Roast What is wrong with our supporters?

[tige19]

Every time I go to the footy I must sit near all the abusive ferals because they seem to go nutty a fair portion of the game... If you want to experience that side of it, go to the standing areas along the wings and flanks and you'll be emerged in full whacko support.

 

[tige19]

This.

Check this out...

http://afltables.com/afl/crowds/hawthorn.html#3

18/20 of our highest home crowds + home / away crowds have appeared since round 7 2008 - its actually 27/30 if you include all the extra 65,000 plus attendances that have been superseded in recent years.

How does that compare to the traditional Victorian clubs over the last 7 years?

Hawthorn - 18/20 highest home crowds + 18/20 home / away crowds
Geelong - 13/20 highest home crowds + 12/20 home / away crowds
Collingwood - 12/20 highest home crowds + 7/20 home / away crowds
Carlton - 10/20 highest home crowds + 9/20 home / away crowds
Richmond - 9/20 highest home crowds + 10/20 home / away crowds
Essendon - 7/20 highest home crowds + 6/20 home / away crowds
W Bulldogs - 4/20 highest home crowds + 7/20 home / away crowds
St Kilda - 4/20 highest home crowds + 7/20 home / away crowds
Melbourne - 3/20 highest home crowds + 3/20 home / away crowds
North Melbourne - 0/20 highest home crowds + 1/20 home / away crowds

Hawthorn >>> Geelong >> Collingwood / Carlton / Richmond > Essendon > W Bulldogs / St Kilda > Melbourne > North Melbourne

Consider this, in round 18 2007 the Hawks game against Essendon (55,019) was the 3rd largest home crowd Hawthorn had ever drawn (only behind a mammoth QB game in 1981 and the inflated Waverley Park farewell in 1999). Since that point Hawthorn has played 18 home games that have drawn larger than that crowd. In 2015 alone the Hawks will probably have 4 home games that will draw 60,000 plus (Geelong, Richmond, Sydney and Essendon)...so the club has come a hell of a long way in a decade. Noise or no noise

The club is now a colossal power, we have swallowed up Carlton and Richmond and are pretty much on par and ready to surpass the bombers. Gee, if we go 3 peating we may crack 80k next year.

I would love a purpose built 35-40k boutique home stadium, imagine the atmosphere of 90% hawthorn crowd.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Perth and Adelaide fans undoubtedly appreciate having their team come visit them once or twice a year, and it shows.

Brisbane supporters will go nuts....if we ever play there again.

Whereas Hawks from Victoria seem to take our side for granted, and it's become pretty evident that our supporter base just expect the team to win well each week.

Get ****ed they do in Adelaide. The Adelaide fans are bloody pathetic. You'd get more excitement at a golf tournament than you would the Hawks supporters of Adelaide.

At the game the other week, the bay behind the goals, if you take out the 2 rows of cheersquad members, it was a ghost town of activity. Not a single person moved or got out of their seats.

Why? Because it was filled with ******* families which goes back to my original post. Parents not paying attention, kids with no interest and hipsters more worried about looking hipster with the faces glued to their phones.

 

[Bedi]

The only game we've been full tropo is the 07 elimination final (excluding GFs). The crowd behind buddy i had never seen a hawk crowd be this hysterical. It was amazing.

Me neither. It was like a mosh pit

 

[Procrastinator35]

We don't swallow AFL/Media dictated BS holus-bolus....That's what's wrong with us!

 

[threesixpio]

Get stuffed they do in Adelaide. The Adelaide fans are bloody pathetic. You'd get more excitement at a golf tournament than you would the Hawks supporters of Adelaide.

At the game the other week, the bay behind the goals, if you take out the 2 rows of cheersquad members, it was a ghost town of activity. Not a single person moved or got out of their seats.

Why? Because it was filled with ******* families which goes back to my original post. Parents not paying attention, kids with no interest and hipsters more worried about looking hipster with the faces glued to their phones.

Hope I don't see any game day posts from you...hipster....

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Every time I go to the footy I must sit near all the abusive ferals because they seem to go nutty a fair portion of the game... If you want to experience that side of it, go to the standing areas along the wings and flanks and you'll be emerged in full whacko support.

We're not talking about the standing areas or the grog squads though.

We're talking about the thousands of Hawk members sitting on level one, seemingly uninterested in making much noise at all.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

One thing I will say is that there are a lot of very small children at the football these days. I never went when I was a small child, I didn't start going until I was about 12. The main reason was that when most grounds were standing room I wouldn't have been able to see! I get slightly annoyed at hyper kids that run up and down the aisles and kick the back of your seat and are obviously not interested in the game, really don't know why their parents take them (come at me parents of small kids ). I also get annoyed at the constant stream of people leaving their seats to get drinks, food, go to the loos etc. it just never ends. I was forever having my view interrupted on Saturday by these people pushing past me or walking up and down the stairs. Once I'm in my seat I don't budge until it's time to go home. Ah well, I'll be back at the VFL next week, leaning on the fence

 

[MinerBoy]

Get stuffed they do in Adelaide. The Adelaide fans are bloody pathetic. You'd get more excitement at a golf tournament than you would the Hawks supporters of Adelaide.

At the game the other week, the bay behind the goals, if you take out the 2 rows of cheersquad members, it was a ghost town of activity. Not a single person moved or got out of their seats.

Why? Because it was filled with ******* families which goes back to my original post. Parents not paying attention, kids with no interest and hipsters more worried about looking hipster with the faces glued to their phones.

Yeah, damn those families taking their kids to the footy and trying to get them interested.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Yeah, damn those families taking their kids to the footy and trying to get them interested.

And what do these parents do? They give them an iPad for the whole game so the kid pays no attention to what's going on.

 

[badgrill]

Footy is now a family outing event. It's over the top the amount of kids there are at games and parents, with the help of social media, are so obsessed with making sure their kids behave perfectly and they appear like they're perfect parents.

As a result you have:

• Parents showing little to no real emotion or passion. It looks bad as a parent apparently.
• Parents hardly actually watching the game because they're too busy making sure their kids are behaving 'disciplined' and if the kid/s have no interest in the game, they're constantly making sure they're doing the right thing on the parent's iPhone.
• There are far too many 'politically correct' *******s in every bay who think anything above a golf clap is unacceptable behaviour so when someone yells out at the players/umpires/opposition, they are given a serving to by the *******s. "There are children who can hear you..."
• Kids voice's don't travel over distance.
• When you combine the above and remove them from the crowd, you're left with a majority of suit wearing hipsters who only go to look hip in their skinny-tied suits and faggy beards and don't go to support a team although they would try and fool you with their $200 football coloured hipster scarf.

When you take away all the people in the above out of a crowd of 50,000 you may be left with 5,000 real, traditional supporters. Hard to sound like an old-fashioned 50,000 crowd with 5,000 real cheering supporters.

That's when finals and their expensive costs show the true supporters. The true supporters, the ones who cheer loud and proud, come to the games from all around the country while the families stay at home because it's late and too expensive, and the hipster ******s don't go because the rest are there to watch the game and cheer their team, not look at a ranga with a beard looking ultra hip.

The Swans game a few weeks ago was there with my son (9 yr old) and my (adult) mate. I thought I was pretty subdued but the Swans campaigners in front of us had a real go after the game (of course they didn't say Boo til after the siren and they'd safely won). Apparently I'd "taught them a few new words". I think I may have let fly with the F Bomb perhaps twice but clearly it was my (not even too over the top) comments and cheering that offended their delicate sensibilities.

I make a point of reigning in the more full on obscenities coz of my boy mainly. I reckon you're right though - many are probably just s**t scared of being reported via that SMS dob in message they flash up on the scoreboard. If they are, then maybe it's what the AFL wants?

 

[MinerBoy]

And what do these parents do? They give them an iPad for the whole game so the kid pays no attention to what's going on.

So what? They're at the games, allowing the parents to get along and watch the team, and hopefully one day they'll start picking up on the game and showing more interest to. You got to start somewhere. Kids have short attention spans and it's hard when they're starting to keep them interested all game. Still better to have a family there and watching rather than not.

 

[tige19]

We're not talking about the standing areas or the grog squads though.

We're talking about the thousands of Hawk members sitting on level one, seemingly uninterested in making much noise at all.

We need a leader with speakers and together we should all sing songs in unison, that would be brilliant... We could learn a lot from the Northern Terrace, I have sat with that group and they are absolutely bloody brilliant.

 

[Davo23]

So what? They're at the games, allowing the parents to get along and watch the team, and hopefully one day they'll start picking up on the game and showing more interest to. You got to start somewhere. Kids have short attention spans and it's hard when they're starting to keep them interested all game. Still better to have a family there and watching rather than not.

Is that poster suggesting that kids shouldn't be at the footy?
What the hell is that about!

My kids started watching the Hawks when they were around 5 years old, I had to feed them lollies and ice cream to keep them busy while I watched the footy!

They're now adults and nailed on Hawk members for life.

.

 

[PNess]

Have reserved seats in P4. My mate and I are pretty loud, supporters around me are pretty good. Never been told to shush.

Spent a few minutes in standing room on the weekend, it's pretty much free reign down there, great atmosphere, sometimes not for the faint of heart.

 

[savagelunchbox]

Is that poster suggesting that kids shouldn't be at the footy?
What the hell is that about!

My kids started watching the Hawks when they were around 5 years old, I had to feed them lollies and ice cream to keep them busy while I watched the footy!

They're now adults and nailed on Hawk members for life.

.

Yeah that's from when they went to the footy to watch the footy.

Nowadays they go because they have to which isn't the issue. It's the effect it has on the parents. They sit there trying to give the impression of being perfect parents rather than being footy supporters like parents did now many moons ago (eg Grizz's stories amongst many others). This leads to there being your Sally Sensitive's and Helen Lovejoys in every row sprouting their PC bullshit whenever a true fan, a fan who isn't afraid to support their team vocally, shows some emotion. Some are now even texting the unsociable supporters number complaining about fans yelling out loudly.

So when Echols asks the question why the Hawks fans are so passive and quiet at the ground, there's you answer.

No one is going to come in here and say that sit there passively and golf clap the goals, hard hits, team lifting moments, etc, but I can tell you I know who quite a few posters on here are IRL and a lot who say that are loud and vocal, aren't.

 

[brew]

It's how it is now days

Last year I was giving Cloke some advise when he was having a shot on the boundary... He kicked the goal and proceeded to tell me to 'shove it up my $@#'.

I sat down and laughed but security comes over and tells me not to be abusive.... Really? I can't call a player a spud and ask if he blinks when he drops the ball without security getting involved?

 

[moginie]

Get stuffed they do in Adelaide. The Adelaide fans are bloody pathetic. You'd get more excitement at a golf tournament than you would the Hawks supporters of Adelaide.

At the game the other week, the bay behind the goals, if you take out the 2 rows of cheersquad members, it was a ghost town of activity. Not a single person moved or got out of their seats.

Why? Because it was filled with ******* families which goes back to my original post. Parents not paying attention, kids with no interest and hipsters more worried about looking hipster with the faces glued to their phones.

Due to the move to Adelaide Oval, Hawthorn support is far more scattered than it was at Football Park, I reckon. Therefore it's harder to be co-ordinated, get a chant going (I found that in the Riverbank Stand last year & more so in the Wanganeen Stand this year) etc. When we were all concentrated in two or three bays I thought we were pretty vocal, especially in 2007 & 2008 & certainly when we were almost outnumbering Port supporters in 2011-12.

It does come back to the seat allocation issue, which you & I discussed a little while ago.

 

[Dinner Plate]

Footy is now a family outing event. It's over the top the amount of kids there are at games and parents, with the help of social media, are so obsessed with making sure their kids behave perfectly and they appear like they're perfect parents.

As a result you have:

• Parents showing little to no real emotion or passion. It looks bad as a parent apparently.
• Parents hardly actually watching the game because they're too busy making sure their kids are behaving 'disciplined' and if the kid/s have no interest in the game, they're constantly making sure they're doing the right thing on the parent's iPhone.
• There are far too many 'politically correct' *******s in every bay who think anything above a golf clap is unacceptable behaviour so when someone yells out at the players/umpires/opposition, they are given a serving to by the *******s. "There are children who can hear you..."
• Kids voice's don't travel over distance.
• When you combine the above and remove them from the crowd, you're left with a majority of suit wearing hipsters who only go to look hip in their skinny-tied suits and faggy beards and don't go to support a team although they would try and fool you with their $200 football coloured hipster scarf.

When you take away all the people in the above out of a crowd of 50,000 you may be left with 5,000 real, traditional supporters. Hard to sound like an old-fashioned 50,000 crowd with 5,000 real cheering supporters.

That's when finals and their expensive costs show the true supporters. The true supporters, the ones who cheer loud and proud, come to the games from all around the country while the families stay at home because it's late and too expensive, and the hipster ******s don't go because the rest are there to watch the game and cheer their team, not look at a ranga with a beard looking ultra hip.

So because I have a beard and wear a scarf I'm not a proper supporter?

You're a real supporter? Go fcuk yourself, you self-righteous knob. You've completely failed to make a point. But you've proved;

• you're incoherent bordering on incomprehensible
• you can use the word 'faggy'
• you don't like parents or children
• you can't think of anyone else to abuse except "hipsters"

Drivel. Spat wildly from the mouth of a fool. And all this about the supporters of your own club? Eff you.

 

[Randy Campbell]

Yer, people never live up to my expectations either.

 

[savagelunchbox]

So because I have a beard and wear a scarf I'm not a proper supporter?

You're a real supporter? Go fcuk yourself, you self-righteous knob. You've completely failed to make a point. But you've proved;

• you're incoherent bordering on incomprehensible
• you can use the word 'faggy'
• you don't like parents or children
• you can't think of anyone else to abuse except "hipsters"

Drivel. Spat wildly from the mouth of a fool. And all this about the supporters of your own club? Eff you.

I never said I didn't like kids at the footy, but to answer the question that the op has posed, kids and their families are a huge problem to finding the solution Echols is after.

Hipsters are the same. They go to be seen, not heard. It's so easy to upset hipsters. Just call it like it is and they get, well, just reread your post.

You know how I said I know who a lot of the posters on this board are IRL? You're not immune and you're very much like I've describe no matter how angry your retort is, but every fan will want to pretend they're the loudest, most passionate supporter of the club, but the performance of most of the supporters is contradicting what they're saying they're doing when at the game.

So here, take a seat, calm down and face the facts, Echols has hit the nail on the head. The supporters have become passive and meek in the regular season.

 

[threesixpio]

One thing I will say is that there are a lot of very small children at the football these days. I never went when I was a small child, I didn't start going until I was about 12. The main reason was that when most grounds were standing room I wouldn't have been able to see! I get slightly annoyed at hyper kids that run up and down the aisles and kick the back of your seat and are obviously not interested in the game, really don't know why their parents take them (come at me parents of small kids ). I also get annoyed at the constant stream of people leaving their seats to get drinks, food, go to the loos etc. it just never ends. I was forever having my view interrupted on Saturday by these people pushing past me or walking up and down the stairs. Once I'm in my seat I don't budge until it's time to go home. Ah well, I'll be back at the VFL next week, leaning on the fence

You hated ME on Saturday Bumps!

 

[threesixpio]

Is that poster suggesting that kids shouldn't be at the footy?
What the hell is that about!

My kids started watching the Hawks when they were around 5 years old, I had to feed them lollies and ice cream to keep them busy while I watched the footy!

They're now adults and nailed on Hawk members for life.

.

It's kind off the arrr... Family club. You can be rowdy and have kids. I am (was my first time with them). I can't not yell. It's impossible

 

[badgrill]

Like I said I earlier, I personally tone it down when kids are around but only when it comes to swearing. I get why that's not cool.
And yeah my boy takes his iPod and I let him play on it if he gets bored - last year was quite a lot, this year he generally only brings it out on the bus ride home.

If letting him do that means I get to go to the footy more often, then so be it. I know when he's an adult he'll be a Hawk for life.

I did wait til he was I think 7 b4 taking him regularly though...

 

[Big Hotdog]

So because I have a beard and wear a scarf I'm not a proper supporter?

You're a real supporter? Go fcuk yourself, you self-righteous knob. You've completely failed to make a point. But you've proved;

• you're incoherent bordering on incomprehensible
• you can use the word 'faggy'
• you don't like parents or children
• you can't think of anyone else to abuse except "hipsters"

Drivel. Spat wildly from the mouth of a fool. And all this about the supporters of your own club? Eff you.

Now that had passion. Love it.

I need to have at least six or seven schooners before I get to the footy otherwise I can be rational of thought and manner. And further to this my kids love when I act like a dickhead.