Social media is exploding after Damien Barrett’s latest thought bubble, with the veteran journalist now suggesting that the Showdown between Adelaide and Port Adelaide should be played in Melbourne.
at the end of tuesday Access to all areas Hosting by Barrett alongside Nat Edwards and Matthew Lloyd for AFL.com.au, the trio addressed the ongoing debate over the settlement of one of football’s biggest clashes.
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“Damo, should the Showdown be given the marquee slot on Friday night football every year?” asked the Essendon legend, Lloyd.
“Oh, absolutely,” Barrett responded.
“I’ve been saying this for a couple of years, and I know it’s a minority opinion, but I feel like I’ll bring it to Melbourne,” he said.
“Not just to make it the ultimate Friday night time slot, but also to bring it to Melbourne, the MCG.
“All the competition will come to Adelaide in Round 5, if you schedule that game, if you don’t say MCG, we go with Marvel Stadium, you fill it up.”
The idea was met with derision from co-host Nat Edwards.
“No!” Edwards said.
“Adelaide Oval is amazing, the atmosphere there, to watch a Showdown.”
“You have to grow the game,” Barrett said.
“It’s two teams from South Australia!” replied an incredulous Edwards.
“You are going to upset a lot of South Australians,” he said.
Edwards turned out to be very supportive, and South Australian football fans gave off the proverbial steam.
Crows supporter @CamryCrowback’s Twitter account called it an “amazing Victorian take”, while proud journalist and South Australian Daniel Brettig said “burn it”.
“We haven’t seen paternalism like this since Kitchener,” Brettig wrote.
“The Burden of the Melbourne Man”.
Nick Harris said it was a “story as old as the League itself”.
“Victorians see something profitable in football that they don’t have and they want it for themselves,” he said.
“It’s not the Grand Prix, you can’t accept it,” said Nathan Glennie, referring to the move of Formula One’s 1996 Australian Grand Prix from Adelaide to Melbourne.
Darren Murphy called it “the worst take in Australian rules football history”.
“Not even an artificial intelligence engine could have created something like this,” he said.
Another Twitter account said it was the “craziest football shot anyone has ever had”.
“Does any Victorian want to understand the frustration with the AFL media in the rest of the country? Here it is. In pure form.
Another echoed Barrett’s Sliding Doors column, saying, “IF this is the dumbest idea you’ve ever heard, THEN obviously, it came from Damian Barrett.”
Supercar journalist James Pavey tweeted the clip: “tonight on Planet Melbourne.”
AFL Tasmania historian David Ingram said he was “one of the early clubhouse leaders for the ‘Dumbest S**t Said By An AFL Journo in 2023’ award.
“It’s not a ‘minority view,’ it’s an opinion of one and it’s mind-bogglingly stupid.
“The only reason a Showdown should be brought to Melbourne is for a Crows vs. power”.
Hobart-based Sevens reporter John Hunt quipped that it would be fine, “only if Collingwood and Essendon play ANZAC Day in Adelaide or the Grand Final is played in Adelaide.”
Brisbane-based Sevens reporter Ned Balme quipped: “while we’re at it, Collingwood vs Essendon on ANZAC Day should be in Launceston.”
The suggestion was roundly criticized as being the product of a perceived bias in the football media towards Victoria, as the original state for Australian rules football and the largest state for the code.
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes came out last year to call out the bias, saying “anyone who says it’s not the best rivalry in the game, I think is certainly (showing) a Victorian bias” in SEN SA.
“They’re a little bit threatened by the rivalry between these two teams, and when you look at the history through 51 games and 20-odd years of what’s happened behind these two and the way they continue to deliver in these games, you don’t there is comparison behind it,” he said.