Why is such a big deal made of the ANZAC game?

[Lord of the Pies]

This op is a refreshing change from the annual "when does my minnow team get to play on Anzac day" thread. Well done.

 

[10571z]

I dunno, I’m sure it’s just media build up to get ratings.

I don’t think anyone “rates” Anzac medals. It’s just 3 Brownlow votes.

It’s a great day and I recommend it to even the neutrals. The pre game stuff is very moving

 

[Back One Out]

I don’t get the fuss really, it is treated as the second biggest game of the year behind the GF, yet it is only a regular season home and away game.
There is an enormous load of promotional w@nk in the lead up to it as if the players are going into battle... They aren’t, it’s a football game worth 4 competition points.

Marketing hype to get an extra 20,000 paying customers along to the MCG and more importantly, to boost Ch.7's TV ratings by an extra 250,000

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The AFL also loves anything which paints them as a pillar of the community and the Anzac Day palaver at the MCG certainly achieves that.

 

[Sttew]

That’s cute... I meant real marquee games I hold the Easter Monday game right up with the Good Friday one

I associate marquee games with entertaining and memorable football games, not just big crowds

I’m not talking about the Anzac clash

 

[Xtreme]

Marketing hype to get an extra 20,000 paying customers along to the MCG and more importantly, to boost Ch.7's TV ratings by an extra 250,000

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The AFL also loves anything which paints them as a pillar of the community and the Anzac Day palaver at the MCG certainly achieves that.

Nothing says paying respects to the ANZACS like a Birds of Tokyo pre game entertainment concert

VOMIT

 

[Back One Out]

Nothing says paying respects to the ANZACS like a Birds of Tokyo pre game entertainment concert

VOMIT

Nah... That's okay by me. Well done to the AFL for sticking their hand in their pocket and forking out some money for the entertainment of thousands of fans who are sitting there for hours, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the Anzac service. Most 3:20 MCG games I go to are played in semi-darkness because the AFL are too cheap to turn the lights on before halftime

Better to have a rock band than ads played over the PA at deafening volume. Admittedly, I don't know much about Birds of Tokyo. Maybe ads would be better. Dunno???

 

[Black Stripe]

I don’t get the fuss really, it is treated as the second biggest game of the year behind the GF, yet it is only a regular season home and away game.

There is an enormous load of promotional w@nk in the lead up to it as if the players are going into battle... They aren’t, it’s a football game worth 4 competition points.

The ANZAC medal is treated to be as prestigious as winning a Norm Smith, which is also ridiculous - it’s the best player in a game between Essendon and Collingwood.

The better option would be to only have ANZAC round.

I’m all for marquee games - Geelong gets Easter Monday for example. However, the ANZAC game should just be another marquee game, not its own Grand Final.

The ANZAC medal IS one of the most prestigious medals in our game and you're just jealous that no Geelong player can or will be able to ever say they are an ANZAC medallist.

 

[Captain Morgan]

Spewing we didn't get an inferiority complex and start an 'Anzac Day-eve' clash because we felt left out that Collingwood/Essendon were getting all the headlines.

Don’t forget the annual round one blockbuster against Carlton

 

[Bayer_]

RedVest4

Seriously though, it's a big deal because there's history between the clubs which includes some connection to the ANZAC history.

Because both clubs won premierships when the country was at war?

 

[PP34]

Agree.

There’s a big crowd and the atmosphere at the start is okay by the game itself has been boring for years. Collingwood basically wins every year.

Put any two big sides on a public holiday and you’d get a big crowd.

 

[good4footy]

I really don't understand the derision and whinging about commercialism by most on here.. This game helped a generation get back in touch with the sacrifce of our diggers and the fallen. Forget any hate towards the two clubs and therefore trying to play it down- this match is about much more. It has changed attitudes and educated many.

In the early games the calling out during the minutes silence was plentiful and moronic. Now the change in attitude and the respect of our fallen is depicted by the silence of 90,000 people contemplating the sacrifice of others.

It is more than the game now. It is an avenue to focus on something that may have disappeared as the soldiers and members of organisations like the RSL passed away. I get that some feel too cool for school to praise the AFL or opposition clubs like Collingwood and Essendon, but you must have your club or anti establishment goggles on to be anything but positve about the effect the event has had on how ANZAC Day is seen.

 

[beaglebombs]

Yeah it's no biggie just what we represent as Australians....freedom!

 

[Kram]

This game helped a generation get back in touch with the sacrifce of our diggers and the fallen.

You actually believe this rubbish?

 

[Boxhead_31]

It is more than the game now. It is an avenue to focus on something that may have disappeared as the soldiers and members of organisations like the RSL passed away.

Yep, nothing honours the ANZAC's more than having a rock concert

 

[Jivlain]

The logical approach would be to play the Anzac day game between the Western Bulldogs and St Kilda, to match the colours of the flags of the French Republic and the German Empire.

 

[HurleyHepsHird]

A lot of money invested in marketing and advertising.

 

[good4footy]

You actually believe this rubbish?

Yep ANZAC Day was as insignificant as the Labour Day holiday. The introduction of sporting events honouring the day has lead to change in public awarness. The day honours our fallen better. You only have to look at the increased numbers at dawn services and the younger demographic at things like the march to see a change in public attitude to the day.

 

[good4footy]

Yep, nothing honours the ANZAC's more than having a rock concert

Ah yes you have been put off the last 24 years by something that has not happened ever before and will be such an insignificant part of the whole day.

99% of the day honours them but that 1% that may only happen once puts you off. I think that says more about you than anything else.

 

[Kram]

Yep ANZAC Day was as insignificant as the Labour Day holiday. The introduction of sporting events honouring the day has lead to change in public awarness. The day honours our fallen better. You only have to look at the increased numbers at dawn services and the younger demographic at things like the march to see a change in public attitude to the day.

The public isn't that ****in dumb that they need a grossly commercialised game of footy for anything, kids learn about this stuff from a young age. In WA at least. So is this level of stupidity and ignorance just a Victorian thing, what the hell are you doing in your schools over there?

 

[good4footy]

The public isn't that ****in dumb that they need a grossly commercialised game of footy for anything, kids learn about this stuff from a young age. In WA at least. So is this level of stupidity and ignorance just a Victorian thing, what the hell are you doing in your schools over there?

Lol. Just look at the facts including feedback from the RSL regards the influence this game and other sporting events have had on the day. I will leave your rant as reflection of your inmability to stay focused on the issue at hand. Maybe it is a reflection of how you were educated in WA. I can't help you any further.

 

[JB1975]

There is an enormous load of promotional w@nk in the lead up to it as if the players are going into battle... They aren’t, it’s a football game worth 4 competition points.

Is this true, do the players or other spruikers really suggest that the Anzac Day game is akin to the Gallipoli landing or any other battle? Every once in a while (perhaps in the earlier years of Anzac Day footy) a few blokes made some clumsy association between the two, but the overwhelming narrative is about paying tribute to the sacrifice of others rather than 'going into battle'.

I'm not going to deny that the Anzac Day match has become increasingly commercial, but that shouldn't obscure the fact that most of the club officials, players and fans approach the day with a sense of profound respect. The notion that they see the game as anything like the experience of WWI soldiers is largely, in my opinion, an outdated fiction.

 

[SunGirl89]

pathetic troll thread

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

The ANZAC medal IS one of the most prestigious medals in our game and you're just jealous that no Geelong player can or will be able to ever say they are an ANZAC medallist.

yeah i mean only the greats of the game like Mark McGough can boast having one ...

 

[Magpie Since 1986]

I don’t get the fuss really, it is treated as the second biggest game of the year behind the GF, yet it is only a regular season home and away game..

Obviously because it consistently draws the second biggest crowd of the year behind the GF. It is sold out every year, the average crowd for Anzac Day clashes since the MCG redevelopment in 2006 has been 89,223. Not even prelim finals at the MCG average that kind of figure over that period.

Whatever the "fuss" that you don't get is, the point remains people are more interested in attending this game than any other game outside the GF.

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Because both clubs won premierships when the country was at war?

i think i read somewhere that the majority of football playing ANZAC's who were KIA during both wars came from Melbourne and St Kilda's playing list also Geelong had a high number of players who served during the war years