Club History Football & War: A not so dinky di history of Anzac Day

[Old Spice]

You might not like it but you're part of the 1916 VFL competition and in fact you should be proud imv. Read the history of the period leading up to World War One.

https://sports.vice.com/en_au/article/football-and-war-a-not-so-dinky-di-history

Every year around ANZAC Day, football audiences are saturated with images and analogies drawn between war and footy. Since the first ANZAC Day match was held in 1995 the Australian military have been embroiled in foreign war zones from East Timor to Afghanistan to Iraq. The promotion of ANZAC Day in the sporting context is generally divorced from any critical analysis of those engagements. The discussion—to the extent it occurs at all—has collapsed into hackneyed language where football and war are said to share courage, mateship (as though that is a peculiarly Australian virtue) and teamwork. A concerted effort to skirt over or bowdlerise the reality of World War One in Australia—one of the bitterest chapters in Australian history—has virtually become an industry, in politics and in sport.

In 2006, under the auspices of the Australian War Memorial's Travelling Exhibitions Program the federal government funded a touring exhibition entitled Sport and War. Festooned with medals, photos and stories about the significance of sport among Australian soldiers fighting overseas, one particular poster stood out.

 

[passmark]

You might not like it but you're part of the 1916 VFL competition and in fact you should be proud imv. Read the history of the period leading up to World War One.

https://sports.vice.com/en_au/article/football-and-war-a-not-so-dinky-di-history

Terrific article.

Thanks for the link.

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

Wow. Powerful image in that poster!

 

[JustaBattler]

Good post OP - anything to rattle the cage of jingoism and commercial BS

 

[Blue and Silver]

Just on this. My new coach gave us a speech about ANZAC values and military pride this week (he's an Army Vet).

Left a sour taste in my mouth tbh. I just want to have fun and play footy. All the rest about nationalism and the like can be shoved down someone elses throat

 

[HARKER]

Just on this. My new coach gave us a speech about ANZAC values and military pride this week (he's an Army Vet).

Left a sour taste in my mouth tbh. I just want to have fun and play footy. All the rest about nationalism and the like can be shoved down someone elses throat

You know you're not going to be popular for not getting into the spirit of Anzac. Good on you.

 

[SBYM]

You know you're not going to be popular for not getting into the spirit of Anzac. Good on you.

I've had the yearly argument for the past three I think...

Promised myself I wouldn't in 2016.

 

[thylacine60]

Just on this. My new coach gave us a speech about ANZAC values and military pride this week (he's an Army Vet).

Left a sour taste in my mouth tbh. I just want to have fun and play footy. All the rest about nationalism and the like can be shoved down someone elses throat

As for the award for the player that most plays like someone who has had bullets shot at them, died from disease, cold and shell shock - leave me out of it.

 

[thylacine60]

I keep getting to the ground late and missing the bit where they mention unnacountable slaughter and rape of innocent men, women and children. Some of the ANZAC remembrance has meaning. Too much of it has become a shabby commercial circus.

 

[thylacine60]

Just on this. My new coach gave us a speech about ANZAC values and military pride this week (he's an Army Vet).

Left a sour taste in my mouth tbh. I just want to have fun and play footy. All the rest about nationalism and the like can be shoved down someone elses throat

If you had voiced your concerns you'd be an un-Australian disgrace. If you don't love it leave and all that.

 

[ShanDog]

I've been a soldier for a long time and I have to admit, my views on this sort have stuff have changed significantly as I've matured. Previously, anything that went 'against the grain' in reference to ANZAC Day would make my blood boil, but I've slowly realised that maybe I was missing the point too.

This year I have a little 10 month old daughter. I am considering not even going to a dawn service, which I haven't missed for years. But it's not fair to bring my little girl out into the cold for something she doesn't understand and ruin her sleep etc. Of course, it means my wife would have to stay home and care for her if I were to go alone, which is certainly possible, but ruins it for me. ANZAC Day is something I want to share with my family in solemn remembrance, not fanfare and hooah. It's not that the parades and coverage are distasteful—it's generally a positive thing to have in the spotlight for a day—but it's not how I connect to things.

The football connection is overdone these days. As shown by that article, the link between football and the original ANZACs is a myth. That's not to say that today's tradition is a bad thing at all, but I'm glad more people seem to be getting educated about the real histories of things like the Great War, which goes back to my point about the coverage of ANZAC Day not being an inherently bad thing.

SO, while there's the usual hyperbole over 'stirring images' of a gritty war to a sombre music backdrop in the lead up to—and during—the ANZAC Day footy, I'll be sitting somewhere quiet with some friends and a beer, probably sharing a raised eyebrow with a mate who knows where I'm coming from when the TV lays the cheese on thick. Play on.

 

[thylacine60]

POTY. The End.

 

[passmark]

A grade avatar BTW.

 

[DaVillaBlues]

If you had voiced your concerns you'd be an un-Australian disgrace. If you don't love it leave and all that.

My main concern is a trouble making minority (but loud) are using the Anzacs and misguided messages of patrotism/nationalism as an excuse for blatant racism and prejudice against foreigners/migrants/refugees etc

That is not what the Anzacs fought and made the ultimate sacrifice for ..

Also much respect to you ShanDog, hope you and your family have a wonderful and happy weekend and Anzac Day

 

[ShanDog]

My main concern is a trouble making minority (but loud) are using the Anzacs and misguided messages of patrotism/nationalism as an excuse for blatant racism and prejudice against foreigners/migrants/refugees etc

That is not what the Anzacs fought and made the ultimate sacrifice for ..

Also much respect to you ShanDog, hope you and your family have a wonderful and happy weekend and Anzac Day

Yes, unfortunate that happens but to be honest you just have to expect it and give it the attention it deserves - absolutely none. People will always hijack whatever is going on to push their agendas. Has been happening since Methuselah was a baby lol.

And cheers mate, should be a nice long weekend with the family and some good mates.

 

[HARKER]

Beautiful ShanDog ........and obviously sincere.

Something there's not a lot of around, as we're too busy worrying how we may look in front of others.

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

Very well said, ShanDog

I have been to the ANZAC Day game several times--observed the minute silence, teared up during The Last Post (can't help it, it makes me very emotional), and then watched footy. Late last year I was gifted the medals that my great great grandfather (I think, might be an extra 'great' in there) was presented with during the war, as well as all the letters and cards that he sent home. This might sound strange, but reading these bits of paper and holding these medals has made it real for me and I have a different perspective on it all.

 

[BlueGum]

i don't trust the politicking of war. i do feel for those who are in it and near it, and what happens to them.

From a book of poetry that my Grandfather sent to Grandma from New Guinea January 1 1944. He'd highlighted a stanza that he loved...

We went down to Devon,
In a warm summer rain,
Knowing that our happiness
Might never come again;
I, not forgetting,
'Till death us do part,'
Was outrageously happy
With death in my heart.
Lovers in peacetime
With fifty years to live,
Have time to tease and quarrel
And question what to give;
But lovers in wartime
Better understand
The fullness of living,
With death close at hand.

He was a good man.