Back in the day there were no special jerseys worn on ANZAC Day by sports teams. Teams would wear their regular uniforms, players would line up for the ode and The Last Post, a moment of silence and maybe Advance Australia Fair. The jingoistic, commercialised commemoration we now have is a byproduct of the Howard years with the Boomers firmly in charge as they brought up the ladder behind them.
Melbourne played twice on ANZAC Day – in 1998 at Olympic Park against Penrith, and in 2000 against Canterbury at Stadium Australia. Both games were just regular occasions, with the main focus of rugby league’s commemoration of ANZAC Day focused on the then annual test match played by Australia against New Zealand.
All that changed in 2002 when the Roosters and Dragons started their now traditional clash, mirroring the AFL’s match between Collingwood and Essendon which had turned into a commercial behemoth.
Championed by Brian Waldron, Melbourne Storm also wanted a slice of the action with a marquee fixture on the night of ANZAC Day and found a semi-willing collaborator with the Warriors.
Media reports in 2009:
MELBOURNE Storm hopes to create its own Anzac Day blockbuster after securing approval to play arch-rivals the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday at Olympic Park.
In a bid to emulate the success of the AFL clash between Essendon and Collingwood, Storm has had an Anzac Day medal struck for the best player and asked the NRL to have the clash with the Warriors fixtured each season.
Storm CEO Brian Waldron said the State Government and Victorian RSL were behind the plan and they would try to get the NRL to make the match a regular feature of their calendar.
"Playing the Warriors is a fantastic, traditional thing that we would like to continue," Waldron said.
"So if can make this a success, we would seek to (play the Warriors) on Anzac Day every year.
"It's very fitting that we play them on Anzac Day, to play what is an international contest against two countries that went to war together.
"Hopefully it is the first of many traditional matches."
Of course this didn’t make the fossils in The Bad Place happy:
The Dragons-Roosters game has been billed as the Anzac Day game for seven years, but the NRL this year cleared the way for the Storm to schedule its game against the Warriors on the same day.
"It's a real Anzac Day game between a team from Australia and a team from New Zealand, and I'm delighted to be able to stage the game here in Melbourne," Storm chief executive Brian Waldron said.
Roosters and Dragons officials were apoplectic with Waldron's comments.
"For the last eight years there's already been a true Anzac Day clash," Roosters chief executive Steve Noyce said. "Sydney clearly leads the way in the NRL. It shows Brian is a blow-in and shows he doesn't understand the true history of the game."
Noyce's St George Illawarra counterpart Peter Doust said: "The imagination of Mr Waldron never ceases to amaze me."
Waldron said last night the game in Melbourne had a genuine advantage because it bridged the Tasman.
So began the tradition of the ANZAC Day evening match between the Storm and the Warriors, first at Olympic Park, a brief detour to the Docklands, before settling at AAMI Park since 2011.
2009
For the first of these trans-Tasman ANZAC Day matches, Melbourne kept it simple, adding just the ANZAC Appeal patch about the club logo. Smart, classy, understated. Exactly what you want on a day of commemorating the futility of war and the sacrifices of those who serve. The “Spirit of ANZAC” medal is a little much but apparently the Victorian Branch of the RSL was fine with it.
2010
In the days after the events in late April 2010,1 the ANZAC Appeal badge was again applied to the jersey, albeit in a rather odd position. Given the modifications that had already taken place to the sponsor's logos, just getting on the field at Etihad Stadium was an achievement in itself.
2011
With the gambling sponsorship now taking up the majority of space on the front of the Melbourne jersey, the ANZAC Appeal patch moved to a position above the club logo in 2011, making a very busy jersey design even more cluttered.
2012
Did someone forget to get the patches in 2012? None of the images from the match show it on any of the players jerseys…
2013
Two years in a row with my extra adornments?
2014
The switch from KooGa to BLK in 2014 saw the ANZAC Appeal patches return, this time with additional “Storm vs Warriors” embroidery on the sternum. Again, this is how it should be done, especially if the jerseys are then auctioned off with the proceeds going to various charities.
2015
With the Warriors now less enthused about coming to Melbourne every April, they successfully lobbied the NRL to host an ANZAC Day match of their own at Mt Smart Stadium, which in 2015 doubled as the 100th year commemoration of the Gallipoli campaign. Instead of the Warriors, Manly came to Melbourne on a very wet Saturday night, wearing what can only be described as a horrible costume. Melbourne maintained their dignity with the Appeal patch and sternum embroidery the only changes from the regular 2015 home jersey.
The club even responding to a question on twitter as to why the club wasn’t jumping aboard the costume trend that was approaching an epidemic across the league.
2016
For the return of the Warriors in 2016, Melbourne’s jerseys continued the theme – add patches and embroidery. Keep it simple. The addition of the RSL badge as they celebrated their centenary was a reasonable touch which balanced out the multitude of logos now on the jerseys.
2017
With new apparel sponsor ISC coming on board in 2017, Melbourne stuck to the tried and true formula again – add a patch and embroidery and get on with beating the Warriors…
2018
… but all that changed in 2018. Melbourne entered their costume era, with an explosion of Remembrance Day2 poppies blooming in a chevron across player’s chests. At least this costume was just a riff on the regular 2018 home jersey, replacing the club colour chevrons, although oddly the Appeal logo displaced the club's 20th anniversary logo to the upper chest position.
2019
With clubs now realising the merchandising potential of these cosplay designs, good taste and design was now out the window. Melbourne’s purple jersey was a new design just worn for this game, with the poppy chevron again adding red to the club’s colour palette. The ANZAC Appeal badge almost feels like an afterthought now, reduced in size on the sternum.
2020
With the pandemic lockdowns mixing up the 2020 fixture, Melbourne’s annual match with the Warriors was held in June at Kogarah. The costume design now leaning heavily into military imagery with a solider hovering above a moonlit field of poppies. With the Appeal logo now relegated to the sleeve, with the poppy on the sternum the only misplaced reminder of the sacrifices of the fallen.
2021
What do you get when you mix an enormous poppy image with military imagery and slap it on a jersey? This, let’s be real, is a terrible jersey. It just looks like a mess and with so much red, strays too far from the club’s colour palette. A real nadir in Melbourne Storm costumes. The Appeal logo placement screams afterthought too.
2022
What do you get when you go so meta that you’re now celebrating the way you commemorate ANZAC Day? This jersey. The club’s own marketing shouted it out:
This 2022 design showcases Storms iconic game day ceremony which has become synonymous with Melburnians on ANZAC Day.
The front of the jersey features an AAMI Park roof illuminated by a projection of poppies, while the bottom of the back panel includes ‘Lest We Forget’ projected onto the stadium roof.
That Melbourne equalled the iconic 70–10 scoreline while wearing this costume that features the wrong shade of blue… uggh.3
2023
Castore’s third attempt at an ANZAC Day jersey has now seen the club’s costume come full circle. Similar to the 2018 design, it’s been updated this time with rather disconcerting photorealistic poppies for a chevron. Knowing Castore’s supply chain issues, there will likely be a limited retail release. It would be nice if the club could donate some of the monies raised through the online auctions to charity though.
This was the first time that I personally have neglected to make my annual #SackGallop related tweets, letting the anniversary slide past in the dying days of that platform.
Yes, Remembrance Day aka 11 November. The ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee has a good explainer about this.
If you hadn’t worked it out, I don’t own any of these jerseys and have never really wanted one (retail or player issue). I did win one of the auctions for a match worn one from this game (because of the score line) to go with the jersey I have from the original 70–10 game in 2000. However my order was later cancelled when the auction I won “was no longer available.”