Written by April 25 is ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). On this day in 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula. A great legacy has been left to the generations that followed; a legacy of great sacrifice and bravery that is solemnly recognized every year.
Before the Anzac Day Collingwood-Essendon football clash started today, the Last Post is reverently played followed by the national anthem which drew a massive response from the nearly 80 000 people in attendance at the MCG. Why is this year so different from other years? This year sees a return to a semblance of normalcy, missing from the 2020 football season during Melbourne’s extended Covid-19 restrictions and lockdown.
“Not since the 2019 finals series has there been such a loud noise at a football game in Victoria.” – ABC News
One wouldn’t blame Victorians for being reticent about coming together in such a massed gathering after what they’ve been through, but the state government decided as the pandemic urgency eases in this area of the country, to allow up to 85% capacity at the iconic MCG, and the crowds flocked in unreservedly.
In recent years, Australian football has hosted some ugly displays of hooliganism, racism, and poor sportsmanship, and that was just the players. This poor culture has reared its head with startling regularity and infiltrated through the gathered spectators on many occasions. Football has always been immensely popular in Australian culture, particularly in the city of Melbourne and the southern states, this fervour has often fuelled some pretty poor choices in regard to behaviour. Adam Goode, arguably one of Australia’s best players, was at the receiving end of a protracted and ugly hate campaign purely because of his Aboriginal heritage. Damning too was the report of the findings of the independent review commissioned by the club leaked just last February, which found Collingwood guilty of systemic racism:
“While reference was made to claims of racism across the AFL more generally, Collingwood’s history with racism was described as ‘distinct and egregious’, with the club’s leadership, ‘particularly its board’, needing to drive structural change.
It described a culture of ‘individuals, if not quite being bigger than the Club, then at least having an unhealthy degree of influence over Club culture’.”
Anzac Day, particularly after last year’s deprivations, has allowed an opportunity for gathering together in sports as a nation united.
This match is a display of the positive cultures of Australian patriotism and comradery, and healthy sporting competition coalescing again. Let us hope this renewed and perhaps amplified appreciation of being able to physically gather in celebration again will stem future cultural issues that have plagued Aussie football in past years.
The results … Essendon won against Collingwood 16.13 (109) to 13.7 (85), not that it really matters, at the end of the day patriotism and the Australian sporting culture won.
Collingwood Football Club is guilty of systemic racism, review finds – ABC News