Rising Power wrote:Only really since 2001 that the previous years' grand finalists have played ANZAC Day every year
2000 - Norwood v Sturt
1997 - Port v Norwood
1996 - Port v West & North v WWT
1994 - Port v WWT & South v Sturt
1993 - Port v Sturt & South v North
1992 - North had the bye
Edit: 2004 no games on ANZAC Day, but Power v Western Bulldogs
The Anzac Day Grand Final rematch was a tradition for a long time in the twentieth century.
My records only go back to the year of my birth, 1954, but in 1954, 1956 and then every year from 1958 until 1985 inclusive the Grand Final rematch was played on Anzac Day or on April 26th if Anzac Day fell on a Sunday. Occasionally, especially if Anzac Day fell on a Saturday other games would be played as well, but the two Grand Finalists always met on that day.
After North played Glenelg in the Grand Final in 1985, the powers that be decided to program a "blockbuster" on Anzac Day rather than the two Grand Finalists, thus from 1985 until 1997 we rarely if ever got the two Grand Finalists doing battle on Anzac Day. Since then I think they have every year other than the year 2000. Even in 2004 Central and West, the two previous year's Grand Finallists played on the holiday Monday fro Anzac Day, so the tradition continued.