbolism of traditional rivals, their code and the original ANZACs themselves, something soccer never had.

While its rare that the teams should be as far apart on the ladder as they are this year, playing off the two Grand Finalists again is an occasion all of itself. No benefit for pairing the teams again on ANZAC Day when we already have a more established traditional clash. More concerning there is no guarentee that you would get the electric feeling you do with the current clash. Take the example of Freo vs Melb (which could occur over the next few years)- where do you play it? MCG or Subi? How many Melbourne fans will travel to watch it if Subi? How many Freo fans if in Melbourne? Atmosphere would be zero. Complete dud. Stick with what has developed independently to be the sort of tradition you can only get through natural unscripted growth- cannot beat Collingwood and Essendon.

Australia plays Turkey on Anzac Day at Gallipoli in a football game to commemorate Anzac day in the annual Friendship Cup. The 'NZ' in ANZAC stands for New Zealand, so to claim that an Aussie Rules game played in Melbourne between 2 suburban teams represents the Anzac spirit is an insult to the rest of Australia and New Zealand.

Thank you Sheek for putting this in the right perspective. I sometimes wonder if AFL fans live in the same country as us.

Now there is the real rivalry in netball- a superb suggestion that all areas of both countries could get behind.

why not have the two grand finalists from the previuos year play on ANZAC day instead?

But there's certainly something solemn about 90,000 giving a minutes silence before the start of the game. The MCG is our Cathedral - I can't think of a better setting to pay homage.

"The solemnity of the day was retained"??? There's nothing solemn about 90,000 people screaming themselves hoarse over two football teams. Which is precisely what this is about - a home & away fixture - nothing more, nothing less. Any pretence with Anzac day is frankly, a wank! To answer the banner line of this post - Anzac day DOES NOT, repeat DOES NOT belong to Collingwood & Essendon. Every other AFL team is entitled to play on Anzac day, irrespective of whatever bright idea Kevin Sheedy came up with 15-odd years ago. The actual celebration of Anzac day is usually appropriately performed elsewhere, with the appropriate solemnity. Let's stop pretending that a sporting fixture somehow manages to celebrate Anzac day in any special way. It's just another home & away game.....

As a non-Pies/Bombers fan, (and I may be in the minority) I couldn't care less about the "Anzac Cup" or whatever they want to call it. To me, it's been for the most part of the last decade 2 average Victorian teams playing in a game that means squat in the long run. And this "biggest match outside the GF" is just laughable. You reckon it's bigger than a Prelim? Do me a favour. It may have the numbers due to the support of the two teams, and also the media saturation again because of their market domination, but ask any real fan and the players and they'd be lying if the said at the end of the day, all it is is 4 points, and they'd rather lose the Anzac game and win the next 2, than the other way around.

Ok Redb, you win. I'll make sure I do my research next time.

John I realise that you're not referring to 'ownership' of the day, but 'ownership' of the AFL match that is played as an ANZAC Day special. It least I hope so .... The whole thing borders on the edge of distasteful. The right things are said, and the massive crowd really does go silent, but awarding special players' medals, and evoking the 'ANZAC Spirit' probably goes too far. It's not the 'ANZAC Spirit' ... it's not Lone Pine or Bullecourt or Milne Bay or Kapyong or FSB Coral or Anaconda or Savo Island or the Defence of Darwin. It's a game of bloody footy. By all means have an ANZAC Day Pies - Bombers game, the NRL can have an ANZAC Day Test, I wouldn't object to a Netball test match. But the commentariat and the AFL (and by extension the NRL and ARU and other sporting bodies) ought to tone the rhetoric down a little. Let's not get so carried away. It's sport.