Why one Showdown each year should be a stand-alone national prime-time blockbuster
The two annual home-and-away Showdowns are already among the biggest sporting events of the year in Adelaide — but Dwayne Russell wants to take things a step further.
Greatest Showdowns 6-part series | Part 1 - Chris McDermott on #1 | Part 2 - Reece Homfray on #24 | Part 3 - Warren Tredrea on #44 | Part 4 - Mark Bickley on #45 | Part 5 - Graham Cornes on #35 | Part 6 - Chad Cornes on #34
The South Australian Government should join forces with the Crows and Power and take the bold step to force the AFL to do what every South Australian football lover has long been screaming for.
Force the AFL to schedule one Showdown per year as a stand-alone prime time event for the whole nation to watch and admire.
The obvious weekend is the Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June. Have the AFL fixture the Showdown as a national highlight on a Sunday night, or Monday afternoon.
But the State Government could take the lead, and make that long weekend a highlight on the calendar by creating a “Celebration of South Australia” long weekend, showcasing three of it’s great traditional assets, football, racing and the arts.
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is already a major drawcard of mid June. But the Adelaide Cup could also swap long weekends, from it’s “Mad March” holiday Monday where it gets lost, to the June long weekend Monday.
Moving the actual dates of long weekends is difficult for governments. But flipping names is easy.
The Adelaide Cup itself has slipped so far down the sports pecking order in recent decades that it barely registers as a blip on the national sporting radar any more.
Sadly, the Adelaide Cup and South Australian racings biggest kick in the shin came when the race was downgraded from a Group 1 event to a Group 2 race in 2006, the same year it moved from it’s old date in May to it’s current date of the second weekend in March.
Many South Australian’s might be surprised to know that most Australian sport lovers don’t even know the Adelaide Cup is run on the March long weekend. That date is Labor Day long weekend in Victoria. And it’s not even a holiday long weekend in Sydney or Perth.
By jumping on the back of a publicity generating behemoth like the first Showdown of each AFL season, the Adelaide Cup could be re-energised. And South Australian racing needs re-energising. And moving the race back to May or early June, has been talked up recently as an option.
The other major left field option, is to schedule a Showdown next season as the one and only AFL game played for the entire “AFL weekend off” in June when all the other sixteen teams have their bye. Collingwood and Sydney once had that luxury of being the sole game on the “bye” weekend. South Australia could jump on that mid-June opportunity next year.
Both Showdowns have obviously been hidden AFL fixtures for far too long. Despite a rich history of amazing, high quality contests with heart-stopping finishes that have elevated the Showdown to one of the most watchable rivalries in Australian sport, the AFL game scheduling department again refused to give either Showdown a standalone date this year.
Showdown 46 in round 8 this year was at least a Sunday twilight game, which nationally, is Fox Footy’s best and most watched game slot. And Fox Footy loves producing it as one of it’s showcase games.
But last nights Showdown 47 deserved better than to be jammed into the middle of a five game Saturday and Saturday night.
The South Australian Government, Port Adelaide and the Crows, should stop waiting for the AFL to give the Showdown a Thursday night or Friday night slot. Just make a standalone long weekend, or “Festival SA” or “Celebration of SA” weekend date for it.
And if it’s too late to flip long weekend names and create a monster weekend of Arts, Racing and footy in June next year, at the very least do it for the first Showdown of 2021, which if we don’t get a Showdown final before then, will be the significantly historic Showdown 50.