Season Openers & Silly Football - 2021 AFL Round 1 Review + 1970 VFL GF Retro Rewind

It's now pissing with rain in Melbourne and we should be nursing a thermos on the wing of the MCG. Instead, we're continuing our dive into footy's past.  This week, we're joined by author, speaker and former Hawks player Tony Wilson. He's written the definitive account of the 1989 Grand Final, out now via Audible.  For our Rewatchables we're going to dip into Tony's memories of the Round 6 clash between Geelong and Hawthorn in 1989.  And for Footy Book Club - well, you guessed it - we're going to talk about Tony's book, and the Grand Final.  We've also got a brief edition of the Unwatchables, looking at Hawthorn's entry into the VFL in 1925...  BUY "1989: The Great Grand Final" here.

There is still a footy shaped hole in our hearts, so the boys from "The People's Game" are back to try and fill it with a retrospective look at our great game!  On the agenda this week:  "THE UNWATCHABLES" - Footy and the ANZAC Spirit In 1960, the VFL played footy on Anzac Day for the very first time.  At Brunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy upset Carlton by 7 points, and at the Junction Oval, Melbourne beat St Kilda by 24 points. More than 65,815 people attended the two matches. The boys explore footy's journey from accidental ANZAC Day matches to a modern day military tradition.  "THE REWATCHABLES" - The "First" ANZAC Day Game: Round 4, 1995 Collingwood vs. Essendon  In 1995, a new tradition was born when Collingwood and Essendon met on a Tuesday afternoon at the MCG in front of 94,825 fans. It remains the second highest home and away crowd in league history. (The 2020 Anzac Day clash would have been the 25th instalment.) This "traditional clash" is the one that has endured, despite attempts by the league to place other matches on Anzac Day - first, between Sydney and Melbourne for the Barassi Cup, and later, by having St Kilda play in New Zealand. The boys recap this classic match between two "old foe" clubs, and examine how the footy public has embraced footy's place on ANZAC Day.  FOOTY BOOK CLUB: The Short Long Book  Anzac Day 1995 is also remembered because of an incident that occurred with three minutes to go, when Michael Long was racially vilified by Damien Monkhorst Two years on from Nicky Winmar's famous gesture at Victoria Park, Long made a stand that forced the AFL to introduce penalties for on-field racial discrimination. In his biography of Long - The Short Long Book - Martin Flanagan writes that the stand was the AFL's "Mandela moment". That book, published in 2015, is our book club read for the week.

Footy re-entered our lives last weekend, as people re-entered the MCG. We were astounded by upsets, boilovers and a little bit of individual brilliance while also being stressed out by the uncontrollable nature of fandom. The state of the game was given a "full bill of health" and that seems especially true if you reflect on how far footy has come. Join JB & Gordo for another week of deep dives and footy fandom.

To kick the year off, JB & Gordo are looking back to look forward, using Amazon Sport's new fly on the wall doco, Making Their Mark, to jog their memories. They then hold a little roundtable to discuss the issues and stories they'll be following during the 2021 season...

G'day citizens of The People's Game, and welcome to "The COVID Chronicles" presented by Sporting Chance Magazine. Despite being in the middle of a global pandemic, footy's evergreen debate is raging as strong as ever. What can be done about the "state of the game"? Those in the media will tell us that we need to go back to the "good old days" of knockabout blokes and pack marks - but was footy really better in the old days? In today's episode "It was acceptable in the 70s" JB and Gordo rewatch the 1978 Round 7 clash between St Kilda and Essendon at Moorabbin Oval to see what all the fuss was about footy back in the day... We love to hear your thoughts on what footy means to you in the year 2020. Drop us a line on the Sporting Chance Magazine's Facebook page or on Twitter via @sc_mag_aus

G'day citizens of The People's Game, and welcome to "The COVID Chronicles" presented by Sporting Chance Magazine. With Victoria back in Stage 3 lockdown (and potentially other states soon to follow) and with nearly no commutes to listen to full length podcasts, we thought it would be beneficial to touch base with you daily over the next six weeks to chat footy, to help each other get through this challenging period and to hopefully add a few moments of levity to your day. Today's episode is entitled "Day 0 - Footy Continues" and is a conversation between Gordon Hunter Meredith and co-host Jack Banister about what part of our lives footy occupies in the era of "The New Normal" and whether any positives can come out of the post-shutdown 2020 season. Please note that this conversation was recorded before the Round 2 clash between Richmond and Collingwood and as such, a few of the COVID protocols may be a little out of date but the sentiments still ring true. Join us now as we ask ourselves; in these unprecedented times, does footy still fulfil us? We love to hear your thoughts on what footy means to you in the year 2020. Drop us a line on the Sporting Chance Magazine's Facebook page or on Twitter via @sc_mag_aus

There is still a footy shaped hole in our hearts, so the boys from "The People's Game" are back to try and fill it with a retrospective look at our great game! On the agenda this week: "THE UNWATCHABLES" - The 1916 VFL Season Our Unwatchables segment this week is built not on a round, but on an entire season. The VFL competition had continued without change in 1914 and 1915, but by 1916 Australia's Gallipoli moment had happened, and lengthy campaigns in the Middle East and Europe were underway. The VFA and the South Australian Football League both cancelled their season, and in the VFL, Essendon refused to play unless the competition was amateur. That request was denied, and the Dons eventually pulled out on patriotic grounds, alongside Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda. That left the four working class, inner-city clubs - Richmond, Carlton, Collingwood, and Fitzroy - to play each other four times across twelve rounds, with all four making the finals... The boys explore this unique VFL season and discuss: •Should footy have gone ahead in 1916? •Was 1916 the ultimate "asterisk" premiership? •Does the 1916 season teach us anything about how to approach footy during the COVID crisis? FOOTY BOOK CLUB: Footy In Times Of Crisis The Guardian recently published two conflicting pieces about how to approach sport during the Coronavirus shutdown. Geoff Lemon in "Sport in Australia will survive Covid-19 but its importance will be diminished", writes that footy is not as important as we thought it was, while Jonathan Howcroft in "Fear of missing out becomes a reality in sport during COVID-19 crisis", reflects on all the sporting moments we're missing out on in 2020. With these pieces as background, the boys tackle this winter's big question: "Does sport "matter" right now? "THE REWATCHABLES" - The Winmar Moment This week is a special edition of the Rewatchables, looking back at Round 4, 1993, when St Kilda clashed with Collingwood at Victoria Park. Nick Place wrote about Nicky Winmar's famous post-game stand against racial vilification for the following day's edition of the Sunday Age, and he joins the boys to relive the day, explain how the story made it to print and to reflect on footy from the 90s.