Brought a tear to the eyes....

[MarkCDodd]

I haven't been to a footy (Australian Rules Football) match in years due to my narcolepsy.

I was offered a ticket to one of the biggest matches of the year, the traditional Anzac day clash between my team, the Essendon Bombers, and the most hated team in the league, which also has the largest number of members, the Collingwood Magpies.

So I went and sat among 93000 very loud fans and enjoyed every minute.

The last time I went to this match was in 1995 where we fit 95000 into the ground and 20,000 were turned away at the gate.

Before the match we had the Anzac service of last call and one minutes silence.

The Army Sergeant in charge of the ceremony had the loudest voice I have ever heard.

After the epitaph was read by a veteran the one minute silence was astounding.

There were over 93000 people standing with hardly a sound apart from the occasional cough.

Then then the bugle sounded the end of the silence and a young woman from the Army sang the national anthem with 93000 voices of various quality joining in.

When the sergeant proclaimed the end of the ceremony, 93000 voices yelled and it was one of the loudest noises I have ever experienced.

It was a brilliant game of football but really, the respect our Anzacs were shown is what made my day.

Apparently most cities recorded a record attendance for the dawn services.

In Melbourne there were over 50,000 at the shrine in St Kilda for the dawn service.

There were about 80,000 lining the streets for the veteran's parade.

Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, Great Great Grandchildren were marching with the veterans and proudly carrying photographs of their Anzac relatives.

[grangers14]

It must have been fantastic being there, I was getting goosey reading it!
Jo