At the bar with Spitta2Azza & Marksup (Phillyroo #482)

[Ahern2Boof]

With the weather heating up, that can only mean one thing. Footy is right around the corner! But we all know the time between January and the NAB Cup can be boring as hell, which has seen our board become a little quiet in the past few weeks.

I introduce to you this thread, where I will be engaging with your favourite posters from the North Melbourne board, grilling them on how they came to support the mighty blue and white, their most cherished memory from this great club, and maybe a little information about their outside life as well. Interviews will be conducted via PM (or other means), and will be posted in its entirety here. I will keep the OP updated as I go.

For now, I hand it over to you guys. Who are some posters you would like to hear a little more about?

Engimal: #6
Horace: #51
B Tron: #107
Spitta2Azza: #176
Hearts to hearts: #178
Twinkletoes: #229
Flawed Genius: #273
TennisPlayerAndy: #364
Mr. Blonde: #385
Gasometer: #419
Kimbo & TOD pt 1: #429
Kimbo & TOD pt 2: #453
Only Forwards: #475
Phillyroo: #482

 

[Dan]

Zondor

 

[Engimal]

Sooz.

 

[Ahern2Boof]

Sooz.

How about it Engimal?

 

[GarnerSmash]

Engimal. Lets hear from you brother.

 

[Ahern2Boof]

ENGIMAL

S2A: Well, to begin with, I ask why you support North Melbourne?

E: In all honesty, it's because of my dad. His mother is a North supporter as well, so it's kind of a tradition. He passed it down to 3 out of 4 kids, with one of my sisters unfortunately going for Carlton. He's a huge North supporter, to the extent that my middle name, keeping in mind that I was born in 1996, is Neville Carey. Neville after my grandfather and the Carey part is obvious.

Luckily I grew to love the club. I think Boomer has been a big part of that. I was always a short kid and even now at 18 my height has maxed out at 168cm so to be 12 or 13 and hearing a guy like Brent Harvey say stuff like, "height doesn't bother me because I go out there thinking I can beat anyone" was always really cool, I thought.

S2A: Haha wow, I'd love to know what your dad's reaction was when everything that happened with Carey started to eventuate!

What's your earliest memory associated with the Roos?

E: Haha, I'm not sure what he thought of the whole Carey/Stevo fiasco, but he still rates Carey as a legend so I think he's okay with it after so many years.
My earliest memory of the Roos isn't one really that special when I try to explain it but it's very special to me. One a trip over to Melbourne, we went to a North Melbourne training session.

I must have been very young because my older sister barely remembers it so I would probably have been under the age of 5. It would have to have been before or in 2003 because Spider Burton was there and my Dad lifted me right up to him so he could sign a guernsey I was wearing. I remember being very scared because I'd never seen someone as tall as him.

When Dad was holding me up there, I got a really good look at all the fans that were there and remember feeling very 'homely' because they must have all liked North Melbourne too. I still get the same feeling every year or so when I head over to Melbourne and watch the boys train before a match.

S2A: That's great. I have a photo with Spider from a similar age somewhere at home.

Who's your favourite all-time North Melbourne player, and, if applicable, who is your favourite current-day player and why?

E: These are probably bland choices, but my favourite player of all time is Glenn Archer and my favourite current player is Boomer.

Archer, is the epitome of the Shinboner Spirit. He's a guy who, while a talented footballer, was never outstanding in any particular skill but made a name for himself by putting his body on the line and being terribly courageous. When you see footage of him going for the mark in front of a 112kg Tony Lockett, knowing full well that he's probably about to be pulverised, it really set the standard of what a North Melbourne player should be.

As for Boomer, he's just a deadset legend. Absolute tiny bloke, taken at pick 46 in the draft at 65ish kg and turns out to be a (likely) 400 game superstar with a premiership medal among countless other accolades. Boomer is one of the most skilled footballers in the game at 36 and could have found a place at most clubs during his 20s, if he felt like leaving. However he stuck by the Roos in what was probably a bit of a lackluster decade for us and I really respect that.

S2A: Good choices. You won't find many North supporters that don't have Arch or Boomer in their list of all-time great Roos.

I'm asking this question on the assumption that you've seen at least the 1996 and 1999 Grand Finals. What's your favourite Grand Final memory? Fairley's goal at the death in 96? Bell running amok in 99? Or anything else.

E: I was alive but very young for both the 96 and 99 Grand Finals. Luckily, my dad made it compulsory viewing for me as I grew up and I still look back at footage of them every month or so.

However my favourite Grand Final memory (or perhaps moment, in my case) comes from the 1975 Grand Final, at 3/4 time. When all the players huddle around and Barrassi says to them something along the lines of, "There's 25 minutes to go and I'm extraordinarily proud of you. But I want you to to make me the proudest coach in league history, and I want this crowd to be proud of all of you!"

It pains me that I couldn't have been alive during this period. I get tears in my eyes when I watch the footage now, so I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be there in '75 and see North Melbourne claim their first premiership. Hopefully I can experience what it's like to witness a premiership in the coming years (fingers crossed).

S2A: Great answer.

Did you get across to Melbourne for our Elimination and Semi Finals last year? If not, where did you watch it, how did you react, and what are your memories from both before and the aftermath of both games?

E: I watched all the finals from the comfort of my home in rural Tassie, although I did get over to North vs Richmond during the year which was a good game.

I was in a very angry mood for the first half of the Elimination Final. To know that we'd been humiliated in the 2012 Elimination Final and to completely miss finals in 2013, I thought the lads would have put in a better effort. Luckily they did pick up and we ended up steamrolling *essendon thanks to the emergence of Brown and Petrie's late goals. My best mate happens to be an *essendon supporter too, so the win was very, very sweet.

I couldn't believe the start of the Semi Final, with Thomas starting off with a bang. I actually felt very confident going into this game. I think that's because I had set the benchmark for 2014 at winning a single final, so most of my pre-game nerves had been used the previous week. However once the game started, they all came back. A very strong first half was almost completely undone by a very average second half and it seemed that no one could stop Hawkins. That scared me because if he was beating Thomspon and Grima, there was really no one else we could put on him. Luckily we held on. The pure joy I felt after that win was like nothing I'd ever experienced before and the near heart attack I had in the final minutes is nothing I'd like to experience again.

S2A: Yes, next time we play a final I hope it's a massive win and not a heart-stopping victory like those two.

What do you do when you're not on BigFooty? What does the life of Engimal entail?

E: Well I'm off to Uni next year to do a Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology after finishing off year 12 with an ATAR of 90.30. I'll be the first in my family to go (or finish year 12, for that matter) so I'm pretty proud, as stupid as that may sound.

Aside from school, I spend a lot of time swimming with mates at the river. I'm from a little rural town of about 800 people so I spend a fair bit of time outdoors on the occasion that I'm not stuck at home being a nerd on my laptop, reading or making music.

S2A: Nice. I'm also the first from my family to go to uni, so I know the feeling.

How did you find out about BigFooty and what made you sign up? Can you also reveal what your username represents?

E: I can't exactly recall why I signed up. I probably just wanted to shitpost about Carlton, to be honest. I signed up in 2010 when I was 13 and was pretty inactive until 2012 where I went to year 11. In Tassie, you basically change schools once you get to year 10 and complete years 11 & 12 at 'college'. At college, you get wondrous things like 'free lines' that I never had previously. So in my first year, I did most of my work in class or at home so during these free lines I would go into the library, jump onto a computer and log into BigFooty because the Tassie winter is too cold to stay outside in. That's when I started to post regularly and I've racked up a fair portion of my 7500+ posts since then.

As for my username, it irritates me.

Everyone thinks it's bloody Enigmal when it's actually Engimal. Engimals were this hybrid of vehicles and animals in a book I read when I was younger. It was called Ancient Appetites I think. For some reason, I thought 'Engimal' was the coolest looking word I'd ever seen at 13 years of age and slotted into the username field.

S2A: Glad we can clear that little confusion up for everybody then!

Thanks Engimal, we'll wrap things up there. Thanks for being a great sport and giving some terrific answers. Would you like to nominate the next poster for me to interview?

E: Thanks for interviewing me.

I'd love to see Horace interviewed, seeing as though he began to follow North relatively late in his life after his first club was taken from him.

 

[Twinkletoes]

Great effort lads

Well done to you both.

 

[Marksup]

This has got off to an interesting start, I like it!

 

[marklovesbeer]

Thought this may be a bit lame, but it's quite interesting.
Good questions & answers guys.
Will be interesting to hear from a few other blokes. Especially some of the older guys around here.
Would love to know a bit more of what it was like getting on the cans every Friday night when we were dominating the 90's.

 

[Greater Gattsby]

I neknom Spitta2Azza

 

[Ahern2Boof]

Pending approval from Horace, I will begin my next interview with him.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

Ask Horace whether they had afl in roman times.

 

[Kimbo]

Ask Horace whether they had afl in roman times.

They did. It just wasn't as popular as throwing Christians to the lions.

 

[Horace]

Pending approval from Horace, I will begin my next interview with him.

Okay S2A, pm me and I'll do my best, though at my age, I will have to take several afternoon naps to make sure I get through it all. And I warn you my answers are likely to be so boring that this thread may die a slow and painful death.

 

[niko11]

Great work S2A! And Enigmal ur middle name is Carey.. Brilliant!!!

 

[Passmore]

Thought this may be a bit lame, but it's quite interesting.
Good questions & answers guys.
Will be interesting to hear from a few other blokes. Especially some of the older guys around here.
Would love to know a bit more of what it was like getting on the cans every Friday night when we were dominating the 90's.

Over to you 'toes.........

 

[kangaspurs]

Great work S2A! And Enigmal ur middle name is Carey.. Brilliant!!!

 

[marklovesbeer]

Okay S2A, pm me and I'll do my best, though at my age, I will have to take several afternoon naps to make sure I get through it all. And I warn you my answers are likely to be so boring that this thread may die a slow and painful death.

 

[niko11]

Dohh.. Engimal

 

[IschenkoUBeauty]

Good stuff.

Though all this nek nom talk has me an idea for a new thread. Can we, mods? Marklovebeer can go first.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

This has the potential to be better that "Open Mike". Great idea Spitta2Azza

 

[Dirty_11]

Great stuff S2A.

 

[IschenkoUBeauty]

Give us another one!!

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

I nominate one with dan after Horace.

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

They did. It just wasn't as popular as throwing *essendon fans to the lions.

Tough, but fair.