It’s been a long and hard-fought battle but after thirty-or-so-years, North Melbourne finally won the right to host the AFL’s first ever Good Friday game.
The club’s push for the marquee match began in the 1980s when then chairman Bob Ansett looked to place an even bigger Kangaroo pawprint on Friday football.
“We got the idea of Friday night football over the line and were drawing some big crowds and attention under the lights at the MCG,” Ansett once told NMFC.com.au.
“It was a logical extension to play on Good Friday but to be honest, given the amount of resistance at the time, I didn’t push it too hard.
“It was always on the agenda but it wasn’t until I left North in 1991 that my successor, Ron Casey and CEO Greg Miller, started to push even harder for a Good Friday game.”
Ansett knew the idea would have its critics, but believes the best of both worlds can be achieved.
“No one is forcing people to attend or watch, people still have a choice. I think it’s fantastic for the game and the fans to have the option,” Ansett added.
When Miller took over the charge, he said the resistance to the concept was equal to that which Ansett encountered.
“It would have been about 1992 when we first approached the AFL,” Miller explained.
“The AFL was the last bastion really. It was just before John Kennedy took over as chairman of the commission, because it was really him, you wouldn’t believe it, our previous coach and friend of mine, who told us they’d quashed it.
“It got headlines in the paper every year but Kennedy came out and said the day would be protected and the AFL wouldn’t follow all the other sports and entertainment groups around the world and participate.
“We made submissions for pretty much ten years in a row, that the Kangaroos should be the first club to play on Good Friday.”
North’s persistence and never beaten approach paid off in 2016, when the AFL commission approved the game.
“We certainly led Friday night football, we led Grand Final Breakfasts and we led playing home games interstate among many other things. We’ve always been trailblazers. We’ve always been imaginative, innovative and on the front foot. Bob Ansett and Ron Casey were always putting these types of things forward and looking at new marketing opportunities,” Miller said.
“It was an unused day on the footy calendar and people were looking for things to do with their family. The Kangaroos have always offered that family feel and felt we had other attractions to add to the day to meet all the criteria people were looking for.”
