Anzac Ceremony for every game

[RunByThePool]

Channel 7 are running with "A match which always epitomises the ANZAC fighting spirit"

Just cringe.

How about a bit of sympathy for the blokes who stood up when others couldn't, those brave bands of brothers who didn't cower when cracks and pops of the champagne bottles rang out in the distance. The knights which held every line until their dying breath, or tight hammy. The thought of our boys stuck deep in those muddy benches, it still makes me tear up.

 

[Xtreme]

Isn’t this just a bit over a top?

I understand the game, but I find it bizarre and tacky that they’ve now pretty much marketed a whole round around the slaughter of innocent men. Do we really need to have the ceremony for almost every game?

Surely just do it on the actual day.

Well footballers and commentators are stupid enough to equate a match with two teams against each other as a war..... not surprised the AFL are being tacky. What's next beyond blue round?

 

[Gibbke]

I have various roles on Anzac Day as a music teacher - currently, I'm doing the powerpoint and sound setup for the school service on Tuesday. I've had behind the scenes roles like organising the band and the trumpeter (students - I rate playing the Last Post at an AD ceremony the single most difficult thing any kid will be asked to do while at school), and whatever gets asked...this week will be busy, because the av and sound equipment in our hall is notoriously unreliable and we're bringing in my own gear, and because the history teacher who usually handles the actual presentation won't be there and I'll be doing the whole thing. I'm sitting here converting their files into things the computer will recognise, because videos were made with dodgy formats, links don't work on the ppt...glad I thought to have a look yesterday and realised I'd need to bring it home, instead of thinking "she'll be right" and not looking until Monday...!

This is Qld, and since 2003, it's always been a big thing at school, for everyone in it and everyone who gets invited. There are always servicemen and women in attendance, and the public too...

I recall in 1990, however, when they released 75th anniversary coins, that AD was considered in danger of irrelevance, attendances were down, the same promotion of war debates raged, and diggers became more and more scarce from WW1 and WW2...Vietnam was pretty healthy in numbers, but of course we're now seeing those guys disappearing as the years go by...these days it's all about Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1987, my brother got married on Anzac Day, which was a Saturday. It didn't register with us too greatly, and we were more interested in scores of the VFL matches that day, which carried no AD fanfare (the inaugural Hawks v WC game was that day, where both teams played in gold strips...youtube that if your day is gloomy, because it's pretty dazzling...!)...

I'm a bigger picture person in all of this. I'm disgusted by the hijacking of the event by both the bogan and conservative elements, those who want to moon the parade with a selfie showing the Australian flag tattooed on their arses, and those political types who want to chest thump officially and brand people as "un-Australian" if they don't conform to the wanky nationalistic shit (e.g. the vilification of Yasmin). I cringe when a kid gets up there and recounts stuff they learnt in History (the number of Turks bayonetted in one advance, read out like a sports report, was particularly galling one year), and make a point of telling the kids in prior classes that everything about this day commemorates something we never want to see again. There was a 100 year celebration of the Battle of Beershaba (spelling!) recently, where a current general recounted "one of the finest cavalry charges in history"...we lost 50, the Turks lost 500...funny how a thumping loss like Anzac Day makes you humble, but a big win turns you into a w***er...

So for me, it's all anti-war and I'll be thinking about tens of thousands of Turks defending their home country as well as tens of thousands of Aussies who were invading it, countless millions of soldiers and civilians since that day in several wars, and all of the current places copping it that Yasmin so innocuously stated in the few minutes her tweet was aired. If every ceremony at every game is short, to the point, not a wank, and makes you think and appreciate, then job done. Wednesday can have the in-depth stuff.

 

[demondavey]

Who gives a ****, it wasn’t the only instance that saw people lose their lives. It just so happened that it was a concentrated amount in a small period of time.

It shouldn’t be promoted nor remembered when over the course of the war there were thousands upon thousands Australian and NZ soldiers who were killed.

It seems to be the only memory that there is of the war.

It’s been overdone. Make it a memory of everyone who was killed in all occasions we’ve had to go to war. It’s also a commercial flog that is used to fill coffers left right and centre.

 

[demondavey]

Well footballers and commentators are stupid enough to equate a match with two teams against each other as a war..... not surprised the AFL are being tacky. What's next beyond blue round?

Will never forget Nick Maxwell saying after the drawn GF that both sides had gone to war. What an absolute w***er.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

People obviously don’t realize how empowering and inspiring a stadium full of 40,000+ people all bar the buzzing of the light towers can actually be

So, like I say, let’s make every day Anzac Day.

As someone else pointed out, it’s called Anzac DAY for a reason.

This just smacks of the AFL trying to attach themselves to something bigger, and conservative elements of the military wanting to entrench Anzac Day far deeper than it was originally intended.

Now that all the original Anzacs and most of the WWII veterans have gone, there’s not nearly so many people there’s to remind us firsthand of the dangers of militarisation.

My grandpa survived the Burma-Siam railway. He came back horribly damaged and only once marched on Anzac Day. For him it was all about his battalion’s reunions, because NO-ONE else understood.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

How about a bit of sympathy for the blokes who stood up when others couldn't, those brave bands of brothers who didn't cower when cracks and pops of the champagne bottles rang out in the distance. The knights which held every line until their dying breath, or tight hammy. The thought of our boys stuck deep in those muddy benches, it still makes me tear up.

Fine, but Anzac Week?

 

[BF Tiger]

It's the Anzac Day eve match screwing with the schedule. Surely with Anzac Day on a Wednesday the game should be attached to the following weekend. But now they have to get a game in on the Tuesday and Wednesday so it has to follow the weekend.

 

[Papa G]

A last post and minutes silence at all games across the round is fine with me.

The most disgusting part is the 2 hours Ch 7 lead up coverage of the Ess/Coll game. Just awful.

 

[Power Raid]

So you are basically criticising the military industrial complex. I still don't see how ANZAC Day specifically is taking compensation away from families. If I get slotted while I'm over here my family certainly won't get nothing. Australia has also never been a nation that had nobility in the fashion that you are talking about, so your argument falls a little flat for me.

Military culture and traditions are very old and clearly older than Australia itself. We obviously adopted our from Britain and no doubt Britain from would have had influences from those that conquered her.

and of course we had nobility. The nation was carved up and given to nobility (fremantle, cottesloe etc etc). Do some research on the names of suburbs and you will see the noble roots.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Well footballers and commentators are stupid enough to equate a match with two teams against each other as a war..... not surprised the AFL are being tacky. What's next beyond blue round?

Yep, sponsored by some big AFL club or league backed pokie den or some brand of alcohol or betting agency.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Who gives a ****, it wasn’t the only instance that saw people lose their lives. It just so happened that it was a concentrated amount in a small period of time.

It shouldn’t be promoted nor remembered when over the course of the war there were thousands upon thousands Australian and NZ soldiers who were killed.

It seems to be the only memory that there is of the war.

It’s been overdone. Make it a memory of everyone who was killed in all occasions we’ve had to go to war. It’s also a commercial flog that is used to fill coffers left right and centre.

It is. Go back to school.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

 

[Ocker]

It's the Anzac Day eve match screwing with the schedule. Surely with Anzac Day on a Wednesday the game should be attached to the following weekend. But now they have to get a game in on the Tuesday and Wednesday so it has to follow the weekend.

$POT ON!

 

[demondavey]

It is. Go back to school.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

Don’t ****ing patronise me. I am well aware of the commercial jig attached to the day and how much it’s been commercialised for its value. How much does the AFL contribute to families of war casualties? Particularly the current generation? Or to soldiers suffering PTSD?

It ****ing sickens me.

 

[Power Raid]

So you are basically criticising the military industrial complex. I still don't see how ANZAC Day specifically is taking compensation away from families. If I get slotted while I'm over here my family certainly won't get nothing. Australia has also never been a nation that had nobility in the fashion that you are talking about, so your argument falls a little flat for me.

Not quite criticising the military complex as it is a very necessary machine.

What I am criticising is how we view the military, it’s operations, the servants, ex-servants, the fallen and their families. As this view enables the government to get away with what it does.

A Remembrance Day is excellent and followed up by real measures and fair measures to properly pay our defence personnel, provide proper health support to our veterans and proper compensation to the families of the fallen.

Perhaps just like we would hold accountable civilian organisations for their failures, like banks, we should read out the compensation of our fallen at ANZAC Day and let the people really appreciate how a government treats the people they care so much about to hold celebrations.

 

[Toump Ass]

Theres not enough anzac in anzac day footy for me. Give the players grenades and lets really make a spectacle of it!

 

[demondavey]

Theres not enough anzac in anzac day footy for me. Give the players grenades and lets really make a spectacle of it!

We will need them if we are to beat Richmond

 

[Power Raid]

I have various roles on Anzac Day as a music teacher - currently, I'm doing the powerpoint and sound setup for the school service on Tuesday. I've had behind the scenes roles like organising the band and the trumpeter (students - I rate playing the Last Post at an AD ceremony the single most difficult thing any kid will be asked to do while at school), and whatever gets asked...this week will be busy, because the av and sound equipment in our hall is notoriously unreliable and we're bringing in my own gear, and because the history teacher who usually handles the actual presentation won't be there and I'll be doing the whole thing. I'm sitting here converting their files into things the computer will recognise, because videos were made with dodgy formats, links don't work on the ppt...glad I thought to have a look yesterday and realised I'd need to bring it home, instead of thinking "she'll be right" and not looking until Monday...!

This is Qld, and since 2003, it's always been a big thing at school, for everyone in it and everyone who gets invited. There are always servicemen and women in attendance, and the public too...

I recall in 1990, however, when they released 75th anniversary coins, that AD was considered in danger of irrelevance, attendances were down, the same promotion of war debates raged, and diggers became more and more scarce from WW1 and WW2...Vietnam was pretty healthy in numbers, but of course we're now seeing those guys disappearing as the years go by...these days it's all about Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1987, my brother got married on Anzac Day, which was a Saturday. It didn't register with us too greatly, and we were more interested in scores of the VFL matches that day, which carried no AD fanfare (the inaugural Hawks v WC game was that day, where both teams played in gold strips...youtube that if your day is gloomy, because it's pretty dazzling...!)...

I'm a bigger picture person in all of this. I'm disgusted by the hijacking of the event by both the bogan and conservative elements, those who want to moon the parade with a selfie showing the Australian flag tattooed on their arses, and those political types who want to chest thump officially and brand people as "un-Australian" if they don't conform to the wanky nationalistic shit (e.g. the vilification of Yasmin). I cringe when a kid gets up there and recounts stuff they learnt in History (the number of Turks bayonetted in one advance, read out like a sports report, was particularly galling one year), and make a point of telling the kids in prior classes that everything about this day commemorates something we never want to see again. There was a 100 year celebration of the Battle of Beershaba (spelling!) recently, where a current general recounted "one of the finest cavalry charges in history"...we lost 50, the Turks lost 500...funny how a thumping loss like Anzac Day makes you humble, but a big win turns you into a w***er...

So for me, it's all anti-war and I'll be thinking about tens of thousands of Turks defending their home country as well as tens of thousands of Aussies who were invading it, countless millions of soldiers and civilians since that day in several wars, and all of the current places copping it that Yasmin so innocuously stated in the few minutes her tweet was aired. If every ceremony at every game is short, to the point, not a wank, and makes you think and appreciate, then job done. Wednesday can have the in-depth stuff.

Thank you

I started reading your post and couldn't help but think "oh my god, please no". The reason for that is we hear about islamic schools teaching of hate and celebrating the fallen having forty virgins. In the US my aunty had a one our lesson each week, in primary school, on how to defeat the Soviets. As such whenever I hear about teaching kids about war I get really nervous. It can be brainwashing or as your comments re the w***er teaching kids about the 500 to 50 simply disrespectful and missing the whole point.

but thank you, for teaching kids with the approach, balance and perspective you take.

 

[Ischenko]

Totally OTT.

Five days BEFORE Anzac Day for crying out loud. Why don’t just we make every day Anzac Day?

Travel a bit and you realise that other countries that have suffered far more than us in war just get on with life.

Too right. I've lived in Cambodia, where a generation and a half ago the population endured an actual genocide, and they don't make nearly as much of a fuss as we do. Anzac day was quite deliberately politicised and turned into a day of macho jingoism by the Howard government during its culture wars. What should be a day of quiet contemplation and commemoration for those who fought and their families has turned into a festival of chauvinistic flag waving.

And of course we have no similar day for the Aboriginal people slaughtered during the settlement of this country. Not saying at all that we can't honour the fallen, but Anzac day is about a lot more than that now, and not in a good way.

 

[TheExtractorFactor]

Ironic how most people who say 'sport and politics don't mix' are completely in favour of all the ANZAC ceremonies

 

[theyellowsash]

I don't disagree with the premise but for a different reason.

Anzac Day is still nearly a week away, but holding the ceremony before every game for nearly a week devalues the actual day of remembrance itself because it's no longer special. What makes that day a unique day of remembrance if it's done every day for nearly a week.

The ONLY reason the ceremony is done before every game, is because other clubs (particularly north Melbourne) whinged and complained about the Anzac Day game being a big money winner for the club's, and so the afl is doing the ceremony every game to pander to the marketing types. That's all it is, and it devalues the 'specialness' of Anzac Day by reducing it to tacky marketing.

 

[demondavey]

Too right. I've lived in Cambodia, where a generation and a half ago the population endured an actual genocide, and they don't make nearly as much of a fuss as we do. Anzac day was quite deliberately politicised and turned into a day of macho jingoism by the Howard government during its culture wars. What should be a day of quiet contemplation and commemoration for those who fought and their families has turned into a festival of chauvinistic flag waving.

And of course we have no similar day for the Aboriginal people slaughtered during the settlement of this country. Not saying at all that we can't honour the fallen, but Anzac day is about a lot more than that now, and not in a good way.

Exactly. Incredibly convenient for us to pick and choose when to feel sorrow and make it public.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Don’t ******* patronise me. I am well aware of the commercial jig attached to the day and how much it’s been commercialised for its value. How much does the AFL contribute to families of war casualties? Particularly the current generation? Or to soldiers suffering PTSD?

It ******* sickens me.

What's does any of that have to do with your post that I responded to?

Grow up you peanut.

 

[demondavey]

What's does any of that have to do with your post that I responded to?

Grow up you peanut.

You’re calling me a peanut? **** me....

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Too right. I've lived in Cambodia, where a generation and a half ago the population endured an actual genocide, and they don't make nearly as much of a fuss as we do. Anzac day was quite deliberately politicised and turned into a day of macho jingoism by the Howard government during its culture wars. What should be a day of quiet contemplation and commemoration for those who fought and their families has turned into a festival of chauvinistic flag waving.

And of course we have no similar day for the Aboriginal people slaughtered during the settlement of this country. Not saying at all that we can't honour the fallen, but Anzac day is about a lot more than that now, and not in a good way.

You could argue that one of the issues with Cambodia today is that they haven’t made enough of a fuss about what went on back then. However, I’m probably getting off topic.