Just A Game?

Any Australian football fan knows that when it comes to Anzac Day then that occasion is synonymous with one game of football - Collingwood versus Essendon. And that particular game certainly lived up to all expectations this year. Essendon, down by 15 points with around four minutes left of play, needed three goals to win. They managed to dig deep and got their three goals and scraped home to win by five points. Some said Essendon won that game while others lamented that Collingwood lost it. Someone else had another opinion...

After the game, Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse made this extraordinary comment about his team; "today we let the Anzacs down..."

Now this white man loves Australian football. I've watched it and loved it for as long as I can remember. Footy has been always with me, always been a part of me and will remain so for as long as I live. Even when I travelled the world I still listened to football broadcasts on my short-wave radio. An enduring memory I will carry forever was listening to the 1996 Grand Final whilst sitting on the roof of the Kathmandu Lodge Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal. AFL is in this white man's blood for sure. But back to Malthouse...

For all of what the Anzac Day clash between traditional rivals, Collingwood and Essendon signifies, surely one thing has to be patently clear. In no way ever can a simple game of football even come close to comparing with the horrors of what our servicemen endured on the battlefronts and in the trenches of war. Two teams playing football are not opposing nations killing each other in the name of war. So with that in mind, where does Mick Malthouse get the idea that his football team "let down the Anzacs". Australian's died in war for the sake of our nation's freedom - they sacrificed themselves for an ideal - freedom from tyranny. The pure fact that close to 100 000 people have the freedom to meander down to the MCG on a lazy Saturday afternoon is testament to what Australia's Anzacs died for. Does Malthouse think that his football teams poor effort is a disgrace to the spirit of the Anzacs? Come on...you've got to be joking! If there were any Anzac diggers alive today I'm sure they wouldn't be saying that they would trade in with disgust their battle scars or war wounds because Collingwood lost a game of football by five points?! Honestly, would there even be a WW2 veteran willing to put their hand up and confess their contempt for a footy team and say with honest conviction that they felt let down and their war efforts all but vain? I mean I know that around Melbourne we often hear the catchcry regarding Australian football that "it's more than a game..." but is it really 'more'? 'More' enough to induce tears of dismay from khaki heroes and have Anzac legends turning in their graves?

Mick Malthouse would do well to just step outside of himself for a bit and gain some perspective on life. Football is a game...yes as much as I love it even I, as an Aussie-born Melbourne boy know that it is just a game. People shed blood on a football field for the sake of winning a game. True heroes, like our Anzacs died on battlefields for the sake of things far higher than a 120 minute sporting endeavour. Those two scenarios are absolutely incongruous and far beyond comparison. Lest we forget Mick, it's just a game...