North Melbourne club chairman Ben Buckley is anticipating a crowd of over 40,000 for this year’s Good Friday clash between his side and Essendon.
Channel Seven commentator Brian Taylor criticised the Roos this week, saying they might not be worthy of a marquee slot, given he believes they struggle to draw big crowds for big occasions.
"If they don't pull a big crowd in that game and for all of us who keep crapping on about how we've got to give these clubs the big blockbuster games, guess what, they're only big blockbuster games if clubs that can draw big blockbuster games are playing in them," Taylor told the Superfooty Podcast.
"They are not blockbuster games if North Melbourne are playing in them ... if they draw a poor crowd on Friday, I'd be turning that game immediately over to someone else next year."
However, Buckley said they’re on track for a decent crowd on Friday.
“There’s been some really encouraging signs off the back of our form and the Bombers’ form. We anticipate that we’ll have a very strong crowd and sales have been particularly strong this week,” he told SEN Mornings.
“What is important is that we continue to sell tickets during the course of the week and this is a great opportunity for us to promote the Good Friday Appeal.
“I think we would expect to be in the mid 40,000’s. Obviously there’s the Medallion Club and corporate suites that round out the capacity of the venue which we have no control over, but we have seen really encouraging signs this week for general admission sales and reserved seat sales.”
As for Taylor’s comments, Buckley flat out disagrees.
“I don’t agree with that at all,” he said.
“We’ve demonstrated over history we’re more than capable of drawing large crowds.
“We have demonstrated we can fill Marvel Stadium and we would expect another strong showing this week.”
Buckley addded that the Good Friday slot will need time to grow and become a part of the calendar.
“You can’t expect a tradition to be built overnight,” he said.
“If you look at the Anzac Day game, Queen’s Birthday and other major games, they’re built over time and we would expect that over the course of the next 10 years plus that we will form a very strong tradition of having a game on Good Friday.
“I’ll also add that our reason for doing this game is not just about attendances and TV audiences, it’s about supporting the Good Friday Appeal and ourselves and the Bulldogs and St Kilda and now Essendon have been very strong supporters of that.”
