by The first Anzac Day football occurred a decade after Gallipoli, starting a century of debate around the meeting place between football and military commemoration.
Held on April 25 each year, Anzac Day commemorates the Gallipoli landings in World War I.
The Gallipoli campaign began on that day in 1915, when members of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC), alongside British and French units, went ashore on the Gallipoli Peninsula at dawn. Their objective was to advance inland, helping open a sea route to Constantinople that would force the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
Meant as a surprise attack, they encountered fierce resistance.
The Ottoman defenders knew of the landings in advance, and occupied well entrenched positions on high ground. From there they were able to continuously fire on the Allied troops, trapped on narrow beaches below.
Fighting was fierce. The Allies were unable to break inland to any meaningful degree, and gave up their advance after a few months; the surviving troops began to be evacuated in December 1915.
Losses were staggering. Combined casualties reached 500 000, with approximately 125 000 dead.
The ANZACs alone lost more than 10 000 troops.
Word of the landings, and ensuing military catastrophe, began filtering back to Australia and New Zealand shortly afterwards.
Both countries were newly formed; Australia had become a federated nation in 1901, New Zealand had begun self-governance only in 1907. For each, this was their first experience of national tragedy.
Commemorations would begin quickly.
As early as April 30, only 5 days after the landings, a national half day holiday was declared in New Zealand, to allow religious services to be held. In September of that year, while the campaign was still raging, the first ANZAC monument was unveiled in Adelaide.
An ANZAC ‘Day of Remembrance’ was held in Melbourne in December.
In 1916, April 25 was declared ‘Anzac Day’ in many places across the British commonwealth. A well-attended parade was held in London, while jurisdictions in Australia and New Zealand held a half day holiday paired with religious services.
Australian state governments steadily converted this to a full public holiday, which was in place across the country by 1927.
Australian football has a deep, complex connection to the war.
The country’s top league, the Victorian Football League (VFL), had continued during the war years, which had been controversial. The league reasoned that people still needed some form of entertainment, and games were often used to fundraise for the war effort.
There was much criticism of this approach. Some recruiting posters even highlighted it, suggesting that people playing football at home were shirking their national duty.
Many footballers served in the military, and 104 players from the VFL died during the conflict. Others returned and resumed playing in the league when the war was over.
And so a link between football and Anzac Day existed, right from the start. The first club to try playing a match on the day, was Melbourne.
On Anzac Day 1925, the Dees played an intra-club match. Their squad was broken into two teams: those who had served, and those who had not (largely players who had been too young).
While effectively a practice match, the game was open to the public and advertised. The quality of play was high; The Argus called it ‘a delightful exhibition’, not far below league standard.
Gate receipts were collected and donated to the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia (RSSILA), a precursor to the Returned Services League (RSL).
Among the Melbourne players was Ivor Warne-Smith.
Warne-Smith had served on the Western Front in the war, where he had been wounded twice, and gassed. He eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant.
Returning to Australia, he debuted for Melbourne in 1919 and would become one of its most successful players, winning Brownlow Medals in 1926 and 1928.
In his forties, Warne-Smith would also serve in World War II.
Melbourne’s Anzac Day match was viewed with interest by the football community, but was not replicated. The RSSILA, and then the RSL, would eventually state that they would prefer football not be played on the day.
The concept would go on hiatus until 1960.
Prior to the VFL season that year, several club Presidents lobbied the RSL to change their position. This was backed by prominent football personalities; former Collingwood captain Lou Richards, one of the best known figures in the game, wrote in his newspaper column, ‘Isn’t it time league football caught the Anzac spirit?’
The RSL was persuaded to allow their members a vote on the issue.
This occurred on the eve of the season, and came out overwhelmingly in favour of allowing games to proceed, as long as they started after 1pm. Anzac Day morning would be kept for commemorations.
An act of Parliament was passed, allowing football to be played on April 25.
Anzac Day fell on a Monday in 1960, the league scheduled two games for the public holiday: St Kilda would host Melbourne at Junction Oval, and Fitzroy would play Carlton at Fitzroy Oval. Part of the gate money from the games would go to the RSL, although the exact amount was not disclosed.
The weekend prior saw Melbourne beset by terrible weather. 152 millimetres of rain fell across the weekend, on Saturday it was so heavy that four games had to be called off; they would be re-scheduled to the following weekend, a rare occurrence.
But conditions improved by Anzac Day, and the Monday games went ahead.
Melbourne’s team was one of the strongest in league history. Captained by Ron Barassi, and coached by Norm Smith, both future Hall of Fame members, the team made seven consecutive Grand Finals from 1954, winning five Premierships.
1960 was the last year of this run, but they still had a strong side and accounted for the Saints by 24 points. Melbourne would go on to win another flag at season’s end.
Fitzroy were one of Melbourne’s chief rivals in 1960, and would finish equal with them on top of the table.
They started slowly against Carlton, before surging home in the final quarter, to record a narrow 7 point win. Despite the tight result, ‘The Age’ took aim at the Blues in their match report, labelling the team ‘disappointing’, ‘tired’ and ‘meek’.
Both games had been close and well attended, the league said afterwards they would consider more Anzac Day football in future.
Anzac Day fell on a Tuesday in 1961, the league again scheduled two games on the day. Looking to share the fixture around, this time Richmond played South Melbourne at Punt Road, and Essendon hosted Melbourne at Windy Hill.
The following year there were no games on Anzac Day, before they returned in 1963.
This would be the pattern over the following few decades; one or two games on Anzac Day in most seasons, none in some years. The fixture continued to be shared among the clubs, with the VFL trying only to ensure one of the games was played at the MCG.
When Anzac Day fell on a Saturday, a full compliment of games was played as usual.
In 1994, Anzac Day fell on a Monday, and the league scheduled only one game: St Kilda against Richmond at Waverley Park. The Saints were on the bottom of the ladder at the time, and the game was lacklustre; Richmond winning easily by 42 points.
Afterwards, the league, now the Australian Football League (AFL), was criticised for not scheduling a larger match at the empty MCG.
AFL Chief Executive Ross Oakley defended the game, saying while a match at the MCG on Anzac Day was desirable, it was not always possible due to the complexity of the fixture. He was asked if the Collingwood-Essendon game from the Saturday prior to Anzac Day, a guaranteed blockbuster, should have been played on the public holiday instead.
Oakley said, it had not been possible as Collingwood would only have had a five day break.
The Essendon coach in 1994 was Kevin Sheedy, a former star player for Richmond who had become highly successful off-field.
During his playing career, Sheedy had played in an Anzac Day match in 1977 against Collingwood at the MCG, that had drawn 92 000 people. Seeing the disappointing result of the match in 1994, he approached Collingwood’s football manager, Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allan, with an idea.
An annual match on the day, between the two sides.
Allan liked the suggestion and arranged a meeting between himself, Sheedy, RSL president Bruce Ruxton, and the Presidents of the two clubs. Sheedy was a former soldier: he had been drafted into the army in 1969, for his compulsory national service, and impressed the attendees with his passion for the event.
Ruxton gave his blessing to the idea, which was then approved by the AFL. The game was set for Anzac Day, 1995.
As Sheedy had guessed, interest in the match was enormous. Essendon and Collingwood were long term rivals, and both recent Premiers; the Pies had won the flag in 1990, and Essendon in 1993.
Both teams were chock full of stars from the era.
A huge crowd began building from early morning, causing havoc around the MCG.
‘The crowd caused chaos outside the ground with cars backed up for kilometres. Many players were late to the game, including Essendon’s Che Cockatoo-Collins, who had been watching the reserves at Victoria Park (just) down the road from the MCG.’
‘30 Years of Anzac Day’, afl.com
94 000 people would attend, at the time the second largest home-and-away crowd in history.
What the packed house witnessed was a classic: a high energy game with many ebbs and flows, and multiple lead changes.
With 90 seconds to play, Collingwood’s star full forward Saverio Rocca kicked a goal, his ninth, to level the scores.
In the frantic final seconds, Collingwood pushed forward several more times. Their champion midfielder Nathan Buckley had two long kicks into the forward fifty in the last minute, but both were repelled.
The game ended in a famous draw (watch the coclusion of the game, here).
Essendon and Collingwood have continued to play one another on Anzac Day, in the years since. In more recent times, the game is preceded with a military memorial, featuring the playing of the last post, a reading of the ‘Ode of Remembrance’, and a minutes silence.
While the game always draws a large crowd, criticism has attached itself to Collingwood and Essendon’s monopoly of the game.
‘What was once a shared occasion across the competition is now jealously guarded by two clubs. This matters given Anzac Day’s deep cultural significance, and restricts how AFL fans are able to commemorate Australia’s most sacred secular day.’
‘The Conversation’, Mathew Turner and Tony Joel
There is also some criticism of the AFL for commercialising the day. While the RSL continues to support Anzac Day footy, the meeting point between these two elements will continue to stir emotional debate, as they have for a century.
