Even Fevola can't save boring match

Thank god for Brendan Fevola!

For without the Carlton and Victorian spearhead, Saturday night's much-hyped AFL Hall of Fame match would have been a total bore.

While the one-off match to mark Australian Football's 150th year may have been a winner on the face of it - with a crowd of nearly 70,000 watching the Vics beat The Dream Team by 17 points at the MCG - in reality it was little more than an exhibition match.

For those hoping this match - the Vics' first since 1999 - would signal the return of the passionate, halcyon days of state of origin football, it was a major disappointment.

Right from the opening bounce there was no atmosphere and this column cannot remember a footy crowd of more than 60,000 at the MCG ever being so quiet.

In fact the crowd was so quiet that even from the press box - some three decks above ground level - you could hear the players calling for the ball which is unheard of in a normal AFL game, even one that only attracts a crowd of about 20,000 such as last week's Melbourne-Fremantle game.

The only time there was any noise resembling a normal AFL crowd was when the ball got anywhere near the vicinity of the popular Fevola or when there was the occasional physical clash with occasional being the operative word.

Even in the last quarter when the game was still in the balance, the crowd resorted to doing the ludicrous 'Mexican Wave' - surely the ultimate negative statement for how they felt about proceedings.

The reason Saturday night's game failed is because of a lack of a genuine rivalry for the crowd to get excited about and without any crowd involvement to inspire the players, the game turned into an exhibition with little pressure being applied by either side and as a result little intensity.

Indeed even some pre-season NAB Cup matches have had more intensity about them than Saturday night's fizzer.

One is only left to ponder just how different it could have been had Victoria been scheduled to play against its greatest rival South Australia instead of a hotchpotch team made up of players from the rest of Australia that no-one could identify with.

It might have been exciting for the Dream Team players to be in such a star-studded team but the combined team failed to generate any excitement where it most counts - with the crowd.

Again it all comes down to rivalry - with no rivalry between the combined team and Victoria it meant fans did not care whether the home side won or lost and as a result the MCG had only slightly more atmosphere on Saturday night than during a Sheffield Shield match.

It could not have been more removed from that famous day in 1989 when nearly 92,000 proud, passionate Victorians turned up to watch the home side beat South Australia by 86 points at the MCG.

But the reason that game worked and Saturday night's did not - even though the talent on display in both matches was comparable - is back in 1989 the game meant something and bragging rights for the title of Australia's number one football state was on the line.

However on Saturday night with no rivalry to speak of the match simply lacked any context and without context sport simply becomes