What Tigers, Dees need for permanent Anzac eve fixture (Age)

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What Tigers, Dees need for Anzac eve fixture

Jake Niall
The Age
April 24, 2015


Richmond says the AFL has indicated that the level of public interest for the game and juggling fixtures will be the key issues in whether the Richmond-Melbourne clash becomes regular on the eve of Anzac Day.

The Tigers have set a pass mark of a crowd of 50,000 for Friday night's game, in terms of demonstrating that the commemorative game – which will involve a ceremony at a darkened MCG – should become a fixture.

Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale said the AFL had indicated that "public support and the fixture" – the latter largely dependent on the day Anzac Day falls – would be key considerations on whether the match was made into a regular occasion.

Friday night is a Richmond home game.

Richmond and Melbourne have made a concerted push to have this Anzac Day eve clash turned into a permanent fixture, and have organised a pre-game ritual for Friday in which AFL and Demon legend Ron Barassi takes a flame from the Shrine of Remembrance and lights a cauldron in a darkened MCG.

Gale said the game was "not Anzac Day" though it paid tribute to the Anzacs and had involved discussions with the RSL. "It complements Anzac Day".

Gale said a crowd of 50,000 to 55,000 "would be about par" for the game. "60,000 would be a great result."

He said the Richmond players had embraced the commerative game concept, which will also highlight the contribution of legendary coach, Frank "Checker" Hughes, who coached both clubs to premierships.

Gale said it was appropiate that the match featured "the original co-tenants at the 'G" and the occasion would seek to recreate some of the "dark and sombre" element of the eve of Anzac Day 100 years ago, when – as the Victorian RSL

boss Major-General David McLachlan pointed out to Gale – the Anzacs would have been crossing the Dardenelles in darkness.

In the pre-game ritual, lighthorse will transport the flame from the Shrine to the MCG, where it will be lit in a cauldron by  Barassi, whose father Ron Barassi senior – a Melbourne player – died in combat in Tobruk during World War II.

Gale said that the fixturing considerations for the AFL for this game in future included the day of the week that Anzac Day fell on.

He said it was easier to play it on Fridays or weekend nights than in mid-week.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/what-tigers-dees-need-for-anzac-eve-fixture-20150423-1ms1j2.html