This has turned into my own little tradition. Every year I drag this article out and repost it. I'll keep doing that because its timeless quality makes it forever relevant.
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Let's remember Collingwood v Essendon
by Nathan Buckley
27th April 1997
The now traditional Collingwood-Essendon Anzac Day clash is unlike any other game. For my teammates and I, who haven't participated in a final since we lost to West Coast at Subiaco in 1994, it has become the closest experience to a final during the home-and-away season, because the crowd is so enormous and the atmosphere of the day unique.
It's appropriate that Anzac Day is about remembrance because, from a player's viewpoint, it's a game that sticks in your mind more than any other. Memories of the past couple of games are vivid because the match is played between the same teams, on the same day, on the same ground every year. It is the only Collingwood game of which that can be said. In this respect, I believe it is essential that the AFL retains the Bomber-Magpie contest as an Anzac Day tradition.
Driving to the ground, you can't help but think of the past matches, which have all been tight and dramatic. In the days before the game, I'm invariably asked why I didn't try to score from 60metres out in the dying seconds of that drawn game of 1995. My answer is always that I did the right thing in the circumstances - trying to pass to Sav Rocca, as he had been unbeatable that day and was the man to get to. Unfortunately, Sav wasn't able to take the mark (he only had to beat four Essendon players).
Anzac Day has a special feeling for me, not simply because of football. My father served in Vietnam before I was born and it's obviously a day of significance for him and my family. He lives in Darwin and Anzac Day is one of only three or four games he gets to Melbourne to see me play each year.
Unfortunately, living in Darwin means that over the years he has also lost contact with the soldiers he served with. This year, he was keen to find his old troop, the 108 Battery, but was unable to track them down again and had to be satisfied with watching the parade.
The Anzac theme is obviously something both coaches use in the pre-match addresses. On Friday, Tony Shaw reminded us of those who'd fought and died for Australia. It was Scotty Russell's 150th game and Shawy used the milestone to relate two features of Scotty's career - sacrifice and hard work - to the veterans who sacrificed more than we can imagine.
The sacrifice of the Diggers is something that really hit me as we lined up for that minute's silence. It makes you realise that the pain you're about to experience is minor compared with those who fought on the real battlefield. While AFL football takes courage to play, it is nothing like a war.
I'm sure that this Anzac spirit gets a little extra out of both sides. Friday's game was very fierce and aggressive and I reckon we were as hard and committed in close as I've ever seen us.
THE fact that Essendon went into the game without several key players meant we probably had everything to lose, but talk of the match as a foregone conclusion was ridiculous. Once you're out there, it's man-on-man and the pressure of these Anzac Day games invariably makes them tight, regardless of the players taking part or where the teams are on the ladder. I was mindful, too, that bringing an inexperienced player or two into the side - as the Bombers did - can add an enthusiasm and spirit that the experienced player may not have.
Regardless, if we want to be a top side, we'll have to get used to being favorites in big games. Top sides deal with that pressure of expectation week-in, week-out.
I think Friday's game might be a turning point in our season. In the two previous games, we'd blown leads and lost narrowly to Carlton and St Kilda, and when Essendon made its charge early in the last quarter, I'm sure there were people who thought we might capitulate. We really stood up in that last 20 minutes and dug our heels in. It was important for our self-belief that we withstood the challenge and won well.
So we won this year's battle on Anzac Day. I was privileged to play in the game and represent, not only Collingwood, but the AFL and football in general. The game is football's contribution to honoring the Anzacs, and no doubt, 12 months from now, the same feelings and emotions will flood over on 25 April.
Let's remember Collingwood v Essendon - by Nathan Buckley
Moderator: bbmods
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Johnson#26
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Cannibal
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Mods, could you please sticky this for this week? It's too good to slide down the page and be forgotten by the weekend.
I wasn't born an Aussie, I'm Scottish by birth. Nevertheless, Anzac Day has come to develop into an extraordinarily meaningful day for me. My father served in the RAF in post-war Germany, his father served in the Army, and a great uncle was a pilot, shot down and killed during the Great War. My maiden great aunt, his younger sister, kept a photo of him, in uniform, on her mantlepiece 'til the day she died. It's one of those childhood memories that has stuck. I found his service record in the Scottish War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle during one of my trips home. The Scottish War Memorial is an extraordinary place. When I walked in - it was a typically cold, blustery Scottish autumn day - the sensation I felt was one of extraordinary peacefulness, a warmth, lightness and airiness that I've not felt anywhere else. And it seemed to sound much like one would imagine angels singing. I was in no doubt whatsoever that the souls of every Scot killed in every war was present (that Celtic sixth sense of mine in full flow), the tears poured down my face and it was an extremely moving moment in my life.
On that same trip, my girlfriend and I travelled across the Channel to Paris (it was her birthday) and we passed several of the War Cemeteries in Normandy and elsewhere during the train trip from the coast. Row after row after row of pure white crosses. The French suffered badly during the two Wars, but they tend the graves of the soldiers killed in them with great tenderness, keeping them neat, clean, immaculate. I have no truck with war; I cannot imagine the extreme courage it took for those who served at Gallipoli to rise from their trenches and walk out into withering machine gun fire, knowing that death almost certainly awaited them. I doubt very much that I could do it myself. Nevertheless, no matter my personal feelings about war and those who cause them, on Anzac Day I will always remember the bravery and the sacrifices made by those who fought in them, because they did so for our benefit, to enable us to live our lives in relative peace.
The Anzac Day game has become a tradition and I congratulate the two clubs for thinking of it and making it what is today. It is usually played with great spirit and so it should, for it honours those who made great scrifices for us and it behoves the players not to besmirch their honour. I try not to miss it, or to at least watch it on TV should I be unable to attend, for whatever reason. However, I shall be there in person on Monday afternoon and I will try to remember Buckley's words then, too. Thanks, Mike.
Lest We Forget.
I wasn't born an Aussie, I'm Scottish by birth. Nevertheless, Anzac Day has come to develop into an extraordinarily meaningful day for me. My father served in the RAF in post-war Germany, his father served in the Army, and a great uncle was a pilot, shot down and killed during the Great War. My maiden great aunt, his younger sister, kept a photo of him, in uniform, on her mantlepiece 'til the day she died. It's one of those childhood memories that has stuck. I found his service record in the Scottish War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle during one of my trips home. The Scottish War Memorial is an extraordinary place. When I walked in - it was a typically cold, blustery Scottish autumn day - the sensation I felt was one of extraordinary peacefulness, a warmth, lightness and airiness that I've not felt anywhere else. And it seemed to sound much like one would imagine angels singing. I was in no doubt whatsoever that the souls of every Scot killed in every war was present (that Celtic sixth sense of mine in full flow), the tears poured down my face and it was an extremely moving moment in my life.
On that same trip, my girlfriend and I travelled across the Channel to Paris (it was her birthday) and we passed several of the War Cemeteries in Normandy and elsewhere during the train trip from the coast. Row after row after row of pure white crosses. The French suffered badly during the two Wars, but they tend the graves of the soldiers killed in them with great tenderness, keeping them neat, clean, immaculate. I have no truck with war; I cannot imagine the extreme courage it took for those who served at Gallipoli to rise from their trenches and walk out into withering machine gun fire, knowing that death almost certainly awaited them. I doubt very much that I could do it myself. Nevertheless, no matter my personal feelings about war and those who cause them, on Anzac Day I will always remember the bravery and the sacrifices made by those who fought in them, because they did so for our benefit, to enable us to live our lives in relative peace.
The Anzac Day game has become a tradition and I congratulate the two clubs for thinking of it and making it what is today. It is usually played with great spirit and so it should, for it honours those who made great scrifices for us and it behoves the players not to besmirch their honour. I try not to miss it, or to at least watch it on TV should I be unable to attend, for whatever reason. However, I shall be there in person on Monday afternoon and I will try to remember Buckley's words then, too. Thanks, Mike.
Lest We Forget.
Glory Glory Good Old Collingwood, Glory Glory Hallelujah,
Collingwood's The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen,
And The 'Pies Go Marching On (in Black and White Stripes Forever!).
Collingwood's The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen,
And The 'Pies Go Marching On (in Black and White Stripes Forever!).
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raymond35
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Magpie Since 1986
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It is a good article but a bit depressing that 1997 Buckley doesn't know he is just 2 years of winning the spoon and won't play finals for another 5. And even then Mr 1997 Buckley doesnt know about the pain he is going to go through when he losses 2 GFs in a row. We should have done better for the great man 
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Johnson#26
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Johnson#26
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AFL_Record
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