It’s 30 years since the legendary ANZAC Day game of 1995, a day that kick-started a tradition and is still beloved as a classic of the genre.
A crowd of 94,825 witnessed 33 goals for the day that ended in a draw.
It’s fondly remembered as an example of football perfection.
What is less remembered is that another match received puzzled, but generally positive, reviews 48 hours earlier.
It was the exact opposite of the free-flowing end-to-end excitement at the MCG. In The Age, the late, great columnist Patrick Smith was impressed by one and not so much the other.
“It (Collingwood v Essendon) was a celebration of the game. Sunday wasn’t,” he wrote.
The under-pressure Adelaide, after a disappointing 1994 and opening to 1995, played a grim game of desperation against the best team of the era, West Coast.
The Crows eventually prevailed, seven goals to six, in the sort of scoreline that would occur on days of torrential rain.
It was torrid and taxing, and engrossing to all who watched it because it was so unusual. That a game with no scoring could keep people gripped was such a curiosity that it had people talking.
Smith disagreed, calling it “unrelenting, but unspectacular”.
“It is now touted as an exquisite example of football in the future,” he wrote.
“And it was. Muzzle your opponent, stifle him, break him. Only when he is dead at your feet, think about scoring.”
Smith’s comments were of the moment, too. In 1994 and 1995, the average score of a team was 94 per game.
The 16 years preceding that year, points per team per game averaged an annual figure of 103 points per game.
It was a significant drop and was a glimpse into the future.
Fast forward to 2025, and the points per team per game average is sitting at 87.4 after seven weeks of footy.
Anemic compared to the figures Smith was grappling with, today it represents a slight upswing in his tastes.
The eye would suggest that the game is in a better place than it was a few years ago; these numbers back it up.
For all the debate of what constitutes the best type of footy – and views tend to be skewed on what was the norm in somebody’s formative years – it’s hard to go past a game that has more goals and therefore more highlights.
Marginally, we’ve seen that in 2025. At the moment, that average figure is greater than any end-of-season average we’ve had since 2017 by three points per team per game.
Steele Sidebottom celebrates a goal. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/AFL Photos/Getty Images)
While the conventional wisdom is that early-season games are higher-scoring before the colder months slow the game down, this year’s numbers are three and a half points higher per team per game than at the same time last season.
Geelong’s continued success makes them a reliable barometer of where the game is heading. While it’s not Malcolm Blight-era extravagance, offensive play seems a bigger focus, from kicking 23 goals against the Dockers, to still kicking a winning 12 against a damage-control, defensive-oriented Demons.
Their Gather Round comeback win against the Crows may be the best pure game of footy for years, with 33 total goals just like the magical 1995 draw. Dangerfield, playing as a forward, is symbolic of taking the risk of giving up wins elsewhere in the hunt for goals.
When they lost to St Kilda, both teams scored 90 points.
Those two games are part of nine so far this season where both teams have reached the 90+ point mark. We haven’t had this many at this point of the season since 2017.
Some won’t be excited by that, everyone has their own flavour, yet if nothing else, it’s variety compared to what we endured earlier this decade.
After Smith’s column in 1995, the numbers by and large held at the diminished mid-to-low 90s rate for the next two decades.
But since it sank below 90 in 2014, it’s never returned.
The real depths, whether coincidental or due to the pandemic, were 2021’s 79 points per team per game and 2020’s 60 points per game, that, if you extrapolated for time reductions, still bottomed out at 75 points per game.
Brad Close celebrates a goal. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Compare that with the all-time high of 1982 when, in a dry-drought of a winter, teams averaged 112 points per game. Each team would have totalled a staggering 37 more points per game in 1982 than they did, even if they’d played full minutes, in 2020.
That is a different sport.
Of course, we will always be critical of the present.
In 1983, Mike Sheahan wrote in The Herald that he was “convinced beyond argument that it isn’t as good, as attractive to watch, as it was” – just after watching the highest scoring season ever.
The constant criticism of goal-kicking that happens today? Goal kicking accuracy was worse in the goal rush of ‘82 than it was in the scoring famine pandemic seasons.
Nevertheless, the subtle shift away from the pandemic numbers is why the AFL’s rule changes in recent years, derided by the usual suspects, should be applauded.
Irrespective of scores, the stand on the mark rule has been one of the great strategic wins that found a lever to return the game to its original spirit of a ‘free’ kick.
While not everyone will agree, the 1995 draw between the Pies and the Bombers is a good reference point for what we should aspire for the game to be.
That means more attacks. In 2025, the coaching trends suggest that those who aren’t willing to risk being scored against, to score, will fall behind.
As Smith wrote the day after the ANZAC draw: “Football’s future will always be rosy if it is played with the flair, flamboyance and desperation of yesterday”.
Seven weeks in, a little bit of flair might be back.
Shannon Gillhttps://https://ift.tt/mveCl8y footy is making a comeback – but how long can it last?
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