Annual rant - ANZAC jumpers and merch

[Underarm]

Anzac Day is honoured and remembered on ONE day - 25 April - for a reason. Having multiple ceremonies and tribute games across multiple days across a full week absolutely trashes the honour and tragedy of that day and what it represents to our nation's history.

I hope you send this rant daily to the War Memorial who do daily commemorations.

I'm the grandson of a Gallipoli veteran. I still have the service records and audio tapes of his memories of service as a 17 year old in WW1, including his service at Gallipoli and the battlefields of France and Belgium before being injured and luckily captured and interred as as a POW for the rest of that horrible senseless war on the other side of the world.

How is it not better that more people over the week take time to remember your grandfathers legacy?

 

[PizzaPie]

For sure

And people have the freedom to call out the tacky and crass consumerism that the AFL has latched on to and ridicule those who support it

Agreed. This conversation chain started by me telling someone they don't determine what others do (along those lines), which is a literal fact and not something I was imposing on them, and would be a fact whether I said it or not. I'm sure they know that, but however they worded their views prompted me to reply stating the obvious but implying something else.

 

[76woodenspooners]

Anzac Day is honoured and remembered on ONE day - 25 April - for a reason. Having multiple ceremonies and tribute games across multiple days across a full week absolutely trashes the honour and tragedy of that day and what it represents to our nation's history.

Some of my local RSL’s had their ceremony this year on April 21st? (Presumably to allow some folks to go to both their local service and one of the bigger services)

It’s a difficult one - how do you remind your society take their security seriously, and not take their freedoms for granted, when they haven’t had to actively defend their shores from attack for a while? People need to be engaged in the day, which I reckon our society does a reasonable job of (unlike other public holidays)

 

[PizzaPie]

Same thing a lot of people don't seem to get these days - it's not about you and what you want to do.

ANZAC Day is a day of remembrance for those that had their lives taken - most at a horribly young age and in horrifically violent circumstances.

It was always quite solemn - particularly the morning when all events etc were banned. Just yesterday on SEN, Marg (in her 90s) spoke about how it was always such a sad day in their family's household as they had three people who were killed at war - they'd stay home, watch the march and reflect on those who gave it all. The soldiers themselves then gathered together after the morning's events.

That's how people who were actually affected by it chose to do it, yet now that's not respected. They've mostly died off now so of course it's been much easier to change the tenor of the day.

Would you spend somebody's funeral blasting music out of your phone? In a free society, it is not up to you to determine how people should think, dress, and behave at any time. Why couldn't someone celebrate and that be every bit as virtuous as you seem to think your way is, anyways?

It's just about respect.

And I'm not saying cancel everything. What is was not long ago was fine - the footy, a service before the game, a parade of veterans, a simple badge on the player's jumpers to mark it.

What it's become now is just increasingly grotesque, and it's happening for one simple reason. Money.

The tacky jumpers and merchandise, the $300/head breakfasts and lunches, all to supposedly "celebrate" it. Don't get it wrong, it's all for one reason - profiteering.

We share a lot of the same opinions about this day and what it means. I think it's just the way you stated your opinions as absolutes that prompted the 'hey, that's not for you to decide...' response. Semantics and all that.

 

[The 747]

Some of my local RSL’s had their ceremony this year on April 21st? (Presumably to allow some folks to go to both their local service and one of the bigger services)

It’s a difficult one - how do you remind your society take their security seriously, and not take their freedoms for granted, when they haven’t had to actively defend their shores from attack for a while? People need to be engaged in the day, which I reckon our society does a reasonable job of (unlike other public holidays)

This game has done a lot for Anzac Day and to keep it in the minds of a generation that might otherwise forget.

It is possible to acknowledge that but also dislike the AFL and club profiteering that takes place.

 

[76woodenspooners]

This game has done a lot for Anzac Day and to keep it in the minds of a generation that might otherwise forget.

It is possible to acknowledge that but also dislike the AFL and club profiteering that takes place.

Yeah, fair enough

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

This game has done a lot for Anzac Day and to keep it in the minds of a generation that might otherwise forget.

It is possible to acknowledge that but also dislike the AFL and club profiteering that takes place.

The whole US military "Thanks for your service" that Buckley is speaking about with his father experiencing, now that he wears his Vietnam medals is a bit off for me. I feel like we should be apologising to those veterans rather than thanking them. The sum total of their sacrifice was bugger all.

 

[BringFevBack2021]

The whole US military "Thanks for your service" that Buckley is speaking about with his father experiencing, now that he wears his Vietnam medals is a bit off for me. I feel like we should be apologising to those veterans rather than thanking them. The sum total of their sacrifice was bugger all.

This is the exact chat I had with my partner this morning. Well said.

 

[Colonial]

Both grandfathers served in WW2, dad served in Vietnam and the Malaysian Incident. Uncle served as well.

I’m honoured that my club is respecting them and other service men and women.

 

[SC_Power]

I think this says it all, for all points of view

“They feel like the most unifying minutes we have as a country for the year,” Gerard Whateley said on AFL Nation during the moving ceremony.

 

[Cleavy]

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/stick-to-tradition-rabbitohs-unrecognisable-in-awful-anzac-jersey/news-story/d8e2140bc3fa2c5b2782be7785ac1a95

Looks like the ANZAC jumper issue exists in the NRL too. (Re: commercially driven, designs, where the proceeds go)

 

[Hoops]

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/stick-to-tradition-rabbitohs-unrecognisable-in-awful-anzac-jersey/news-story/d8e2140bc3fa2c5b2782be7785ac1a95

Looks like the ANZAC jumper issue exists in the NRL too. (Re: commercially driven, designs, where the proceeds go)

Rugby League tops are just ridiculous walking billboards.

 

[Impunity!]

https://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/stick-to-tradition-rabbitohs-unrecognisable-in-awful-anzac-jersey/news-story/d8e2140bc3fa2c5b2782be7785ac1a95

Looks like the ANZAC jumper issue exists in the NRL too. (Re: commercially driven, designs, where the proceeds go)

$5 from every $160 jersey goes to charity! That is shameful