|
|
2014/11: Should AFL football be played on Good Friday?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right:An April 22, 2011, ABC news report on declining church attendance in Australia on Good Friday. If you cannot see this clip, it will be because video is blocked by your network. To view the clip, access from home or from a public library, or from another network which allows viewing of video clips.
What they said
‘Think about it as an increasingly secular nation, in a code which prides itself on its approach to multicultural participants, we hold the holiday of one religion as sacrosanct’
Dr Sonja Hood, explaining her support for AFL football on Good Friday
‘If we’re still happy to take a day off for a “religious holiday”, even if it’s not our religion or we have no religion, then competing with the reason for the holiday should be “out of bounds”’
Father Kevin Dillon, parish priest of St Mary’s Geelong
The issue at a glance
On June 16, 2014, it was announced that the AFL Commission had decided to play AFL football on Good Friday. A range of clubs have lobbied for this addition to the fixture for many years.
Though this addition to the fixture may occur as soon as 2015, the Commission’s chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, has said that there may be some logistical difficulties which would delay the first AFL Good Friday game till 2016.
Though a range of newspaper polls suggest the move is very popular with readers of the sporting pages, it has met with significant criticism from some social commentators and leaders of the Catholic and Anglican churches.