First KP experience

[FredLeDeux]

Family tradition has it that my first game was in Round 1, 1949, when we thrashed Melbourne.
My cousin and I went with our mothers (obviously) and fathers.
Neither of us could ever remember anything about the game.
Mainly because neither of us were born until 7-10 days later.

 

[Down at K Park]

You know when you ran onto the ground that it was actually goal 1001?

Yeah but that was only discovered recently when someone noticed gazzas hawk teammate got credited for one of gazzas goals. In theory it was the previous goal a few minutes earlier that was his 1000th. But no one knew that at the time.

 

[catempire]

Mainly because neither of us were born until 7-10 days later.

When my daughter asks when her first game was I tell her: “2009 Grand Final, in utero”.

 

[Willo_]

I remember another footy experience at KP, i was 16 I reckon.. We went to Geelong Swans, maybe 99? Got there early, had a spot in the standing room that was next to the old Hickey stand.. Some people came and offered us seats (me, a mate, my pa and youngest brother) but they were filling out the cheer squad.. So we sat right in the middle of the cheer squad and thought it was amazing

(for the record we lost, the swans have always loved KP i reckon, Sando kicked a lovely running goal to our end on the back of about 4 bounces down the wing though)


How times change haha, now I'd have to be paid to go near those nuff nuffs

 

[Partridge]

Rd 15 1992 vs Bulldogs

1 vs 2

Cats won by 9pts

The toilets were concrete blocks with a porcelain hole in the middle.

They sold UDLs at the ground.

It may have been cold.

It was fondly known as the "Polar Bear Enclosure".

 

[TheMenz Gallery]

As a young fella growing up in the Western District I didn’t get to see any AFL so was pretty excited when Dad’s local had organised a bus trip to Melbourne for the lads to go to any game they wanted.

Was also disappointed when we got there and I found out I wouldn’t be watching the Cats take on the Hawks at Waverley because by the time we got back to the CBD we would have missed the bus back home. It was one of the few times we beat the Hawks in the eighties and would have been the only chance to see the Jacko show.

Instead I had to watch the Pies v Blues at Vic Park, a game if it was played in my own backyard I would pull the blinds down so I didn’t have to watch it.

It took me a few years to get over it but then dad totally redeemed himself. We moved to Geelong in 87 and I haven’t missed many home games since.

The earliest memories I have are watching Robert Scott’s shot from about 50m, after the siren against the Swans hit the post.

But the memory that sticks out the most was walking up the race after training one night and having all the players looking at me, if to say “ I don’t think you should be here young fella but I’m not going to be the one to tell you”. After about 5 mins I took the hint and left but not before I had enough time to watch Gaz snr and the Pres, Bruce Lindner standing about 10m apart kicking the ball as hard as they can at each other, trying to make the other one drop it. Gaz snr was doing it easy, pulling them in under the armpit, one handed.

A lot of great memories of growing up around KP and now I’m a Dad, I’m looking forward to help my two young boys build their own memories.

 

[Max Milburn]

I remember it but don't think I ever did it. And wasn't it after the 2nd siren?

Yeah. The kids would all line up at the fences ready to leap over as soon as the second siren went. It was also a chance to grab an autograph from any player slow to leave the ground, but I'd always head straight to a mounted cop so I could pat the horse.

 

[Shell]

Yeah. The kids would all line up at the fences ready to leap over as soon as the second siren went. It was also a chance to grab an autograph from any player slow to leave the ground, but I'd always head straight to a mounted cop so I could pat the horse.

Aw the horses!!!! Loved the horses at the footy

 

[DAlembert]

Ok bit of a sentimental post.

On saturday my family and I went to our first game at KP. It’s a 10 hour drive from home and I work weekends so it’s always logistically impossible to get down there.

I need to preface this by saying we have been having a few marital problems - my own doing - and life has been fvkken sh!t but we promised the kids - one of whom is a cats tragic like his dad - that we would go so we did.

Just for a day we were in heaven. Yeah it was ball-freezingly cold and wet but it was an awesome experience, totally unlike any sporting event I’ve been to. The vendors outside the ground, the gift shop, the brass band were absolutely awesome and the game day experience was just brilliant. My boy got given a ball signed by Cam Guthrie afterwards and the smile still hasn’t left his face despite everything going on.

You guys who live down there and get to experience it regularly are bloody lucky. It was something I’ll never forget.

My first day at KP was stand behind the goals at the River end. Watched Wade kick a couple over our heads and worked out that if we wanted a football we would stay on other side of fence and if Doug marked 10/20 Yards out a ball would clear fence. That was how we got our first TW Sherrin. The smiles on our faces as we raced home with our footy was something to behold...tks Doug Violet crumble and a can of coke for 1 and 6 at half time ...special. oh the memories. It was probably cold but we had our duffel coats on and autograph books in our pockets. Magic days indeed.

 

[cats_09]

My first game at KP was a practice match between Geelong and Footscray and I'm pretty sure Gavin Excell was playing which would make it 1991. I don't remember much about the game other than standing in the Ablett Terrace. My dad had a social club membership & being a bratty kid with a short attention span I didn't get to go to h&a games with him - so that was the only game we attended together.

My first serious game was the 1995 grand final - needless to say I'm happy to forget all about that match. This is still the only game I've ever attended with my mum - she hasn't been back to an AFL game since, lol

 

[Mac Cat]

I’ve always been a long distance supporter, first Tasmania and now Newcastle. I’ve supported the Cats since 1980 but didnt see my first game at KP ‘till 2004. It was a good one though and interesting in light of our game on the weekend. We beat Brisbane. It was a great season where we started emerging as a real good side. That game showed we were becoming a real deal. I can still hear the ‘clunk’ of Jonathan Brown marking in front of me.

 

[Shell]

Jesus that blows cats_09 . My first game was a loss too but at least a. It wasn't a GF and b. Ablett kicked 14.

 

[DAlembert]

I was 9 and the crowd at KP was 35000 +. First game of the season against Collingwood. I really don't think I saw much of the game but the atmosphere was electric. I dodged around trying to see. Yep 1967. The Cats got up by 1 Point on an after the siren kick by Bill Ryan. Think he might have had two goes at it after ??? Terry Waters ran over the mark. I think if you look up the records there wasn't a crowd over 23000 for the rest of the season. Obviously C'Wood lost the GF by 1 Point ag. StKilda in the GF 1966. Remember going up into Social Club where dad was a member. Being waste high or so in a huge throng of excited Geelong supporters drinking those pissy little 7 ounce glasses. It was a long wait never went up there with the old man again. Preferred to walk home.

 

[aCunningPlan]

Went along to the first night game at KP as a neutral at the time. I was blown away by how incredible the ground was, how much passion was in the stands, and how football was genuinely celebrated. That Gary Ablett goal for the Suns from the boundary was pretty impressive.
I just fell in love with the place and signed up as a Geelong member the following year. I head down at least five or six times a year, I hate going to Melbourne.

 

[goyoucatters]

Born and bred in Brisbane, I am just about the quintessential Cats exile.

My Dad's family came out from the U.K. in 1952 and first settled in the migrant camp at North Geelong. Dad was 10 years old. And it was, of course, a very good time to discover football and the mighty Cats.

Moving to Brisbane in late '63 (after watching the boys triumph over the Hawks in the GF), he's lived here in Queensland ever since. And thus I've loved the hoops from afar for a VERY long time. Had watched as many games as possible on the TV over the journey. 'The Winners' was my favourite TV show. That 'Belmont Timbers' advertising hoarding is etched into my memory. But I had never visited what was for me the home of football as I moved into my twenties.

Till, in Easter 1996, my cousin decided to get married in Horsham. This led to my sister and I planning to drive all the way there to be part of it all. And the dream of finally visiting the hallowed turf was alive...

As the wedding fell on a weekend, there was no chance to actually go to a game on the trip. But we swung by Kardinia Park late on a Thursday afternoon on the way to our destination. We ended up being too late to watch the boys training that day. But I will never forget standing at the back of the old Brownlow and looking down on a place I felt I had always loved. More than that, a place to which I felt I belonged. And a place that belonged to me.

I might have been there for all of 15 minutes drinking it in before my sister reminded me that we still had some distance to drive that night. Even so, over twenty years on, they are still some of the richest and sweetest memories of my entire life. It really did feel like...home.

And it's always felt the same way since. Have seen a dozen games at the venue, first getting to a match there in '99. Some humbling losses (like the 15.3 to 12.18 'Ricciuto unleashed' match against the Crows in 2002) and some electrifying wins (take the record-equalling 11.7 in a third quarter against the Power in 2010, as an example).

But even with all the incredible advances in how our stadium looks today, it still feels like the same place I fell in love with all those years ago. And all the complete strangers I see there decked out in their blue and white best seem like my family. It's a sense of belonging I'm sure will continue for the rest of my life.

And it's now an experience that my boy is connecting to as well. He's been to our footy home a few times (first as a babe in arms to 'see' Blakey set the crowd alight with his first two goals in the AFL), and several times since as well. Three generations of Catters have looked down on our boys on a number of our recent trips there. And I know how much that means to my Dad and to me.

In the end, I understand it is just a game. But the club, its home and its players will always be so much more than that to me.

And I know I'm not alone here when I say that.

#itsalwaysthehoops

 

[Cuzz09]

Sorry to intrude.

Just wanted to say my first trip to KP I got a bus from Adelaide got in at 7am, waited til like 1130am at Spencer St station (the old VLine area) I was dog tired. Got into Geelong an hr or 2 before the game.

It was 1998 and Wooshas 200th.

It was windy as anything and signs were blowing off the fence and areas of the ground had to be evacuated.

I stood on the gravel behind the goals at one end.

Had a steaming runny Beaumonts pie.

Was a weird, low scoring game but was awesome to see us win down there.

Ok bye


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[DAlembert]

Sorry to intrude.

Just wanted to say my first trip to KP I got a bus from Adelaide got in at 7am, waited til like 1130am at Spencer St station (the old VLine area) I was dog tired. Got into Geelong an hr or 2 before the game.

It was 1998 and Wooshas 200th.

It was windy as anything and signs were blowing off the fence and areas of the ground had to be evacuated.

I stood on the gravel behind the goals at one end.

Had a steaming runny Beaumonts pie.

Was a weird, low scoring game but was awesome to see us win down there.

Ok bye


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Beaumont's Pies were never runny..you had some other pie!

 

[Spazz Cat]

Beaumont's Pies were never runny..you had some other pie!

Agree

 

[Cuzz09]

Was 100% Beaumonts.

Maybe a bad batch?
Maybe the guy saw my Eagles scarf and shit in it?
Maybe I was so early the pies werent ready and they nuked it?
Maybe Im over thinking this?

[emoji16]

Was good pie.

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[Max Milburn]

Beaumont's Pies were never runny..you had some other pie!

Uh no. Definitely confirming Cuzz's experience here.
Beaumont's were seriously like hot lava.
We had them at school as well (Our Lady's in the late 60s), and many of us suffered 3rd degree burns at lunch time as they disintegrated in our hands.
Delicious, but deadly.

 

[DAlembert]

Uh no. Definitely confirming Cuzz's experience here.
Beaumont's were seriously like hot lava.
We had them at school as well (Our Lady's in the late 60s), and many of us suffered 3rd degree burns at lunch time as they disintegrated in our hands.
Delicious, but deadly.

They definitely shat in the ones that went to Our Lady's...think they must have over heated them. NEVER had one like you describe.

 

[Max Milburn]

They definitely shat in the ones that went to Our Lady's...think they must have over heated them. NEVER had one like you describe.

Mate, I'm lucky to still be alive.

 

[Spazz Cat]

Uh no. Definitely confirming Cuzz's experience here.
Beaumont's were seriously like hot lava.
We had them at school as well (Our Lady's in the late 60s), and many of us suffered 3rd degree burns at lunch time as they disintegrated in our hands.
Delicious, but deadly.

My vast experience of Beamonts were never runny but chunky with big lumps of grissle and veins (their trademark)
I suppose any pie is hot if you heat it up for long enough.
Gillies were quite runny and could cause burns if eaten incorrectly.

 

[Max Milburn]

My vast experience of Beamonts were never runny but chunky with big lumps of grissle and veins (their trademark)
I suppose any pie is hot if you heat it up for long enough.
Gillies were quite runny and could cause burns if eaten incorrectly.

Maybe it was Gillies at Our Lady's then?
Always assumed it was Beaumonts.
Mmmm. The gristle/vein thing has also brought back repressed gag reflexes.

BTW, I assume by "incorrectly" you mean simply biting into one!

 

[The rabbi]

Many years later an amazing memory was standing in the same spot by the race, on the wing, and it was nearly the bleakest day ever, absolutely drenching rain, but we endured it, and witnessed a famous win against NM.
The highlight was a running goal from Ian Nankervis, all the way from BP, and he must have placed the ball on the ground 5x. NM hardly scored. Bit like last weekend.

Vdubs, was that game in 1980?
I remember being on the Moorabool street side wing at that game and I was absolutely freezing my extremities off.
It was bitterly cold and the rain was driving down.
Ian Nankervis was BOG if I recall correctly.
I must admit that it is the only game that I have left before the siren. I left around half time.
I, as a rule, stay at the game regardless of whether we are winning by 100+ or losing by the same margin.
I walked home to Thomson and was glad to change out of soaking wet clothes and stand by the fire.