The Anzac Day match is an annual Australian rules football match between Collingwood and Essendon, two clubs in the Australian Football League, held on Anzac Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Anzac Appeal Logo used as the official logo for the Anzac Day match
A crowd of over 90,000 attends the annual Anzac Day Collingwood–Essendon game (2010)
Ron Barassi with a serviceman lighting the torch with the Eternal Flame at the Shrine of Remembrance. (Barassi's father was killed in action during the Siege of Tobruk.) This is part of the pre-match ceremony.
National Anthem ceremony prior to the beginning of the 2023 match
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, also called Australian football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts, or between a central and outer post.
A ruckman leaps above his opponent to win the hit-out during a ball-up
Statue next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the approximate site of the 1858 football match between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College. Tom Wills is depicted umpiring behind two young players contesting the ball. The plaque reads that Wills "did more than any other person – as a footballer and umpire, co-writer of the rules and promoter of the game – to develop Australian football during its first decade."
Engraving of a football match at the Richmond Paddock, 1866. The MCG and its first pavilion are visible in the background, as are kick-off posts, the forerunner of today's behind posts.
Engraving of the first intercolonial football match between Victoria and South Australia, East Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1879
