Opinion Have We Become THOSE Supporters?

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

Over a long period, Cat's supporters have been known mostly as very gracious winners. We always kept the lid on. We had reviled at what appeared to be the arrogance of some supporters about their team. Hawthorn, Richmond, and Pies supporters have been very distasteful to us, and some of us vowed never to be like them.

But do other supporters now see us like that?

Do they think we're the arrogant ones basking in the glory of our success?

I was amazed at the negativity we received during the trading period, all because the Catters dared to manage their list well and create a culture other players wanted to be part of. Oh, the humanity! How dare we do well. But going by the negative comments directed not only at the club but also at us Cat's supporters by opposition fans, I think they now see us as we once saw them.

How the wheel turns.

Am I worried, you may ask? Does it keep me up at night?

I love it.

It's about time we Cats supporters enjoyed the success of our club and, of course, rubbed it in the faces of the riff-raff.

Yours

Blakey

 

[STPer18]

The main thing to remember is that we are always the good guys - the side of what's right and just. It's our burden to bear.

 

[Pollywaffle]

I think there is an element of that creeping into our younger supporter base.
Those that have been on board for a longer period and experienced the bleaker years pre 2000’s will never get too smug.

 

[Cursed Cat]

As supporters I don't think we're any more noble than any other supporter base - good and bad and everything in between.

The club however has been exemplary in many aspects of its conduct and deserve all the plaudits that come their way.

 

[Strange Cat]

Enjoying the win without being smug…it’s what I have done in all our golden years

 

[God Mode]

As supporters I don't think we're any more noble than any other supporter base - good and bad and everything in between.

The club however has been exemplary in many aspects of its conduct and deserve all the plaudits that come their way.

I think we are at least marginally better than some. For instance, we tend not to incessantly boo opposition players for just playing the game.

 

[Cursed Cat]

I think we are at least marginally better than some. For instance, we tend not to incessantly boo opposition players for just playing the game.

actually that's a fair point.

always a source of some quiet pride that we declined to jump on the boo Goodes bandwagon when all that was kicking off.

 

[goyoucatters]

I think we are at least marginally better than some. For instance, we tend not to incessantly boo opposition players for just playing the game being better than we'd like them to be.

FIFY.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Honestly, I've never really cared how we are viewed on the outside as a supporter group.
During the semi successful but overall heart breaking 90s, to the shitful late 90s into early 2000s and now into a long era of sustained success, at no point have I ever wondered how we are seen by other fans.
I simply don't care and don't feel the need to put energy into something that is largely irrelevant.
However, as a hypocrite, I do judge other supporter groups, namely tigers, pies and hawks.. cos they are all flogs.

 

[God Mode]

actually that's a fair point.

always a source of some quiet pride that we declined to jump on the boo Goodes bandwagon when all that was kicking off.

I'm the same. We've often been criticised as being too reserved of a supporter base, but I'd rather be reserved than booing opponents. It's never been something i'd even consider.

 

[supahoops]

I’m not ungracious, I just prefer to call out Hypocrisy, Double standards and playing the victim and feel ok to honk the horn on the blue and white hooped karma bus as it rolls around.

 

[Willo_]

I 100% have become one of "those" supporters... BUT the difference is I'm self aware and just really enjoying playing up the villainous side..

Now that the trade stuff is over I'll start winding it back to normal

 

[SkittleCats]

There is a difference between enjoying a hard earned win and expecting the win to come simply because of who you are. The latter is how i view Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton "people".

We rightly should enjoy our success, both on and off the field, if others whinge it is only because of their envy at our success and the way in which our club conducts itself. Meanwhile the flogs bang on about ARC this, umpires that, AFL conspiracy blah blah blah, all of which normally ends with "and thats why [insert team followed here] is really better than you despite the scoreboard".

The problem with Facebook and Bigfooty is that it attracts the nuffies. The people who on some level genuinley believe the crap they talk, mostly because a lot of it comes from the club itself (see Dimmas comments regarding the ARC after their lose to Brisbane). Id be worried if people started to talk about us in a way that isnt reflected by the reality of our performance. Which i havent seen from our fans, but see a lot from...others.

Having said all that, i do enjoy playing the villain now, if people are going to view us as the Manchester United/PSG/Real Madrid/Barcelona/Whoever is dominating soccer right now cause i dunno i dont follow it of the AFL then we may as well act like them, at the end of the day it comes to the same thing: They hate us cause they aint us.

 

[PhatBoy]

Tigers fans might given the amount of back and forth on the main board (which I am a major part of). I’ve also noticed they really go after us on Twitter and Facebook though so I think that’s more a reflection of them than us.

However I don’t think we are viewed that way by most of the other clubs. I don’t remember anything overt or nasty between us and Sydney fans after we beat them, Brisbane after we beat them, Collingwood after we beat them or Melbourne after we didn’t even get to play them. I think especially the Collingwood game we were very respectful and knew what a great fight they put up.

I think we know our place. I think we have a right to be arrogant to some degree about how unflinchingly consistent we are and how good our 07-11 team was, while also recognising that we’ve never been QUITE good enough to turn that into silverware in the interim and the way most of us post is reflective of that.

We are also more understanding of the fact that it is simply a game than what other fans are.

I saw a Twitter thread about Ollie Henry last night and some of the commentary was vile.

A neutral fan and later on a level headed Pies fan both screenshotted the comments from Cats fans to Cooper Stephens after it was announced that he was going. The gist of both tweets was ‘and you wonder why Pies fans are so despised: look at how a proper supporter does it’ and posted the screenshot of the well wishes to Cooper.

 

[Drunkcat]

Some of our bandwagon supporters that have not seen before are being smug on some boards and posts lol

 

[Cursed Cat]

There is a difference between enjoying a hard earned win and expecting the win to come simply because of who you are. The latter is how i view Collingwood, Richmond and Carlton "people".

We rightly should enjoy our success, both on and off the field, if others whinge it is only because of their envy at our success and the way in which our club conducts itself. Meanwhile the flogs bang on about ARC this, umpires that, AFL conspiracy blah blah blah, all of which normally ends with "and thats why [insert team followed here] is really better than you despite the scoreboard".

The problem with Facebook and Bigfooty is that it attracts the nuffies. The people who on some level genuinley believe the crap they talk, mostly because a lot of it comes from the club itself (see Dimmas comments regarding the ARC after their lose to Brisbane). Id be worried if people started to talk about us in a way that isnt reflected by the reality of our performance. Which i havent seen from our fans, but see a lot from...others.

Having said all that, i do enjoy playing the villain now, if people are going to view us as the Manchester United/PSG/Real Madrid/Barcelona/Whoever is dominating soccer right now cause i dunno i dont follow it of the AFL then we may as well act like them, at the end of the day it comes to the same thing: They hate us cause they aint us.

That's not how I view Collingwood at all - if anything they have suffered just as much as Geelong supporters in terms of losing Grand Finals and general Finals heartache.

Like anyone they're up and about when they're winning, but I know plenty of Pies supporters and they're all generally ok and pretty un-entitled. There's just a lot of them.

It has taken decades to crush some of the arrogance out of Carlton fans, totally agree there. And Richmond fans are ... well, there's just something a bit wrong with them. Hawks fans quite an entitled lot too, but not quite as horrifically feral as Tigers supporters.

Of course this is all broad generalisation.

 

[Lana]

What they don't understand is that we're simply better people than them, they just have to come to terms with it and everything will be right in the world

 

[Drunkcat]

Richmond fans have always been a few sandwiches short of a picnic, in the 70s they were mad

 

[SkittleCats]

That's not how I view Collingwood at all - if anything they have suffered just as much as Geelong supporters in terms of losing Grand Finals and general Finals heartache.

Like anyone they're up and about when they're winning, but I know plenty of Pies supporters and they're all generally ok and pretty un-entitled. There's just a lot of them.

You and i have met some very different Collingwood fans.

 

[winty]

actually that's a fair point.

always a source of some quiet pride that we declined to jump on the boo Goodes bandwagon when all that was kicking off.

IIRC, the game we played against the Swans at that time was Joel's 200th game, and instead of having a banner celebrating the milestone, they had a joint banner both sides ran through instead.

After everything we saw with Joel on grand final day, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it was his idea.

 

[dangerwood]

I think it's created from both sides. I've grown up thinking we were a small fry perennial bridesmaid failing team. Even after the first flag (and three) I got a little bit of confidence but I still thought that was the exception to the rule, an era that we could all remember fondly.

But we never went away and now we've won again and it's starting to feel like we are one of the "big clubs". There's adult supporters who have only ever known a successful Geelong. They speak about us in a hateful way because of it and I'm only just catching up. I was still a bit annoyed that people hated us because part of me still felt like the failing team that may never see a flag but now I'm starting to enjoy the hate because it shows how much things have changed. If we are going to be hated, no point fighting it.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

In small doses, yes, but I think that has a lot to do with the constant trolling about our finals failures and the age demographic of our list.

As the great Ted Whitten once said, 'we stuck it right up 'em.'

 

[dangerwood]

Tigers fans might given the amount of back and forth on the main board (which I am a major part of). I’ve also noticed they really go after us on Twitter and Facebook though so I think that’s more a reflection of them than us.

However I don’t think we are viewed that way by most of the other clubs. I don’t remember anything overt or nasty between us and Sydney fans after we beat them, Brisbane after we beat them, Collingwood after we beat them or Melbourne after we didn’t even get to play them. I think especially the Collingwood game we were very respectful and knew what a great fight they put up.

I think we know our place. I think we have a right to be arrogant to some degree about how unflinchingly consistent we are and how good our 07-11 team was, while also recognising that we’ve never been QUITE good enough to turn that into silverware in the interim and the way most of us post is reflective of that.

We are also more understanding of the fact that it is simply a game than what other fans are.

I saw a Twitter thread about Ollie Henry last night and some of the commentary was vile.

A neutral fan and later on a level headed Pies fan both screenshotted the comments from Cats fans to Cooper Stephens after it was announced that he was going. The gist of both tweets was ‘and you wonder why Pies fans are so despised: look at how a proper supporter does it’ and posted the screenshot of the well wishes to Cooper.

Yeah I think Sydney are a good example. In spite of Nick Davis I've never disliked them and I hope they don't feel like we were a bad supporters base after the grand final. Come to think of it, I think lots of people I've spoken to groan a bit about Geelong because of our success but it's really just Richmond supporters that speak of us as a bad supporter base.

 

[Goggin Our Best]

Some of our bandwagon supporters that have not seen before are being smug on some boards and posts lol

Now who could they possibly be ?

You once posted on this forum - that you were originally a North Melbourne supporter - then you decided for some reason to sack the Kangaroos and started barracking for Geelong

When was that actual point in time again - last Saturday in September 2007 perhaps - hah - hah - hah

 

[noclashjumpers]

Honestly, I don’t begrudge opposition fans expressing a degree of frustration or jealousy at our ability to keep our head above water. I certainly admit to being more than a little pissed at the Hawks’ run swiftly followed by Richmond’s. That’s a natural defendable human reaction IMO.

What does get me is when it spills over into totally unsubstantiated, conspiracy theorist bullsh17. Stuff like, Steve Hocking’s career, or Brad Scott working at the AFL....you know, brothers....uurrgh....

Even with the most timid of questioning, it’s clear even THEY don’t know what their implying. It’s just the ‘vibe’.

At games, abuse, yelling at umps, etc.. pretty much rolls off. But I’ve always been weirdly triggered by hearing stuff like ‘protected species’ or ‘corruption...’. I mean WTAF do they think is going on?

It’s the victim mentality morphing into unhinged nonsense that does my head in.