Sav's Hanger Left A Lasting Mark On The Game 1995: The Game That Changed Football

The Age

Friday April 25, 2008

Peter Hanlon and Samantha Lane

AS IS the way with sporting contests that end in stalemate, there are many lasting images of the 1995 Collingwood-Essendon Anzac Day epic. Few are as striking as Sav Rocca perched on Ryan O'Connor's shoulders.

The most spectacular of Rocca's 10 marks on an afternoon that netted him nine goals is not easily forgotten, particularly if you're O'Connor, who still chuckles at the ribbing he copped for playing "Jerker" Jenkin to Rocca's Jezza.

"The photo actually became a Puma billboard, and it also became one of the first test cases in the (AFL) Players' Association for unauthorised use of an image in a public arena," O'Connor said this week. "There needs to be five or six players in a shot for it to be deemed an image of football, rather than an image of a player.

"But yes, I saw those billboards and cringed quite a bit. He's not light either, the big Saveloy. But don't bring it up too much, I don't want to be reminded of that photo any more than I have been."

Neither O'Connor nor Rocca will be at the MCG today. While Rocca will be in deep slumber after another day's training in his new life as a wannabe punter with the Philadelphia Eagles, O'Connor will be playing host to an Anzac Day football tradition of a different kind; for the past five years, the VFL's Coburg Tigers, where O'Connor is general manager, have met Box Hill Hawks while the Pies and Bombers slug it out.

His clan will be well-represented regardless; a mixture of "mad Essendon supporters and even crazier Collingwood ones" have attended every Anzac Day game. "It's become something very special in our family."

Rocca, on the other hand, feels quite detached from the much-hyped April AFL football spectacle - if only because the time difference between the US and Australia makes getting any live footy fix tricky.

It will be 12.40am in the US when the ball is bounced for the first time in the middle of the MCG today.

"I'm interested in how it goes but I'd probably have to go to a bar to watch it - and that has to be an Australian bar that plays it. I know there's one of those in New York, but I'm not too sure here," Rocca said from his Philadelphia home, just before retiring for the evening at what was mid-morning Melbourne time yesterday.

"It's hard because you have to start watching at midnight. Or I'd have to subscribe to a special TV network and I haven't actually figured out how to do that yet. At the moment, I pretty much keep in contact through the internet and though I can't actually watch it live, I get to watch replays."

Rocca, who was with Collingwood between 1992 and 2000, remembers his April 25 playing experiences fondly, particularly since he retired from AFL without ever playing in a winning final. He and the man who acted as a stepladder for him in the '95 match crossed paths when O'Connor spent some time training with North Melbourne one year.

For a debrief on the 2008 clash, Rocca may phone his little brother Anthony late tonight. If he wakes up early enough.

From a closer vantage point, O'Connor will ponder vivid memories of the original clash - an eerie feeling in the ground as dusk descended, and the sense that he was honouring the fallen, playing for more than just the red and black.

"I think the Australian people bring something special to Anzac Day, and that fantastic feeling of being an Australian is probably doubled or tripled being out on the field," he said.

"It just gives extra significance to the rivalry in football, that underpinning pride you have in terms of your servicemen. Players go out to perform for a lot of reasons . . . pride in the jumper, but also to make people proud. When you know something means a lot to someone, it puts even more significance on your need to do well for them."

The fact that he, Dustin Fletcher and Tim Darcy could not stop Rocca that day hasn't bothered O'Connor, whose recollections are good-humoured. "I got to go down there after the boys had warmed him up for me. And I had the great honour of sitting underneath Sav while he took that huge mark."

He sees the day as "a terrific way to commemorate the Anzacs", and the occasion as a template for other clubs on which to produce their own "blockbuster" games.

"I don't know whether even Sheeds, with his marketing nous, knew just how big it was going to be."

But no one then thought of leveraging the moment, and Anzac Day was a spasmodic fixture until 1995 when Sheedy, now coach of Essendon and a famously original thinker, proposed not just to stage a match on the day, but make an occasion of it. "I think our club at that stage really wanted to get out and look at a game that we could get more out of than just hopefully (a step towards) a grand final," Sheedy said in an interview for a club production. Collingwood was a natural opponent.

The RSL was won over, proper and dignified ceremonies prepared. Still, no one was ready for what became the day's second grand procession. When Collingwood arrived at 12.30pm, coach Leigh Matthews thought the gates must still have been locked, such was the crowd milling outside the ground. Cockatoo-Collins came from Victoria Park, where he was watching the reserves; it took him an hour.

At 1.30, Essendon's David Grenvold peered out of the players' race, then reported wide-eyed back to the rooms: "There's a shitload of people out there."

The MCC surrendered its members' reserve and watched wondrously, and people continued to pour in until quarter-time. When the gates were shut, 10,000 or 20,000 remained outside. Oakley sat between McGuire and his brother, Frank, an Essendon supporter, and marvelled at their lack of fraternity, but also at the ever-growing crowd.

"I remember going out to the back of the stands and thinking, 'This is a hell of a lot bigger than we'd ever contemplated'," Oakley said. "They all came in a short period of time, from the march, from the city, from everywhere. It was a great thrill."

Deep in the bowels of the MCG, Sheedy somehow sensed this spontaneous combustion. "He warned us," said Cockatoo-Collins. "I remember at the start of the game, he said: 'This will be probably the biggest match you ever play in.' I thought: 'What's he talking about?' But it was. That's the foresight of Sheedy."

The match was an epic, changing direction three times. Sav Rocca kicked nine goals for Collingwood, Cockatoo-Collins had 15 last-quarter touches for Essendon. With seconds remaining, Nathan Buckley was streaming goalwards. Behind him, umpire Rowan Sawers thought he would surely kick at goal; any score would be enough. Instead, he tried to pass to Rocca, who was spoiled and the siren sounded.

High in the southern stand, I thought I had no contribution to the ear-splitting, day-long roar, other than the odd imprecation for Sawers, but when I made to swap felicitations with my brother-in-law, I found that I was hoarse.

So it was across the MCG: now that fans at last could hear themselves, most found they could not talk or had nothing to say. The match, result and occasion all spoke for themselves.

It was a first, but also a last. Not since, and probably not again, will an occasion sneak up on an unsuspecting AFL like this. "It was an organic crowd," McGuire said. "It wasn't the result of a ripping marketing campaign.

"I might be biased, but this is why Collingwood and Essendon have to do this game. It brings glory to the day that there are no seats available. No other clubs can do that."

Sheedy is gone from Essendon, but not from Anzac Day, nor from the pursuit of ideas. "In the week the Australian Government signs with the Prime Minister of New Guinea to keep the Kokoda Track open, it should have been important to have New Guinea and New Zealand here," he said last night. "We need to bring them here. If it's good enough to go to war with these countries, they ought to be at our bloody football match."

ANZAC DAY

COLLINGWOOD v ESSENDON

1.15pm-1.30pm

Royal Australian Navy Band Melbourne

1.30pm-1.40pm

Red Berets - delivery of match-day footballs

1.40pm-1.55pm

Preliminary on-field warm-up

1.55pm-2.15pm

Anzac Day presentation including video tribute; tribute to veterans including motorcade lap of honour; performance by Normie Rowe, Adam Harvey, Wendy Matthews.

2.21pm

Umpires enter

2.22pm

Essendon enters

2.25pm

Collingwood enters

2.33pm

Teams and umpires in position for observance ceremony; catafalque guard introduced; The Ode; The Last Post; minute's silence; the Rouse - flags raised. National anthem by musician Rachel Summers from the Royal Australian Navy Band Melbourne.

2.38pm

Two sirens - two minutes to the start of the match; coin toss.

2.40pm

Match commences

3.45pm (approx)

Half-time interval: AFL Auskick program.

5.10pm (approx)

On-field post match presentation of Anzac Day Medal and trophy by president of the RSL (Victorian Branch), Vietnam veteran, Major-General David McLachlan.

© 2008 The Age

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