RORY SALAZAR | Finance | Contact
A long time ago, in a country far, far away, the Anzacs set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula to open the Dardanelles to the allied navies. They met fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. Thousands died on both sides.
We pay our respects and remember them. And over the last few decades the Anzac Day blockbuster between Collingwood and Essendon has become one of the country’s biggest national sporting events that ties into this remembering.
The 100,000-strong crowd pack into the MCG and as the Last Post is played, silence erupts, an air of reverence ripples out over open hearts and minds.
The deeply engrained Anzac values of courage, sacrifice, endurance and mateship overflow. And it is this overflow that Essendon coach Brad Scott tapped into as he revved-up his players down in the rooms before the start of the game.
“What does the Anzac Spirit mean to you boys?” Scott stared down his entire playing group as they huddled intently around him linked arm in arm.
‘Courage!’ one player said passionately.
‘Mateship!’ another cried.
“That’s right boys,” Scott said behind tears. “This is the biggest game of your life. Today you’ve got to play out of your skins. Not for me, not for you, but for the diggers.”
‘Yea / fuck yea / let’s go / c’mon cunts.’ Indiscriminate shouts came from the players as their emotions spilled over into language too indecent to print here.
The air darkened. Scott’s expression turned into one of contempt. “Collingwood,” he spat as if the word tasted bad. “Coll-ing-wood.” Those 3 syllables spoken together was enough to spark a terrifying rage in the players. Their tightly linked huddle bulged with testosterone-fuelled aggression, war cries roared.
Scott nodded approval. “Yesss,” he shrilled. “Yeessss.” Evil dripped from the edge of his voice. “Let the hate flow through you,” he purred as blue electricity sprang from his hands to shoot bolts of lightning around the change rooms, exploding the ceiling lights above.
The players went into a hot violent frenzy before running up the race and out onto the ground. Scott’s final message as they departed: “Wipe them out. All of them.”
