A beautiful sunset served as the backdrop to the Collingwood-St Kilda game at Adelaide Oval on Sunday evening. Picture: Tom Thomas.
Footy totally consumed the city of Adelaide for the AFL’s first crack at a one-town round in the era of the national competition.
Supporters of all persuasions filled the terraces and promenades in North Adelaide and the CBD, with a friendly nod or competitive glare shared between rival beanie-wearers as paths were crossed.
The Greater Western Sydney Giants, so often at the bottom of any supporter metric, offered the best piece of merchandise of any club with a bright orange woollen witch’s hat emblazoned with their logo. Fortunately, their side ceased playing like them in the last quarter and obviated an embarrassing loss.
Players, coaches and media representatives were spotted all over town, whether in official capacity or otherwise, and joined fans in taking opportunities to avail themselves of the abundant Chiko Rolls, chicken salt and Cooper’s Pale Ale that was available on every corner.
Hordes of people milling outside Adelaide Oval. Picture: Tom Thomas.
On Thursday night, the lid was officially off. Despite entering the field through what was inexplicably the smallest banner produced outside of a suburban twos game, the Crows kicked things off with a belter of an opening quarter.
The adherents love Rankine, Fogarty and Rachele, but the undisputed hometown hero is Jordan Dawson. What an inspired choice for captain.
Adelaide Oval itself was in magnificent nick, with a visionary blend of modern, contemporary stadium infrastructure, historical reverence and a distinct, local footy feel brought upon by the lack of a grandstand on the hill. Food trucks around the perimeter supplied Indian and Lebanese food, with ample space for kick to kick inside the gates.
The game went to Norwood on Friday. All the talk during the week was about the size of the ground, and how one could kick a goal from the centre square were one inclined. Of course, local kid Jack Lukosuis was inclined from within the first three minutes.
That the crowd could clearly hear players’ instructions, frustrations and repartee from beyond the boundary was another charming element, and one which contributed to the community feel that encompassed the entire weekend.
Saturday saw the first of two double-headers at Adelaide Oval, something that the surface, which also took a pounding from the skies, endured remarkably well. At the final break of the Essendon-Melbourne match, the competing clubs were joined on the turf by the Western Bulldogs who warmed up in front of a receptive crowd.
Gather Round was like one big footy festival. Picture: Tom Thomas.
Plenty of neutral fans among the throng of supporters resulted in a couple of interesting moments. The brightest was during the famous Port Adelaide singalong to INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’, when all supporters took the chance to participate, and numerous Bombers, Bulldogs, and other miscellaneous scarves, were displayed proudly among the black and teal.
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Unfortunately, the same circumstances led to a more unfortunate outcome when Jason Horne-Francis was booed from the outer in a home game that had nothing to do with his former club. No shrinking violet, the magnetic midfielder sprang to life in the last quarter and enjoyed the last laugh.
Port Adelaide claimed a gutsy win in sporadic but thick rain, and spirits were drenched but soaring on the chaotic stroll into the city. Outside a nightclub named The Dog, eager punters formed a long queue while passers-by launched into repeated renditions of: “We’ll never stop stop stop, til we’re top top top!”
Undoubtedly one of the most beguiling, yet highly endearing aspects, to the weekend were the performances of the Gather Round dancers. In the spirit of MTV, this troupe would appear inside the boundary at all breaks in all games, busting out sporadically synchronised moves to keep the crowd entertained.
The Gather Round dancers doing their thing boundary-side. Picture: Tom Thomas
Music between goals is always a topic of agitation among footy fans, and it was blasted just as loud here as anywhere. Perhaps more concerningly, however, were the rather incongruous song choices.
As Darcy Fogarty belted through his third goal on Thursday night, the voracious crowd was treated to the Violent Femmes’ ‘Blister in the Sun’ at full volume. When Nick Hind came on and sealed the deal against Melbourne, it was Coldplay’s notoriously mundane ‘Clocks’.
A kid-focused footy festival was set up next to the Torrens throughout the weekend, and whilst to the critical eye it represented little more than a corporate advertising expo, the youngsters enjoyed the chance to tackle some inflatables and get their gear signed by the likes of Marcus Bontempelli and Luke Davies-Uniacke.
There were plenty of activities for the kids. Picture: Tom Thomas.
On Sunday morning, a line as long as the one outside of The Dog the night before formed for the opportunity to have a photo with Geelong’s 2022 premiership cup.
Not everyone in Adelaide will have revelled in the weekend’s footy festivities, but any Adelaidean you spoke to was wholeheartedly in favour of the event, and South Australia’s retention of it, with some even going as far to suggest that it would simply be a flat-out failure in other states.
Prior to the beginning of the final match of the round, AFL head honcho Gil McLachlan and South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas – thick as thieves throughout the whole weekend – granted the locals their wish and announced that the arrangement had been extended for three more years. Rapturous applause ensued.
If Gather Round is purely about growing the game, then moving it around the country is clearly the answer. But the AFL strives to grow the game in a multitude of ways, many of them highly expensive. Surely not everything must be about that and that alone. Sometimes we do things just because they’re good. This, over and above any other superlative, was bloody good.
