Since were getting close to the anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, did the AFL ever consider canceling the Essendon/Adelaide match(and also the Collingwood/North match) once the death was announced? Maybe, but what about the Port v St Kilda game? would have they canceled too, or went on?
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Diana’s death was announced via the PA system to a stunned and silenced crowd. Game went on as schedule but a minute’s silence preceded the Port vs St Kilda game
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I was living in QLD at the time, and I remember finding out about the death of Diana on the Sunday arvo over the PA system at Lang Park in Brisbane.
It was the final ever game of the mighty South QLD Crushers (v Western Suburbs Magpies)… which had free entry… so that certainly wasn’t cancelled.
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I believe Peter Mitchell (channel 7) broke the news through the Essendon vs Adelaide game at the MCG.
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Cancelling an AFL game would have seemed like an overreaction.
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Mentioned in the Hatches, Matches and Despatches thread the other day… American actor Ty Hardin has passed away.
He had the lead role in the 1960s Australian series Riptide.
What I’ve just found out is that the series was dubbed into German, re-titled S.O.S. Charterboot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx6435PA_A0
Here’s the same episode of the Australian original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLHY4UWeXk0
YouTube: Classic Australian TV, Pan Tau
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But then, why did they postpone the Adelaide v West Coast final? Because Seven wanted to show the funeral of Princess Diana. My guess is Seven would have faced a lot of criticism if they showed the Crows/Eagles match instead of the funeral.
How did Seven handle the rescheduling, since the game in Adelaide overlapped with the Lions-Saints final in Melbourne. Was the Crows/Eagles match seen live everywhere, expect for Queensland? Did Seven show all three matches in full in Melbourne?(with the news in between) since there was a Sunday Night final that week.
This is the guide published for that day: http://televisionau.com/classic-tv-guides/tv060997
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I recall Hey Hey it’s Saturday was moved to Friday night that week as well.
I remember the funeral being on all FTA stations except SBS?
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IMO, if this happened now and I was program manager at C31, I would delay the closing time to show a dirty feed of a repeat of BBC’s coverage.
Why?
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I think that happened a couple of times during their run and they even renamed it “Hey Hey It’s Friday”.
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Was 97 the only time 3 AFL finals were played on the same day?
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Unless you count the 2 years where the AFL Under 19’s, AFL Reserves and Senior competitions played the Grand Final on the same day (prior to the 19’s becoming the VSFL 18’s) then it will be the ONLY time where 3 finals will be played on the same day.
My guess is that the Crows-Eagles game aired live in Victoria and WA(AFL didn’t allow live against the gate back then) while Queensland and maybe South Australia got the LIons-Saints match live(no competing against the gate in SA). Tasmania is a interesting one though. Did they take the full game live from Football Park, followed by the second half at Waverley?
Couldn’t answer that because at the time I was Darwin based, and instead of the Lions vs Saints game I believe Channel 8 (as they were then) showed an ARL final between Parramatta and North Sydney before going to 9 News.