WHEN it comes to playing footy on Good Friday, bush leagues have led the way. Despite the AFL's refusal to schedule matches, trailblazing leagues like the Murray and Goulburn Valley have been fixturing games on Good Friday for the best part of a decade, with big crowds flocking to see the contests.
The VFL/AFL has had no such reservations about scheduling matches on another of the nation's most sacred public holidays, Anzac Day. But most bush leagues traditionally shied away from doing the same, especially when Anzac Day fell on a weekday.
That has all changed in recent seasons. On Thursday, leagues right across the state held matches and many of them attracted crowds that dwarfed usual home and away attendances.
One of the best-supported games took place at Seymour where the Lions hosted their Goulburn Valley league arch rivals, Euroa.
''You've just got to keep turning over new ideas to get people through the gate,'' Seymour president Gerard O'Sullivan said.
''You've got to find other ways to generate income, and it comes down to playing on days like Good Friday and Anzac Day.'' Seymour and Euroa have met on a number of recent Anzac Days, and the clubs hope to make the game an annual fixture, with the Lions hosting it one year and the Magpies the next.
Many of the same pre-match observances that were held prior to the Essendon-Collingwood match at the MCG also took place at Kings Park in Seymour. Member for Seymour Cindy McLeish and local RSL president John Blackwell addressed the crowd before the opening bounce, while 93-year-old Jack Ford and fellow former soldier Frank Johnson spoke to the captains at the coin-toss. The game certainly lived up to the hype. Euroa, which won only five of its 54 games between 2010 and 2012, demonstrated its improvement this season by snatching a one-point win. Ambrose Swindon was the hero: his sixth goal, scored from near the boundary line, handing the Magpies the lead in the dying minutes of the final quarter.
Although star forward Saad Saad took a typically spectacular mark, it was a very disappointing result for Seymour, which lost last year's GVFL grand final to Tatura.
''To Euroa's credit, they played better than us,''
O'Sullivan said. ''That's a fact. We kicked poorly and all that sort of stuff, but at the end they got the points and that's all that matters.''
There were a number of notable performances elsewhere across the state. Former AFL star Matthew Scarlett was best on ground in South Barwon's 38-point victory over St Joseph's in the Geelong league.
Another ex-AFL player, Jason Akermanis, had a less enjoyable day. Akermanis, who is coaching North Albury in the Ovens and Murray league this year, questioned the ability of the club's fringe players after the Hoppers lost to Albury by 43 points. Albury has now beaten North on five consecutive Anzac Days.
Down in south-west Victoria, the Hampden league fixtured games on Anzac Day for the first time, with a trio of matches held in Warrnambool, Camperdown and Hamilton. In a quirk, all three games were won by the visiting teams: Koroit beat South Warrnambool, Cobden held sway against Camperdown and Portland was too good for the Hamilton Kangaroos. The Victorian trading rules that prohibit spectators being charged to watch sport before 1pm on Anzac Day prompted some creativity from clubs that hosted matches.
The Hampden league chose not to play its under-18 games at all. But a large number of clubs now have AFL-standard lights, so they were able to push all their starting times back. Gippsland league club Moe started its senior match, which it lost to Morwell by 121 points, at 4.30pm.
Wangaratta started its Ovens and Murray game against Myrtleford, which it won by 13 points, at 6.10pm.
Back at Seymour, where a portion of the gate takings were donated to the RSL and an organisation that specifically supports Vietnam veterans (similar things were done by clubs across the state), the Lions made use of another local oval and held the under-18 and reserves games at the same time. The senior match then started at 3pm and finished in rather dim light at around 5.30pm.
''We turned our lights on, which compensated a little bit,'' O'Sullivan said. ''Years ago we played night footy with those lights, but they're not quite good enough anymore.
But Scotty Watson, the president of Euroa, was willing to just make it work. There were absolutely no complaints from them. We had a beer after the game and he was rapt at the way it all went off.''
Given the way the matches were supported on Thursday, it seems bush footy on Anzac Day is here to stay. ''We had an enormous day,'' O'Sullivan said. ''We had a huge crowd, a well-behaved crowd. Numbers of people, I can't tell you. But I can tell you that gate takings were better than double. It's a winner.''
By Adam McNicol
Article frist appeared The Sunday Age April 28, 2013
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bush-pride-is-on-the-march-20130427-2ilmv.html#ixzz2RhjWnpSB