The Pies/Bombers ANZAC day game is just a H&A game between two teams I Hate

[Jobe]

Each year i make the trip from SA to watch the game and i'll continue to make the trip, regardless if my team was involved.

 

[Roadie]

During the Crazy Vossy ad for this game on Fox Footy they show a graphic of someone (David King possibly) in the 'War Room'.

Maybe don't call it that this week? Hmm?

 

[ManWithNoName]

Amusing how the internet police are offended on behalf of the ANZAC's, yet it's the RSL who present the medal.

 

[Rustin Cohle]

Bravery levels off the charts in this thread.

 

[Riccardo11]

I have been grateful for the now annual Melbourne Storm Vs New Zealand Warriors match, a chance to get out to a game and honor the ANZACS, plus it feels more honest because it actually represents Australia and New Zealand, rather than corruption and an AFL version of nepotism.

The atmosphere at AAMI Park is always amazing, even with a smaller capacity than the MCG.

 

[Riccardo11]

Point it out to me then.

If football has nothing to do with ANZAC day, you cannot award an ANZAC Day medal. You simply cannot have it both ways.

Shouldn't every game over the ANZAC Day weekend have a medal awarded to the best player, then?

After all, it's ANZAC Day, not ESSCOLL Day.

 

[NUFC Tiger]

Always cringe when you hear a commentator or someone in the media use the line 'so and so played with the embodiment of the ANZAC spirit' or the game captures the 'ANZAC spirit'. Just pure cringe worthy.

Not a fan on the name 'ANZAC medal' either. Would be better to name it after a player who served IMO (Maybe Peter Chitty - the ex POW who won the only 'Changi Brownlow Medal').

 

[Donakebab]

Mate, like it or not I have a father that served in the Navy for 20 years and a grandfather that served on the front line during WWII. My father is insulted and my grandfather vented his displeasure about the naming of the medal before he passed away. Their opinions are important to me. Not yours.

Well I've had no negative responses through my work collaborations with returned service people via the National War Memorial. I'm going to go with my multitudes of first hand experience. Cheers.

 

[Crawb]

Good thing they'll change it up from 2016 onwards then

 

[DangerSloane]

Perhaps, but saying that the RSL is okay with it also serves to simplify the issue.

And saying that 2 people you know have a problem with it unecessarily complicates the issue.

 

[SBYM]

Firstly its not mythological one bit (unless you're talking about Good Friday then you go girl).

ANZAC Day has nothing to do with football.... full stop.

We happen to play a game on that day and the best player wins an Anzac day medal. They are not compared to soldiers, they are not heralded in the same manner or respected in the same manner.
The only people that cannot distinguish between the two are complete and utter morons.

Funny. I feel the same way about people who unquestioningly subscribe to nostalgic historical narratives that generally gloss over the horrors of warfare.

Like I said, I have no problem with the game. I do, however, have a problem with the medal. I feel that receiving a special award for 'showing the qualities of the ANZAC Spirit – skill, courage, self-sacrifice, teamwork and fair play' cheapens the historical event.

What about the underage kid who pissed his pants before having his head blown off? Is he not an ANZAC because he didn't show courage and skill?

In my opinion the medal is too much about glorifying, and not enough about remembering. Collingwood and Essendon have made the day into an event, and that event does a great deal of good.

You'll never convince me otherwise about some shitty medal that means **** all.

(quote taken from; http://www.anzacappeal.com.au/history-and-events/anzac-day-afl-match/)

 

[Dynamics]

Amusing how the internet police are offended on behalf of the ANZAC's, yet it's the RSL who present the medal.

I can only speak for myself on this one. I'm not offended for anyone else, i'm not even offended personally. I f***ing hate that word, to be blunt.

But I do find the language used, drawing parallels between footballers and ANZACS to be crass and unnecessary. If many diggers are cool with it, then they're obviously entitled to that opinion and I very much respect it.

FWIW the RSL, for all its many virtues, is hardly immune from criticism and does not represent all returned service men and women.

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

Funny. I feel the same way about people who unquestioningly subscribe to nostalgic historical narratives that generally gloss over the horrors of warfare.

Like I said, I have no problem with the game. I do, however, have a problem with the medal. I feel that receiving a special award for 'showing the qualities of the ANZAC Spirit – skill, courage, self-sacrifice, teamwork and fair play' cheapens the historical event.

What about the underage kid who pissed his pants before having his head blown off? Is he not an ANZAC because he didn't show courage and skill?

In my opinion the medal is too much about glorifying, and not enough about remembering. Collingwood and Essendon have made the day into an event, and that event does a great deal of good.

You'll never convince me otherwise about some shitty medal that means **** all.

(quote taken from; http://www.anzacappeal.com.au/history-and-events/anzac-day-afl-match/)

100% agree, especially when it normally just goes to the guy that kicks the most goals or gets the most posessions.

The other thing that annoys me is the fact that they play the last post at every game of the round. By Sunday it's completely irrelevent.

That being said, I do think the clubs involved treat the day with the respect it deserves, and I know Mick Malthouse and Sheedy, both swapped away comparisons with war very swiftly when they were brought up by journalists in press conferences etc.

 

[GutsyBug]

It shouldn't be named the Anzac Medal.

Have any suggestions?

 

[Kram]

Fremantle do it better without all the cringeworthy stuff and trying to exploit the day.

 

[Dont be a lemon]

I go every year and the sold out crowd is cool but the ANZAC connection does nothing for me. 2014 Australia is so far removed from what 1915 imperial Australia was that any connection to professional football is ludicrous. Giving best-on-ground an ANZAC medal and pretending it means something is stupid.

"Yeah but it helps educate people". That's not true at all. You ever talk to people about World War 1? Most people barely know a ****ing thing. The same diggers-up-the-beach stories every year doesn't enlighten people on what the war was about or what Australia's other wars have been about.

Really the whole day is used for a massive advertising campaign for the ADF and politicians to give easy speeches.

The RSL don't have a problem with it, grow up.

The RSL is full of assholes.

 

[TheCryingGame]

Easter Monday is my footy ANZAC Day.

My real ANZAC day will be spent doing anything else than watch these teams play

 

[Papa G]

Again, interesting…I'm all for football on GF and ANZAC Day, but not into obvious attempts by the AFL to sell some mythological narrative they can use to enhance their brand.

Please point out the conflict.

I can just imagine it now, first Good Friday game, Ch 7 2 hour match preview with promo guy with low husky voice comparing footballers "rising from the dead", "playing the game for all our sins" and silly Hipster beards being compared with JC's.

I really don't make a point of watching the ANZAC Day game, but If I've got nothing better to do I will make a point of not switching on till the game has started. The build up stuff is somewhere between cringe worthy and disgraceful.

 

[Collingwood 4 eternity]

During the Crazy Vossy ad for this game on Fox Footy they show a graphic of someone (David King possibly) in the 'War Room'.

Maybe don't call it that this week? Hmm?

Also Clarkson saying when we lose a "soldier" we replace him with another "soldier"

 

[Smokeyr67]

Easter Monday is my footy ANZAC Day.

My real ANZAC day will be spent doing anything else than watch these teams play

My real ANZAC day will start with the Dawn Service, a light gunfire breakfast, a march and then settle in to watch the footie with a few old mates who I served with.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Cool story brah

 

[FuManchu]

If you don't like the game, then don't watch.

Personally, I don't care if we have the ANZAC day game, Coll v Ess will always be big no matter when we play it.

But the minutes silence which is observed reverently these days, is something for which we can all be proud of. I remember a time in the 70s when it wasn't so reverently observed.

 

[Bazzar]

I can just imagine it now, first Good Friday game, Ch 7 2 hour match preview with promo guy with low husky voice comparing footballers "rising from the dead", "playing the game for all our sins" and silly Hipster beards being compared with JC's.

I really don't make a point of watching the ANZAC Day game, but If I've got nothing better to do I will make a point of not switching on till the game has started. The build up stuff is somewhere between cringe worthy and disgraceful.

What a lot of garbage. The build up is sensational and incredibly respectful to our past and present Diggers. Its when the game starts its just another game.

 

[Papa G]

What a lot of garbage. The build up is sensational and incredibly respectful to our past and present Diggers. Its when the game starts its just another game.

See we have differing views. You think Southern Cross tattoos are cool, I don't.

 

[Smokeyr67]

Cool story brah

You talking to me?

Be great this year with the Saints/ Lions kicking off in Wellington at 17:30, then Freo / North at 20:30, I just hope they're all good close games! (Saturday may have to be a rest day for me though)