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The AFL today will announce that from 2013 onwards football will be played on Good Friday. Ok, I know its a little late, but that was my attempt at an April Fool’s Day joke.
So maybe the joke is on me, but anyone foolish enough to believe that this announcement may occur today or in the coming years deserves to be fooled.
AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou has consistently ruled out an AFL match on Good Friday. Yet it would be safe to bet your hoard of Easter eggs and hot-cross buns that before the week is out, every supporter, commentator and journalist will throw their proverbial eggs in the Good Friday basket.
It started Monday when North Melbourne CEO Eugene Arocca told kangaroos.com.au that his club was still interested in playing on Good Friday.
“The NRL and other sports play on Good Friday so if the AFL ever changes its position, we would love to be involved in a Good Friday game,” said Arocca.
Arocca is just one example of people willing to waste breath and news space fuelling an argument that cannot be won.
It isn’t just the Good Friday debate. You can add the dispute over jumps racing and the Formula 1 Grand Prix to the list of April fools. It is not the validity of each argument that I am questioning, but how clichéd and repetitive each side of the issue has become.
Racing Minister Denis Napthine has said that he and the government are committed to jumps racing. Yet the debate continues.
The Grand Prix will also remain in Australia until at least 2015. Yet the debate continues.
In each of these examples, stringent and constructive discourse has crumbled into a monotonous and tiresome debate that is causing the public to disengage with both sides.
To play devil’s advocate, what distinguishes the three cases above from the war of words fought over the makeup of the Australian Test team or Mike Sheahan’s Top 50?
The Australian Test debate, like most debates in sport, requires continual re-evaluation and consideration informed upon the latest performance or doctor’s report. In essence, the content is always changing.
Good Friday football, jumps racing and the Grand Prix arguments are as tired and repetitive as they were this time last year.
It is time both sides of the Good Friday debate retreated until the football landscape changes (for instance via a new CEO or a flagging Good Friday Appeal in need of support).
The same goes for jumps racing and the Grand Prix.
The time for silence is now.
It will only make the eventual argument more compelling.
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