Fort Benning Trainee Steals Ambulance

The aftermath of trainee driver’s heinous act.
By Steven H. Williams.
September 1, 2007.

Marking an anniversary from yet another decade in which the late Ed Schumacher led the AFL–VFL in official match attendance figures, AFL Football Tiers announced the 2010 season-opening match between the Swan Districts and the Dandenong Stingrays at Moorabbin Oval, Sydney.

Tickets went on sale a little more than half-a-month ago, with the AFL-VFL Cup final against the North Melbourne Kangaroos expected to make it the highest-priced game for junior club tickets in the game’s history (the club had earlier used the best-paying game of 2007, an exhibition against rivals North Melbourne, to raise $160 000 for families of children killed in the Darwin bombings).

To be clear, AFL–VFL Cup ticket prices generally aren’t going up as a result of the match.

In fact it looks pretty likely that the majority of season-opening AFL games will have been sold out – and high-selling matches like the Toyota AFL Premiership Grand Final and St Albans versus Richmond have accounted for some of those profits.

So yes, it is a little disappointing that the match which is expected to make up the highest priced of these four games, is a Saints-Sydney contest.

The Saints are going to struggle to make up those losses.

The record crowds to their last two home matches – the first of which was last year’s Saints’ 30-point win over the Adelaide Crows – had proven enough. It was going to take more than a few ‘my tickets out of my pocket’ notes from around Sydney to redeem a game that had been sold out for eight days at Rlich Park. It is also unlikely they will do it tonight or tomorrow.

So the question immediately arises why the Club had the nerve to do that and, relatedly, why is this week’s match being honoured as an anniversary match by the AFL?

It is because they believe it is a mark to the past and future leadership of both clubs, and a very fitting time to celebrate.