"Shame on anyone that booed a champion."

[3rd degree]

I remember them Booing Medhurst during his medal speech in 2008 they got form.

[bally12]

Buckley's response was beautiful by the way. You could see underneath he was seething,yett his delivery was all class. It took guts to say that in that moment on that stage. He called out the Doper supporters for what they are, and I'm sure the booing suddenly stopped for a second as the doper ferals were left embarrassed and shamed like chastened little kids.

Well done Bucks. You've done our club proud today. Also well done to Gerard Whateley for his strong response in explaining exactly why this act cast a pall on such a great day that is all about respect. Where a lot of reporters are scared to say anything remotely controversial, Gerard isn't afraid to put his opinion forward.
Also loved Swanny's facebook response. Love you even more Swanny....Collingwood through and through. Not surprising that he used to save his best for Anzac Day.

[melliot]

What will happen when Essendon win the game next time (if there is a next time? hopefully the Karma bus makes that decades away). Will our supporter group show class or retaliate with boos?

[Bucks5]

The booing was directed at Pendles because Essendon supporters think he staged that free kick in the last quarter (robbing them of a possible goal and getting the lead).

Their booing should have been directed at their own player for crashing front on into Pendles' head while it was over the ball.

[David]

[RudeBoy]

Much to my own surprise, I have a completely different take on the booing episode, and the media's response to it.

To begin with, let's stop all this crap about it being a solemn occassion, the presentation of the ANZAC Medal. This is bullshit. The ceremony was held before the game, and was treated respectfully by the entire 90,000 plus crowd. Also, the ANZAC 'medal' itself is a media and commercial driven piece of nonsense. Calling the award a 'medal' on a day we honour those who understand the word 'medal' to mean something much more important, is a joke.

Once the pre-game ceremony is over, it becomes a game of footy...nothing more and nothing less. Booing, getting angry, passionate, screaming and shouting are all part of the theatre of the game. Let's not get too precious about crowd noise.

Let's be honest about it all and admit that had we been in Essendon's shoes, we'd have felt we'd been robbed of the game. If the roles had been reversed I'd have been booing long after the siren had sounded. I'm not convinced that much, if any at all, of the booing was specifically directed at Pendles. The fact is the Bomber fans were absolutely furious, believing (wrongly) that they had been robbed of the game.

The media, and in this instance Gerard Whately in particular, love to make mountains out of molehills, because it makes them seem important, and somehow morally superior to 'the mob'. Phuck Gerard Whately, phuck Robbo, and phuck all the private school phucks like Gill McLachlin. They don't own the game. It belongs to us, 'the mob'.

All of a sudden booing has become an 'evil' and something to stamp out. The hypocrisy from the media and the elites who run the game is astounding. The AFL has taken a very strong and principled stand on inclusiveness and discrimination, yet when 'the mob' boo Ablett after he publicly approved a statement that all homosexuals and a few others (including atheists like me) should burn in hell, the crowd response gets criticised. But I digress.

Was it disappointing that the crowd booed during the presentation to Pendles? Of course it was. Was it disgraceful and 'foul' behaviour? Certainly not. Was it part of the drama, passion and organic expression of pent up emotion we want at the footy? Absolutely it was.

Finally, we live in a world where so much of our lives are controlled. At work most of us have to be subservient to the rules, instructions laid down by our wage-slave masters, our bosses. As almost everything is privatised nowadays, society is under constant surveillance and control by police, security guards, and the moral police of the media. Being amongst the crowd at the footy, is one of the rare times we can truly publicly express our feelings.

So Bomber fans, my message to you is, I hope you are still booing. You lost, we won and while you were booing, I was laughing at your booing, because the more you were booing, the more I knew you were hurting, and the more enjoyment I was getting from another glorious victory by the Mighty Magpies!

Boo hoo!

[Woods Of Ypres]

very well said Rudeboy I agree 100%, enough of this nonsense

[PyreneesPie]

[PyreneesPie]

[PyreneesPie]

[PyreneesPie]

[David]

Thanks, PP.

[PyreneesPie]

[David]

^ Actually, I suspect that most Essendon supporters were booing because they were genuinely pissed off. Nothing really sheep-like about that, is there?

Otherwise, whatever some people believe, you surely have to acknowledge that there is a lot of disingenuousness surrounding Anzac Day. Indeed, the fact that a best-on-ground award given to a footballer can even be associated with the tragedy of war in some people's minds is evidence that reverence itself is being put on a pedestal here over the things that we're actually supposed to be honouring, i.e. those who died in futile conflicts overseas.

[tbaker]