AFL 2023 Anzac Day game LIVE updates: Collingwood Magpies, Essendon Bombers, face off in front of capacity MCG crowd

An hour out from kick-off, the MCG is swarming with thousands of footy fans ahead of today’s commemorative match.

The sombre mood from this morning’s dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance has been replaced with a buzzing, frenetic energy outside the stadium.

The memory of Anzac Day is potent. Fans wear jerseys with poppies, and around a hundred sailors are dotted around the stadium raising money for the Anzac Appeal.

Two of those raising money, both Navy sailors in training, and both called Adam, reckon they’ve already raised $5000.

Essendon coach Brad Scott is only in his first season with the club, but he has commended his players for the way they have taken to his game plan so far.

“I think things have come to hand quicker than we expected, but it’s a credit to our playing group they have come hungry to learn and hungry to get to work,” Scott told Channel Seven.

“We’re seeing short-term rewards, but we haven’t taken our eye off what we’re trying to achieve long term.”

The Bombers will look to dominate the undersized Magpies in the ruck.

“Weather conditions help us – it is probably a simple equation of if we can get aerial dominance both in the ruck contest and contested marking space it is advantage us,” Scott told Channel Seven.

“It is potentially a weakness if they can get it to ground. We have to monitor it closely. We are well-balanced, it is not just the big guys but the combination of smalls and talls.”

Collingwood coach Craig McRae has explained his teams ‘take the stairs’ mantra for this season.

The Age reported on the stairs plan earlier this month.

“I wasn’t too keen for this to get out but, as always, things get out,” McRae told Fox Footy.

“I went overseas in the off-season and I kept seeing everyone take the escalators, you get off the tube and there was this mighty stairwell that no one would use.

“Everywhere I went I was consumed by the lack of the use of the stairs.

“I kept seeing this and thought that most people in life want to take the easy option and in our game, to rise up the ladder you need to take one step at a time.

“So we have a ladder in the team room to represent that. We need to take one step at a time, so we have to take the stairs. We have done some stuff at the MCG, walked most of the steps here and this year we want to take the hard road, if there is an easy option, we will take the hard one.

“The boys have taken it too far, to be honest, there are pictures of boys in all different positions on the stairs but we have to take things one step at a time to qualify for the finals.”

It says much about Dyson Heppell that when recalling the first time he played on Anzac Day, the former skipper neglects to mention that he was one of Essendon’s best players and was beaten for the Anzac Medal by another Gippslander, Scott Pendlebury.

“It was just incredible,” Heppell said of the 2011 Anzac Day game, the same year he won the Rising Star award and was likened to his then coach James Hird and Pendlebury as a prospective champion.

“I just remember the excitement and the joy, and the build-up in the lead-up for fans and members and, you know, the footy community as a whole. It’s a day for everybody,” he said, explaining how the occasion “puts an enormous smile on my face, knowing that we play a small part in representing and showing our respect to those who have fought and fallen for our country”.

On Tuesday, Heppell will play in his 11th Anzac Day game. Only three of those previous 10 games were victories and it is telling that Heppell polled Brownlow votes in defeats in 2012, 2014 and 2015, underscoring the notion of him as a footballer who performs, irrespective of team fortunes and external factors and who’s seen scant team success in his time at a historically successful club.

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G’day everyone. It’s Roy Ward and I’ll be live blogging today’s ANZAC Day game between Collingwood and Essendon.

Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog at anytime and enjoy the hours to come.

First bounce is set for 3.20pm AEST.