One match where the bravest are on the sidelines Anzac Day clash: Roosters celebrate a try. Is there anything better - sometimes - than nothing? A crowd of 40,752 people standing still and staying silent, as a sport which claims to be built on foundations of fanaticism and passion is put on hold for a moment's reflection. Now in its 12th year, the traditional Anzac Day NRL clash between Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra can't generate the crowds that its Melbourne equivalent does, but its presence on the Sydney sporting calendar is growing. The top four attendances from the past 12 years have occurred in the past four; the latest was officially a sellout, as well as the highest Roosters home game crowd at Allianz Stadium and a record Anzac Day NRL crowd, with the Roosters winning 34-10. "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels" paraded before the game. However, it was missing something; notably Ferris Ashton, the former captain and coach of Eastern Suburbs, who was also a World War II veteran from the Royal Australian Navy. He has been a mainstay at Anzac Day clashes but died in January. His son Greg travelled around the ground in a Land Rover, behind Bill Collier, the last surviving member of St George's first premiership team in 1941 and a World War II special forces veteran. For the first time, the players competed for the Ashton Collier Spirit of Anzac Medal, for the man of the match. It was also a first Anzac Day clash for the new NRL chief executive Dave Smith, whose own baptism of fire can be put into context on this day. Smith, who served in the British Army, raised eyebrows when he decreed that "E-squared" - entertainment and engagement - would bring the supporters through the gates. Yet what dragged them through the turnstiles on Anzac Day was emotion. It cannot be replicated each week, and each contest, yet the match should also be a reminder that gimmicks or jumping castles aren't necessarily what's required to get people into a game of footy. Lest we forget: The Last Post was played. Too often, generally around this time, football and footballers are compared to soldiers, the battle on a field compared to the battlefields. It's jarring to many and it should be. This is one match where the bravest of people are on the sidelines, and the men on the field, however gallant, take second stage to an occasion. The sight of St George Illawarra coach Steve Price wearing the medals of his grandfather Vincent Cullen, one of the legendary Rats of Tobruk, showed that.