St Bedes/Mentone Tigers play Old Scotch next Monday – ANZAC Day. The origins of this game were in 2008 in St Bedes/Mentone Tigers first ever season in A Section (now Premier Division) when St Bedes/Mentone Tigers suggested to the VAFA the idea of and ANZAC Day game in a similar tradition to the AFL. The idea was accepted and Old Scotch (SBMT’s preferred opponent) duly took up the initiative. The first ANZAC Day game played, as such, in the VAFA was born at Brindisi Street (later coined ‘Fortress Brindisi’ after SBMT’s continued domination of rivals at the local venue) and thereby a great relationship ​between the VAFA ‘A’ Section newbies and one of the VAFA luminaries began. The local scribe of the day wrote: ‘On ANZAC Day in front of the biggest crowd seen at the Mentone Oval in over 30 years, Old Scotch defeated St Bedes Mentone Tigers by 33 points in a tough and skilful game. The ANZAC Day concept was an outstanding success shown by the size of the crowd, the respect for the occasion and the standard of football notwithstanding the Tigers’ first loss in ‘A’ Section’. As noted above, Old Scotch duly won that first encounter by 33 points, however, St Bedes/Mentone Tigers returned the compliment by the significant margin of 74 points in the corresponding game in 2009 at Old Scotch’s Camberwell home ground. Subsequently, SBMT have won a further 2 times as have Old Scotch, so coming into Monday’s encounter the ledger stands at 3 apiece. And perhaps, due to this initiative of the SBMT Committee in 2008 one of the most mutually respectful relationships between senior clubs appears have developed and one of which both clubs can be duly proud – we regard Old Scotch as a friend of our club and a great and worthy rival and it is our understanding that this feeling is reciprocated. Respectful relationships and past victories or losses won’t count for very much when the two clubs clash on Monday with their respective goals of returning to Premier Division, however, respect for the day and what it means to all those who come to support and to the two groups of young men on the football field (most, if not all, of whom will be older than the young Australians who ventured onto those foreign shores over 100 years ago) will be paramount – respect for the great tradition of ANZAC will be on show and will be shown by Old Scotch Football Club and St Bedes/Mentone Tigers Amateur Football Club.