One of the great days in Melbourne’s sporting calendar is the AFL Grand Final at the MCG. The last Saturday in September is synonymous with Australian football’s greatest day at the nation’s greatest sporting venue. But not every grand final has been played at the ‘G’ (or even in September). Wars, building works and pandemics have intervened occasionally and taken the final game of the year to other venues.
Amidst the horrors of World War 1, Australian soldiers could escape for a few hours playing games of Australian Rules football. The playing fields were often recent battlefields, pockmarked with shell holes, but the games reminded them of happier times at home.
Melbourne is routinely depicted as a sport loving city with our devotion to Australian Rules football characterised as an obsession. The writer George Johnston, author of the novel My Brother… Read More ›
Without the crowd, it would be just another game of footy.
