The “Bloods”

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lazy77

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Sep 29, 2018
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I don’t know if this is appropriate, but I really don’t like the South Melbourne connection and therefore hate the “Bloods” name. It denied us a first premiership in 2006, because apparently SM won it in the past. The thing is, I have no connection to South Melbourne. I just don’t care that there was a team named “Swans” there. I like our Swans solely because they’re a Sydney team. I love when we stick it to those Victorian weirdos at their own game.

I now realise I’m almost alone in this and most Swans fans are migrants from Melbourne. Are there even any true blue Swans supporters here who aren’t Melbourne expats?
 
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DavyRed

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I’m a Sydney boy but I’m very proud of our Melbourne history and that we have a strong duel-city supporter base. It’s all upside as far as I’m concerned. Also, the days of only ex-pats following the game in Sydney are long gone (if, indeed, it was ever the case) as I would think the majority of Sydney based fans are originally from Sydney.

I’ve also have no idea why you would think the Bloods name cost us the 2006 premiership, what a bizarre theory!
 

lazy77

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I don’t think it cost us. I meant 2005. We won. I just think it should have been celebrated as an inaugural title, since I couldn’t care less about what South Melbourne did 50+ years ago. Why in hell would I care about that? I’ve never been to South Melbourne.

I also believed that the time of expats was over, but then I started noticing that nearly everyone here knows Melbourne better than Sydney. I also noticed that no one I know cares about AFL at all. I don’t think there is any doubt that most people here are melbourne expats.
 

lazy77

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You ain't going to win many 'friends' on here with posts like this OP. Swans board suicide
Honestly that’s more of an indictment on the board than on me.

I think I’ll make friends anyway. People here seem quite reasonable. I simply don’t care about any South Melbourne or the “bloods”. I love the Swans from Sydney though.
 

lazy77

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Oh joy!
Another thread i can try & get banned from.
The OP didn't join BF for intelligent discussion.
The OP welcomes disagreement and most definitely wants intelligent discussion. The OP also welcomes your contribution and will fight for you if you get moderated for disagreeing with him.

The OP is just not a Melbourne boy, so he doesn’t understand the mentality. I assumed all Swans fans felt like me, until I came here and realised that most Swans fans know more about afl and Melbourne than they do about Sydney. That was kind of disappointing.
 
Feb 5, 2012
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Sydney boy, first trip ever to Melbourne was 2016 GF.

Im a North Sydney Bears supporter, have not watched NRL since the 90s after what the NRL did to us.

I dont have it in me to say to South Melbourne supporters you have no team, it is cruel. Some people are emotionally heavily invested in their team.
 
I don’t know if this is appropriate, but I really don’t like the South Melbourne connection and therefore hate the “Bloods” name. It denied us a first premiership in 2006, because apparently SM won it in the past. The thing is, I have no connection to South Melbourne. I just don’t care that there was a team named “Swans” there. I like our Swans solely because they’re a Sydney team. I love when we stick it to those Victorian weirdos at their own game.

I now realise I’m almost alone in this and most Swans fans are migrants from Melbourne. Are there even any true blue Swans supporters here who aren’t Melbourne expats?

Me.

I was a toddler/small child in Perth watching the tail end of Plugger's career. No idea that he was the greatest goalkicker of all time. No idea he had played for St Kilda. No idea that this red and white team I was obsessed with had it's origins in Victoria. I was oblivious to it all, I just had a natural love for the club pretty much from infancy, like it was inevitable. So I am a "true blue" Swans supporter in your eyes.

But as I got older, and heard stories from my grandfather who, despite being an Eagle since he moved to Perth, used to watch Bobby Skilton half a dozen or so times a year try his guts out in a South Melbourne side that wasn't much good, I realised that I was one of the lucky ones. And so are you. Because we fell into a club that had made it out of a whole lot of struggles. We didn't have to watch as our team struggled on field year after year. We just got to enjoy a fully-functioning club because our birth certificates afforded it to us. The reason we are that fully-functioning club, is because of the people at our club who fought for us to survive and persevere so that people like you and I could be as lucky as we are, so that we could enjoy the club as it currently is, as opposed to supporting a club like Carlton that is in a permanent state of rabble. Or worse, we could have folded, and there would be no Swans. Who knows.

Point is, I understand you just may not 'get' the connection, but it's there, and it's very real, and the "true blue" supporters IMO are the ones who dealt with all they had to deal with and stayed faithful while others, like my own grandfather, jumped ship when the going got tough or when better alternatives arrived. You or I may not have lived any of it, but surely we can respect the contributions of those true blue supporters who helped this club survive by continuing to preserve the South Melbourne part of our history.

(Sorry about the rant but your last paragraph did kinda invite someone like myself chiming in.)
 

Ed_Gein

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This is some underground potlitical subversion type tactic into brainwashing the masses that South Melbourne didn't exist!!! Fight back!!!! Don't let them come for us!!! First they come after our history, then our membership cards, then our Premierships!!! #WeWillNotBeErased #BloodsForLife #1874 #SMFC
 

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RobbieK

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You might not care that the club was based in South Melbourne before it was based in Sydney. You might not feel any connection to South Melbourne.

But that doesn't change the fact that the club was originally based in South Melbourne and that connection continues to this day.

We are the Bloods, whether you like it or not.

I'll say here that I was born and raised in Sydney, never lived in Melbourne, my family aren't from Melbourne, I grew up supporting the Swans because they were my local team. But I acknowledge and respect that the club didn't just appear out of nowhere in 1982, it has a history that stretches long before that. I really don't understand why anyone would find that problematic.
 
Me.

I was a toddler/small child in Perth watching the tail end of Plugger's career. No idea that he was the greatest goalkicker of all time. No idea he had played for St Kilda. No idea that this red and white team I was obsessed with had it's origins in Victoria. I was oblivious to it all, I just had a natural love for the club pretty much from infancy, like it was inevitable. So I am a "true blue" Swans supporter in your eyes.

But as I got older, and heard stories from my grandfather who, despite being an Eagle since he moved to Perth, used to watch Bobby Skilton half a dozen or so times a year try his guts out in a South Melbourne side that wasn't much good, I realised that I was one of the lucky ones. And so are you. Because we fell into a club that had made it out of a whole lot of struggles. We didn't have to watch as our team struggled on field year after year. We just got to enjoy a fully-functioning club because our birth certificates afforded it to us. The reason we are that fully-functioning club, is because of the people at our club who fought for us to survive and persevere so that people like you and I could be as lucky as we are, so that we could enjoy the club as it currently is, as opposed to supporting a club like Carlton that is in a permanent state of rabble. Or worse, we could have folded, and there would be no Swans. Who knows.

Point is, I understand you just may not 'get' the connection, but it's there, and it's very real, and the "true blue" supporters IMO are the ones who dealt with all they had to deal with and stayed faithful while others, like my own grandfather, jumped ship when the going got tough or when better alternatives arrived. You or I may not have lived any of it, but surely we can respect the contributions of those true blue supporters who helped this club survive by continuing to preserve the South Melbourne part of our history.

(Sorry about the rant but your last paragraph did kinda invite someone like myself chiming in.)
👍 Great post Caesar, says it all really. 👍
 

Tedeski

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Sydney boy, first trip ever to Melbourne was 2016 GF.

Im a North Sydney Bears supporter, have not watched NRL since the 90s after what the NRL did to us.

I dont have it in me to say to South Melbourne supporters you have no team, it is cruel. Some people are emotionally heavily invested in their team.

They tried disassociating themselves from South Melbourne around the time just before Barassi came on board & thought it would have been a great idea to ditch the red & white for the NSW Blue. It was the ONLY time I considered not signing as a member & wrote a letter to the club warning that with just my family alone, they would have 4 less "old" South Melbourne members. I remember Kelvin Templeton being there as CEO & he sent us a letter some time later reassuring us that in no way would they go down that path & not only that, they would embrace the past.

Well that now translates to 9 signed up members every season on one of the more expensive m'ships where we get little value for money, but that's not the point for us. This is not directed at you mtooler, but if any Sydney based supporter comes up with trash about this topic while the stands in Sydney have plummeted to crows of 25,000 because we are suddenly losing after 20 years, then have a look at the crowd at the MCG yesterday of 60,000 between a Vic side & an interstate side. I went to see the Pies v Hawks the night before & they only attracted 65,000, when they boast about having 130,000- 140,000 members between them.

I can come up with a fair argument that us Melbourne based supporters may be the ones that keep the candle from going out through these lean years, until the "winners only" Sydney based supporters are ready to jump on the wagon laden with gold again, when they can see bright skies.

But I won't!:cool:
 
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Resisted responding to the OP when I first read it. Both Tedeski and Caesar (both crazy bastards) nailed it from different perspectives of geography and history.

There is just something about the red and the white. Our colours and our history of playing against the odds.

My last cricket clubs adage was "Win nervously, lose tragically". It is also apt for our mob.

Sitting behind the goals yesterday at the G, after trundling past our old stand which is the one remnant of our old Lake Oval, I was as nervous and expectant as a kid.

Of a decent sized crowd, our mob constituted a third. There were heaps of kids decked in red and white, many wearing the fabulous 14 with a couple sporting 37.

Our mob was raucous. I am still hoarse this morning.

Yep we are a two city team. Have several old Lion mates, a couple of whom still struggle to support the Br'ions.

Yesterday there was the usual polite acknowledgement of Bedford's cheer squad call of "Sydney, Sydney". The bulk of our crowd shouted, "Carn the BLOODS".
 
Every club has history we are more than the City and suburb we are and were based in

We can be a national heck even global team

But I am proud to learn the history of the club
 
So tell us.
Are you taking up the North offer? ;)

Lol. There was an "a" in there Ted. All the tea in China could not persuade me to go to Norf. I even avoid driving through the suburb.
 

Kapanis

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Could've been the Sydney Kangaroos, think about that a little. #lolsydney. Be thankful to be connected to such a great club and history, that coming from a Sydney sider born and raised who couldn't care less if Melbourne disappeared of the face of the earth, the rest of Victoria can stay.
 

Kapanis

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Sydney boy, first trip ever to Melbourne was 2016 GF.

Im a North Sydney Bears supporter, have not watched NRL since the 90s after what the NRL did to us.

I dont have it in me to say to South Melbourne supporters you have no team, it is cruel. Some people are emotionally heavily invested in their team.
What happened to the Bears was a disgrace, engineered by a manly man who was also the head of the NRL.
 
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