Many people think we should decide drawn Grand Finals with extra time. It’s ridiculous, they say, to have no winner on the day. Replays are inconvenient and exasperating and if we can avoid this week of not-knowing we should. But I disagree. Drawn Grand Finals are as rare as solar eclipses. This is a special event and we should keep it as such.
I know the players are exhausted and it’s asking a lot of them to go through another week of preparation and another Grand Final as well. The supporters are exhausted too and have to go through it all again. It’s very inconvenient for those who were going overseas or getting married or who had organised cycling races and other events for next weekend. My sympathy is with these people but I hope that we always replay a drawn Grand Final.
Firstly we have always done it this way and twice before we’ve had a draw and a replay. And a great part of our game is tradition. If there aren’t great reasons to change things we should keep them the way they are.
But the main reason why we should hold on to the replay is that a drawn match acknowledges the efforts of both teams. In the end there can only be one winner of the Grand Final but if, after 100 minutes of giving it their all there is nothing to separate the teams then so be it. They have played a draw and they deserve to have this marked as such. It would be easier for some if it were decided with extra time. But would the losers then say “Well I’m glad it’s over. We lost but it’s better than having drawn and having to replay next week”? I don’t think so.
And because a draw is so rare it stamps itself on our memory. I barely followed football in 1977 and we didn’t have a television but I can still hear the commentator calling out “It’s a draw! It’s a draw!” And my Dad, a North Melbourne supporter, was laughing with exasperation. And I vividly remember the one drawn game I’ve been to, between Essendon and Richmond at the ‘G in 1995. Which was also the year that Essendon played Collingwood in the first Anzac Day match in front of 90 000 people and they played a memorable draw as well.
And the other great thing about a draw is that it unites us as lovers of the game in a way that no other result can. Everyone feels the same after the siren goes and the scores are level. There is shock and amazement and a deep searching. “How does this feel?” we ask ourselves. “We haven’t won but we haven’t lost. Is our glass half-full or half-empty?”
I loved the look on everyone’s faces after the siren. Like one of those philosophical riddles – what is the sound of one hand clapping? – a drawn Grand Final takes us to an unfamiliar place where nothing is what we expected it to be. Neither up nor down, neither good nor bad. And this unity of feeling among supporters and this Zen-like experience is priceless and we should treasure it.
The push to decide a Grand Final with extra time will be forceful. The momentum of the modern world with its crowded calendar is right behind it. Just as it is in a hospital when a baby is “overdue” and pressure is brought to bear to induce labour or subject the poor woman to a caesarean. But sometimes we just have to wait. Some special events should not be rushed.
And if any game in history deserves this special status of the Drawn Grand Final surely it was last Saturday’s effort. It was so tense that I can’t even say I enjoyed it. I had to leave the house to look for missing children at the start of the last quarter and I was relieved to get away from the maelstrom on the telly. The kids were found but I missed the first two goals of that incredible last quarter. I’ll watch it some other time, no doubt.
So bring on the replay and let’s stick with being old-fashioned. Let’s continue to respect both teams who slog it out and can’t be separated. It’s the least we can do. But maybe we could do a little more with the draw than we do. We could start with a Drawn Theme Song. Any suggestions?
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