Rugby League & ANZAC Day

Sean Fagan of RL1908.com

Ted Larkin - NSWRL Secretary. Killed at the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915.

ANZAC Day - 25th April - was first commemorated in Australia's cities and towns in 1916, a year to the day after the Gallipoli landing.

During the remainder of the war, ANZAC Day was primarily morning Church services, street marches of returned soldiers, public gatherings, and a rallying and fund-raising day to aid the war effort.

ANZAC Day was not initially a public holiday, nor did it include a "Dawn Service" until the late 1920s.

Returned soldiers and sailors were granted a holiday by their employers to ANZAC Day services, and by the early 1920s, most government and private businesses and industry simply chose to close for the day. Many retailers though remained open, as did schools.

ANZAC Day afternoon in the early 1920s involved city and local sports carnivals, primarily amongst the returned soldiers. No admission was charged to spectators, but donations were sought, with the money contributing to the funding of monuments, caring for invalided soldiers, and pooling money for the tending of grave sites and memorials in Europe.

Formal gate-taking sports, carnivals, movie theatres, and other crowd-gathering amusements looking to take advantage of the public's free time on ANZAC Day, were frowned upon (even when they instead offered free entry, or money taken was donated to a charitable cause). Many Australians held a sentiment that ANZAC Day was a solemn occasion, and ought to be reserved solely as a day of reflection.

For many ANZACs though, and much of the public, the afternoon of ANZAC Day was time of celebration - frequenting "public houses and gambling rooms", where drinking beer and playing "two-up" proved the popular choices. Much to the increasing dismay of many, the favoured drinking and gambling haunts of Sydney men - the football field and the horse track - were not available on ANZAC Day.

Robust debate took place across the nation in newspapers and in parliaments as to whether ANZAC Day should be a public holiday for the entire community, and just what conduct and public activities were appropriate.

In 1925 the NSW branch of the Returned Soldiers League (RSL) rejected calls for ANZAC Day to be declared a "closed" public holiday, where no commercial activities (including limited opening of pubs) could take place, favouring instead an unrestricted holiday.

The RSL expressed the view, on behalf of the ANZACs, that "ANZAC Day is a day for rejoicing, not for mourning, and it should be a free holiday for a free people." [Argus, April 8, 1925]

"That's what the original Anzac wanted: a morning commemoration and the afternoon to have a few beers, play two-up and go to the races or the footy,'' explained David Rowe, President of the NSW RSL [The Sunday Telegraph, 19 April 2009]

In 1926 the NSW parliament acceded to the wishes of the ANZACs, and football and horse-racing was to be permitted. However, ANZAC Day that year fell on a Sunday, and normal Sunday observances had to be followed - hotels were restricted to "Sunday trading hours", while professional sports and racing were not allowed. As a result, a holiday Monday was gazetted for whenever ANZAC Day occured on a Sunday - thus the ANZACs and public would not be denied their "day for rejoicing".

On that first holiday Monday in 1926, a full race meeting was held at Rosehill, and first grade rugby league games were played in the city at the SCG (Easts v Balmain, 20,000 attendance) and at Glebe's Wentworth Park (Newtown v Sydney University). The first match on ANZAC Day was in 1927, when Glebe met Western Suburbs at the SCG.

Though objections to playing professional sports continued in some areas, the sentiments of the ANZACs won out, and by the end of the decade ANZAC Day rugby league matches were being held in most of the bigger country towns throughout NSW.

A tradition of ANZAC Day matches (or the Monday holiday) was quickly established, and right through the 1930s ANZAC Day in Sydney also signalled the opening round of the premiership season's club matches.

In the decades that followed club or representative matches were played almost every year on ANZAC Day (or the Monday holiday).

Conversely, in Victoria, the government resolutely held to the "closed" public holiday, and it was not until 1960 that a VFL (AFL) game was held on ANZAC Day.

The only seasons in which there has been no premiership/representative ANZAC Day rugby league match (or holiday Monday match) was in 1930 (Anzac Day was Friday, and a full club round was played on Saturday 26th), 1942-45 (WW2), 1995 (SL War) & 2001 (Anzac Day was a Wednesday, and no mid-week NRL game was scheduled).

For the footballers of earlier decades, ANZAC Day usually meant a heavier load of matches with the NSWRL, more often than not, scheduling a full round on ANZAC Day itself, and also making use of the holiday Monday when it was available.

This meant that the teams were often turning out in 3 games in 7 days via the addition of a mid-week ANZAC Day match. In some seasons this resulted in 2 games in as short a space as 3 days (Saturday followed by a holiday Monday game, or a holiday Thursday match and then the usual Saturday game).

The last instance of this "crammed scheduling" was in 1985, with an entire round of club matches played on a Thursday ANZAC Day, and another full round on the Sunday three days later.

In more recent times footballers backed up after playing in City-Country matches held on ANZAC Day in 1990 (SFS), 1991 (SFS) and 1997 (Friday night game in Newcastle). The 1997 ANZAC Day evening also saw a match at Lang Park in Brisbane between the South Queensland Crushers and Balmain, as well as Super League's "ANZAC Test" at the SFS.

The "ANZAC Test" was also played between the Kangaroos and Kiwis from 1998 to 2000 and in 2004, but none were on ANZAC Day itself. The official use of "ANZAC Test" ceased from 2005 onwards, however the media and the public generally have continued to apply the term to the one-off Test, even to those held in the second week of May (2008 and 2009).

From the very first ANZAC Day and holiday matches in 1926 and 1927, the NSWRL was determined that at least one match needed to be played at the SCG, as the venue provided both the prestige to signify the importance of the day, and it was close to the city, enabling easy access from the street march. In many years the Sports Ground, directly adjacent to the SCG (approximately where the SFS now stands), was also used to host a match at the same time.

Though Sunday football had come to be a regular part of the Sydney season by the early 1960s, the SCG Trust steadfastly refused to allow Sunday games, even on ANZAC Day. As a result, ANZAC Day matches that fell on a Sunday were played at the Sports Ground (first in 1965). Ultimately, the SCG never hosted an ANZAC Day game on a Sunday.

The SCG was the venue for the NSWRL's 1977 and 1978 "League-athon" matches, which were held in conjunction with ANZAC Day. In 1977 two matches were held at the SCG on each of the three days, including on the ANZAC Day Monday.

The following year (1978) saw the SCG host three matches on the Sunday, with the remaining three games played on the ANZAC Day Tuesday. One of those clashes was between Easts and St George, and the two clubs met again in 1979 in a stand-alone mid-week ANZAC Day clash at the SCG.

The tradition of ANZAC Day matches at one or both of Sydney's Moore Park grounds was first broken in favour of suburban venues in 1975-76, and then from 1981-83. In 1984 an Easts home game against Wests saw a return to the Sports Ground, but less than 5,000 fans attended.

The SCG traditional match returned in 1985 and 1986 (the game which saw Canterbury's Peter Kelly sent-off after the first tackle against Souths). However, despite a crowd of 25,000, this was the last ever ANZAC Day match at the SCG.

The Sydney Football Stadium held its first ANZAC Day match in 1989 (Easts v Canterbury), but only hosted another two premiership matches (1993 & 1996) until 2002 with the playing of the first (now traditional) game between St George-Illawarra and Sydney Roosters. These clubs have met each season on ANZAC Day at the SFS (2002-07) and at the Olympic Stadium (2008).

In the NRL era (1998-present), no ANZAC Day fixtures have been hosted outside of Sydney, other than as part of normal weekend scheduling, with matches in Adelaide (1998), Melbourne (1998 & 2009), Townsville (1999 & 2009), Canberra (1999) and Brisbane (2004 & 2008).