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  2021-04-25

  HIST30060 Anzac Day

  This is an image from the Anzac Day match at the MCG on the 25th of April 2021. Returning to the MCG for AFL matches was one the more ‘normal’ things we could do at the start of the year. When this game was held, it was the largest crowd recorded at a sporting event in the world. The Anzac round is my favourite round of the year and it felt amazing that footy was back and Melbourne was covid free. A couple weeks later the AFL team I support - the Collingwood Magpies - saw its lowest ever recorded attendance at the MCG since 1940, as AFL returned, many of their supporters chose not to attend games, this may be due to how our team was performing or the capacity limits. Just looking back at this photo in lockdown makes me question how we thought we were ‘back to normal’ at the start of the year, when we were so far from it.
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  2020-03-21

  (HIST30060) Empty Footy Games and Empty Supermarket Shelves

  (HIST30060) As an avid footy fan, it was upsetting and very strange to see the 2020 AFL season starting without being able to attend the game at the MCG, or there be anyone in the seats when watching it on tv. This post reflects this strange moment in AFL history, but also the coinciding rush on supermarkets, particularly toilet paper, leaving lots of shortages and empty supermarket shelves. I still don't understand why seemingly everyone in Victoria and Australia decided they needed to stock up on toilet paper, but it was definitely an aspect of a very strange and stressful period at the start of the pandemic.