New Zealand ANZAC Day fixture is here to stay

The AFL’s foray into New Zealand has turned out to be a success and I see no reason why the annual St Kilda versus Sydney ANZAC Day fixture in New Zealand should not remain in the AFL calendar.

The Sydney Swans defeated St Kilda by 16 points to become the first team to win an AFL match for premiership points outside of Australia.

And they did it impressively, given the threat the Saints posed throughout the match, particularly in the opening minutes of the first quarter and the final 15 minutes of the match.

Dan Hannebery was awarded the ANZAC Day Medal for his performance in this historic match, picking up 30 disposals in a performance that will no doubt be worthy of three Brownlow Medal votes.

The Swans have played on the most important day in Australian history before.

In 2003, they had a great comeback victory over Melbourne at the SCG while in 2009 they went down to Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.

And their success against St Kilda in New Zealand this year shows that they do have a passion of playing on ANZAC Day, and there’s no reason why this shouldn’t stop.

In fact, I think New Zealand should host an AFL match on ANZAC Day from now on, given their importance to this special day.

But the question will be whether it should exclusively be between St Kilda and Sydney.

The Saints have signed a three-year contract which allows them to play five matches in New Zealand between this year and 2015. Depending on the success of future fixtures, this could be extended.

A crowd of just over 22,500 turned up for this historic clash, which is a good effort for a stadium that can hold up to 36,000.

I believe that these crowds will become bigger in the future if higher-profile Victorian teams such as Collingwood or Geelong are featured.

No disrespect to Sydney, who of course are the defending champions and a high-profile team themselves – they have a very popular following thanks to their culture and famous “no dickheads” policy which has brought out the best in their players and resulted in only three missed finals appearances since 1995, and two flags.

The Saints and Swans played for the Simpson-Henderson Trophy, which honours Private John Simpson, who served for the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1915 and was killed in action the same year, and Private Richard Henderson, who served for the New Zealand Medical Corps and was awarded the Military Medal for his services in Gallipoli.

He lived out the rest of his life in poor health, and eventually succumbed to his death in 1958.

It comes to show that Essendon and Collingwood have not had it all to themselves on the most important day on Australia’s calendar.

Essendon and Collingwood have played in the annual ANZAC Day match since 1995, as a standalone match in the afternoon of the most important day in Australia’s history.

That follows the traditional dawn services in which the people who served Australia and New Zealand during World War I are honoured.

ANZAC Day has not exclusively belonged to them, as other teams have since started their traditions of playing on or around ANZAC Day.

A year after the Bombers and Magpies started their tradition, Fremantle started the Len Hall Tribute match, which honours Len Hall, the last Western Australian to serve in Gallipoli. The Dockers have played this match also during the ANZAC Round, and for the past five years have played it on ANZAC Day.

However, with the Saints and the Swans starting what should be an annual fixture in New Zealand this year, the Dockers will have to settle for a Friday night showdown against Richmond, but the tradition will remain.

With ANZAC Day falling on a Friday next year, ANZAC Day round has the potential to produce what could be a historic Friday triple-header. Never before has three AFL matches been played on one Friday.

The annual ANZAC Day match between Collingwood and Essendon would retain its starting time of 2:30pm in Melbourne, the New Zealand match involving St Kilda and Sydney would follow immediately after, with a 7:50pm bouncedown local time (5:50pm in Melbourne), and finally, the Len Hall Tribute match in Perth with its’ 6:40pm bouncedown (8:40pm in Melbourne).

That would be a dream schedule for Channel Seven and Foxtel, and especially AFL fans, who could potentially be stuck to their television sets watching nothing but Australian rules football for nine hours straight.

But whether the AFL will ever pull off this Friday triple-header remains to be seen. It would be history making if this was to ever occur. What do you think?

What better way for the AFL to start its’ foray into New Zealand with such an important occasion like this. May it remain for as long as possible.

Since 2002, the National Rugby League has commemorated ANZAC Day by hosting two regular fixtures on the day; one in the afternoon and one at night.

The Sydney Roosters and St. George Illawarra Dragons started their own tradition in 2002, and what turned out to be only a regular season match between the Melbourne Storm and the New Zealand Warriors in 2009 has also turned into a regular fixture.

Both matches still remain as ANZAC Day tribute matches to this day.

Like Collingwood and Essendon in the AFL, the Roosters and Dragons play in the afternoon match, with the Storm and Warriors following in Melbourne later on the same evening. The traditional pre-match ceremonies take place prior to both matches.

Originally, in 2010, the Storm and the Warriors were scheduled to play on the Monday night which followed ANZAC Day, but the fear that footy fans may have not had enough after the traditional AFL match prompted Storm officials to move the match to a Sunday night, and to this day the match is played on ANZAC night, allowing AFL fans to simply cross over from the MCG to AAMI Park.

The Storm versus Warriors fixture has proven to be a success and the matches have been of high quality. The Warriors have also relished playing on a day in which their country shares with Australia, and even though they have lost three of the five matches (including this year’s match, which the Storm won 28-18 by the way), they still have the passion to play on such an important day like this.

With the Sydney Swans winning the first AFL match in New Zealand, the country has started to get involved in the sporting landscape on the most important day in the calendars of both Australia and New Zealand. And may this tradition remain.