‘Absolute no-brainer’ for interstate Anzac Day fixture

ADELAIDE Crows premiership captain Mark Bickley has said it’s “an absolute no-brainer” for an interstate club to own a game on Anzac Day alongside the marquee Collingwood vs Essendon clash.

When Anzac Day falls on most weekdays, two old rivals in the Magpies and Bombers host a standalone fixture at the MCG, a clash that often draws over 90,000 fans.

The brainchild of Kevin Sheedy has been a mainstay since 1995. Other games are often played on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, while St Kilda also launched a game in New Zealand that lasted three years earlier this century.

But Bickley believes there’s potential for another permanent fixture, one featuring at least one interstate team.

“It’s an absolute no-brainer from where I sit,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.

“It doesn’t have to be both non-Victorian clubs… I know it can be sometimes problematic for clubs, Tuesday games, short breaks.”

Bickley called on a club to take upon the responsibility of creating and growing another permanent Anzac Day game.

He named Port Adelaide with its history of the Peter Badcoe Medal and Fremantle as clubs who should throw up a suggestion.

“I think someone has to try and own it. Let’s say Port Adelaide, they’ve put a fair bit of effort into the Peter Badcoe Medal, that’s one of their number one requests every year to have a home game [there],” Bickley said.

“I think if they do their research and work out there’s an appetite for it, go to the AFL with a concept, say, ‘we’re happy to do it, we know it means short weeks every now and then but we want to own it’.

“That’s what Collingwood and Essendon did all those years ago, they came up with that idea, mainly Kevin Sheedy was the mastermind behind it and they built it and kept bolting onto it every year to make it the spectacle it is today.

“[A club like] Fremantle, why wouldn’t why want to own it? They could conjure up some history… if you’re an interstate club, try and create something, don’t just expect it to be handed to you on a platter.”

– BY SEB MOTTRAM/ SEN