So it’s been a couple of days that our little group has been back in Australia. Which group? Good question. Together with the Essendon AFL club, we at Sportsnet put together the trip of a lifetime to Gallipoli to pay our respects on ANZAC Day. My co-host? None other than former Essendon and All Australian hard man, veteran of 6 AFL ANZAC Day clashes vs Collingwood, Jason Johnson.

The reason it’s taken me this time to pump a blog out is that after experiencing the whole build up and Dawn Service at ANZAC Cove, I needed to see where my head was at upon returning home. Perspective is something we often talk about after a life altering experience and we return home on our soapbox, or moral highground. The South African experience on the Sportsnet 2010 FIFA World Cup tour for example gave perspective, however in a matter of days, we were back to complaining about work and things that in the scheme of things, mean nothing.

Hearing about, no SEEING where the battles took place in Gallipoli smacks you right between the eyes, lets you get up, then smacks you again…harder…to make sure you get it. What these young men endured defies modern understanding. Imagine telling a Gen Y “Right, we’re all going to jump out of this trench, run 16 metres into heavy machine gun fire and take that Turk trench just there. Because that’s what we are ordered to do” No…..chance…. Seeing just how close opposing trenches were to each other, the stories of cease-fires where the dead were collected and Turks and Diggers shared cigarettes and water, and the unquestionable courage and commitment for a cause unknown to most ANZAC soldiers highlighted to me in a very emotional way how much we owe these heroes. Heroes that spent 8 months advancing just over a kilometre only to be asked to retreat after losing most of their mates. Incomprehensible.

After the service, our small group watched the Essendon vs Collingwood game on the web back at our hotel. It was strange. Sure we were exhausted, we’d been up for around 32 hours. But the eerie feeling in the room proved that the impact of the Anzac Cove experience was still resonating in all of our minds. The cheers were muted and the excitement reserved, almost as if it were disrespectful to celebrate something so ‘insignificant’ as a goal or great mark in light of what we had just witnessed and learned.

It’s something I now believe every Australian needs to do. The more of us that do, the greater the chance that this newfound ‘perspective’ we few brought home has of surviving. The greater the chance that respect, courage, commitment and the greater good become more important than career advancement, monetary gain and social status. I cannot for a second profess to know what the mindset of these Aussie and Kiwi heroes was back in 1915 but I feel that whatever it was, we in the 21st century could do with a healthy dose. I hope I can hold onto this perspective, work harder, complain less and value family, friends and freedom more. After all, that I can even choose to do so is what our heroes died for on that God forsaken peninsula.

Cannot wait to host our next group to the 2012 ANZAC Day at Gallipoli and see what a second dose of reality does to my psyche. Till next time…

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Is hallowed turf truly hallowed? Is a sacred stadium sacred for eternity? Could the AFL shift the Grand Final from the MCG?

The word on the street is the impact of the Gold Coast Suns’ addition – taking the league to 17 teams – will be to push the fixture out so the Grand Final goes from the last weekend in September to the first one of October (Aside: Every time I hear the first day in October it doesn’t sit well, the song clearly states it is the one day in September that we will remember. There may also be something to the fact that the draw in the 1990 finals series meant Collingwood took the Cup the last time the GF took place in October. Unsettling.)

The problem is Cricket Victoria holds the rights to the ground on that date and so everyone has started scrambling for advantage. The propaganda war is waged in the public eye and the Chairman is threatening a move.

Chairman Demetriou of the AFL Central Planning Committee has gotten onto the front foot and made stern statements in the press about ‘goodwill’, which translates as do you know who we are, mate? He has name-dropped Sydney’s ANZ stadium, it might work as Sydney-siders are great band-wagoners. Surely it could never be in Adelaide, they can’t get even fill Football Park for home preliminary final. How would they fare with a game between opponents neither of whom calls South Australia home even if it is the Biggest Game in Town?

It sounds a bit like a media beat up covering the early posturing of mismatched opponents. 1,200 people to see the Bushrangers take on the Redbacks or 99,000 footballeros witnessing Collingwood get the Colliwobbles again. No contest. The Grand Final will be played at the East Melbourne Colosseum, be it September’s last weekend or Octobers first. Bluster I tell you, bluster.

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