Rucci’s Roast: If Showdown goes to MCG, what comes to Adelaide Oval?
Moving the Showdown to the MCG is a nice thought. But the derby does not need to be moved from Adelaide Oval — it needs to be moved out of the shadows created by the AFL fixture, writes Michelangelo Rucci.
Michelangelo Rucci
Don't miss out on the headlines from Michelangelo Rucci. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Power locks in young guns with new deals
- Lions present ultimate test for Jekyll and Hyde Power
- Moment on Monday: What footy means to Westy
- Mr Showdown strikes again for fifth medal
- Rucci’s Roast: Mead’s long wait for medal nearly over
A Showdown at the MCG?
On AFL grand final day would be ideal. But — in what should be taken as the ultimate compliment to the Adelaide and Port Adelaide football clubs — one of Victoria’s leading commentators wants a home-and-away Showdown at the G.
Damien Barrett this time has gone as far as to put the case in writing across two pages in the league’s official game-day guide, the AFL Record.
“Adelaide v Port Adelaide is the AFL’s No. 1 rivalry,” Barrett wrote. “(A rivalry) entrenched in pure, uncompromised, beautiful and unashamed footy hatred.”
And just as Victorians would look to Adelaide for their new football heroes — with their cheque books and promise of being fulfilled in the world’s greatest football league — they now want SA football’s greatest game.
In line with Barrett’s weekly “sliding doors” offering for the AFL, if the MCG is to get the Showdown, then Adelaide Oval should host the Collingwood-Essendon blockbuster.
There is the deal for the 2020 AFL fixture. The first Showdown goes to the MCG on Anzac Day; the Collingwood-Essendon match moves to the MCG as the night fixture on Saturday, April 25.
Seems fair.
As proud as every South Australian should be that the Victorians — or at least one influential football voice in the Victorian system — have developed envy for the Showdown, there is no great gain in delivering the derby to the MCG. Yes, there would be that “extra” game for the Crows and Power players to feel out the G, the grand final venue (until at least 2057).
But there are so many challenges to taking the Showdown off Adelaide Oval to place it on the MCG where Barrett says the move to the G would “actually enhance the rivalry (with) a chance to make it bigger than it already is … an opportunity to entrench it in the psyche of every AFL fan forever”.
Here is another way to do the same thing. Let’s get the AFL and its broadcasters to deliver the Showdown on national free-to-air television in a significant timeslot — perhaps Friday night — so that millions rather than 70,000 Victorians at the MCG can enjoy the game’s No. 1 rivalry.
There are considerable drawbacks to the novel idea of putting the Showdown on the road, regardless of what other sports are doing with their prime events — as noted in last week’s Roast with the infamous New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry moving to the London Olympic Stadium for a two-game series.
Who loses home rights? Port Adelaide or the Crows? And what will having no “home” Showdown do to the sales of season tickets that are boosted with access to a derby?
Who assists the Crows and Power fans who will want to go to the MCG for this historic Showdown? It is one thing to be hit with State Treasurer Rob Lucas delivering a surcharge for a bus ride to Adelaide Oval for a derby; it is a much bigger blow to be up for airfares and accommodation in Melbourne for a Showdown at the G.
What happens to the commercial deals — particularly with advertising signage at Adelaide Oval and corporate boxes — if the Showdown is moved to the G?
How does the SANFL — with its share in stadium revenue from AFL games at Adelaide Oval — cover the loss of one of the two Showdowns played in Adelaide each football season? Here that Collingwood-Essendon clash as a night game on April 25 next year looks very appealing for the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority.
Nice thought this Showdown on the G, but it can wait for that grandest of all derbies — one on the last Saturday in September. AFL grand final day.
The Showdown does not need to be moved from Adelaide Oval. It needs to be moved out of the shadows created by the AFL fixture. The Crows and Power were promised by then AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou a Friday Night Football booking for the Showdown in 2014 if they signed the Adelaide Oval deal — and they are still waiting for this bonus.
But if Barrett wants the Showdown at the G, then we’ll take the Collingwood-Essendon blockbuster at Adelaide Oval. Fair is fair.
Showdowns do appear to have the habit of drawing out the big statements from so many (except Crows coach Don Pyke). Port Adelaide president David Koch loaded up on Showdown 47 saying the Crows-Power battle is “arguably the greatest sporting rivalry in Australian football … across any code”.
There is that NSW-Queensland rugby league State-of-Origin game that might have a bit more on it than a Showdown. And that is coming to Adelaide Oval next year.
Sign up for the Rucci Roast enewsletter here.
Rucci: Time for clubs to put old rivalries aside
Australian football faces dramatic changes to overcome the damage presented by the COVID19 crisis. It can only survive with unprecedented unity.
There should be no asterisk against 2020 premiership
The team that wins this year’s AFL premiership should be lauded for adapting in the most trying of circumstances. There must be no doubts over the legitimacy of the season, writes Michelangelo Rucci.