How did you come to support the team you um....support?

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MiPiG

Debutant
Dec 31, 2018
55
38
Somewhere near Cologne, Germany
AFL Club
Fremantle
While I guess most people in Melbourne have the same team from day 1, some of us who support the interstate teams have had to make a dramatic choice. Do you continue with your old team or do you support the new team? For example, where do GWS supporters come from? Were you just supporting lower league local teams without a care in the world for the AFL or did you jump ship from a team you chose as a youngster?

I supported the Swans when I was a kid, mostly because it was the only full match they played on TV, so why the hell not? I seem to recall my school friends jummping on the West Coast bandwagon when i was a kid, but they meant nothing to me, as I lived in Fremantle and Subiaco might as well have been on the moon. So I continued supporting the Swans. Untill the Fremantle Dockers came along. Then everything was right in the world and I forgot all about the Swans. Still gutted they never used the old Fremantle Oval as a venue (not logistically possible).
 

Topkent

Confirmed ITK Drafting King
Aug 29, 2010
61,058
84,969
Canada
AFL Club
Melbourne
Other Teams
Winnipeg Jets
Dad was a dees supporter but I actually liked the swans when I was a kid. Barracked for them in the 96 GF. Favourite players as a kid were Kelly, Maxwell, Oloughlin. But my real favourite was Big plugga. I was captivated by the bloke.

Ended up switching back to the dees when I was ~8 when I watched them belt the swans by about 80 points one day.

Red an Blue through and through now
 

DashinD

All Australian
Sep 5, 2015
624
1,628
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
I grew up in Brisbane watching the ugly, thuggish sport of Rugby League. Lots of people who didn't give a rats tossbag about Aussie Rules jumped on the Lions in the early 2000s. Most jumped off and went back to League. I'm a masochist though. I also fell in love with the best game in the world.
 

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Marc_Remillard

Maderator
Jan 4, 2015
6,783
7,711
AFL Club
Melbourne
Brainwashed by my dad when I was little (/sigh) but we also have a family member in our team of the century so I guess it's in my blood. This is showing my age but in my early years of primary school Robbie Flower used to come to our school and run clinics as well.

I've watched most of my mates see their team win a premiership, but I've never considered changing teams, it would be nice tho.... I think it's something that we don't have a lot of control over with which team you support, it just happens. I really enjoyed watching the Eagles back in the early 90's but they were never my team. Our group of mates also used to go to the 'G just to watch Ablett snr play, a demon, couple of Roos and a pies fan going to see Ablett absolutely poleaxe the Tigers. We didn't really care about the result.
 

Reakts97

Senior List
Dec 5, 2018
188
222
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
76ers
As strange as it sounds my dad was a port supporter and almost encouraged me to follow to crows, i think he enjoys the rivalry and made showdowns better. Also winning the grand final about 10 days after i was born helps
 

dylan93

Club Legend
Mar 16, 2011
2,422
1,819
Melbourne
AFL Club
Melbourne
This is probably the 50th incarnation or so of a thread like this, but that's alright I enjoy telling this unique story.

I grew up in the Moonee Valley/Essendon area, so many people would assume a Anglo Aussie kid born in the early 90s of convict heritage would probably go for the Bombers... wrong!

I come from a family with quite varied teams being supported. Mum and majority of her family grew up in Carlton and as such go for the Blues. Dad supported Richmond with his father and uncle and used to attend games until he was around 10-12 years old when they stopped going (Dad says it's because players weren't playing for the jumper anymore, and started simply playing for the money). My father was at Essendon Primary School at the time, and switched to Collingwood to piss off the bulk of his school peers at the time. As for further extended family, we've got a bunch of family in Geelong who barrack for the Cats, my Nana goes for St. Kilda, etc, etc.

However, instead of brainwashing my brother and I into supporting Carlton/Collingwood/Richmond my parents gave my brother and I a scrapbook in 1996. They said to choose a mascot. As you can see in my display picture, I chose Melbourne. My brother chose the Brisbane Bears. They then went on to explain who in the family went for which team. I mean rude shock for my brother the following year when his team merged with Fitzroy and became the Brisbane Lions. My parents always tell me my brother was distraught he couldn't call them the Bears anymore. That's alright though, he actually went on to see some success in a few more years time.

So more about me. Never went to a game at all until about 2010 (Year 11), when a not so oney-eyed Essendon supporter friend of mine asked if I wanted to go watch Dees vs. Bombers. I went and we won by 19 points. I was rapt. I began attending more games between then and 2013 (2nd Year of Uni) and then thought bugger it, I'll sign up. Little did I know I'd bought a home and away (gen. admission) membership in what would turn out to be one of our worst years on record. Continued showing up rain, hail or shine. Have attended many a game of 100 point beltings and stayed until the very final siren.

In my 5th year as a member (2017), I could finally see the cogs were beginning to turn and knew that the club was continuously heading in a positive trajectory so thought I might as well up my membership and became a Trident member (cushy seat on level 2). Since then I have also attended interstate games in Adelaide and Brisbane, and this year I plan to get to the games in Sydney, Gold Coast and maybe Hobart towards the end of the season. Currently 2/2 wins from interstate trips too which is pretty awesome if you ask me. Also finally got a taste of finals footy in 2018, and even went into the ballot for GF tickets which we uhhh... know what happened there...

Either way, I'm bloody excited for what 2019 brings as we still seem to be on the up year after year. Team is looking solid, gelling really well and we even brought in some handy inclusions like May to bolster our backline so we stop leaking goals. Bring on 2019! Up the Demons!!!
 

Coach_Required

Norm Smith Medallist
Feb 19, 2008
9,695
28,219
Perth
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Liverpool & Boston Celtics
Dad took me to a Richmond v Carlton game in early 1982

and I wasnt going to support those w***ers wearing Navy Blue

What a s**t year
 

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May 13, 2006
8,963
7,300
Sunshine Coast
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Ford Cortina
A few of my former team mates got drafted to the Crows. Two of them had very good careers and Played in 97 and 98. Also, living in Adelaide at the time, it was pretty easy to follow the hype, especially when they thumped Hawthorn in Round one and Dermie got reported.
 

JPetro83

Premiership Player
Sep 25, 2014
4,815
3,371
Adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Sturt, Adel United & Leeds United
Simple really, at the end of 1990 I was 7 years old and talk around Adelaide and all over the news that there was a new team joining the AFL from SA. I instantly became interested and hooked.. it was hard not to as the hype of the Crows was everywhere... then by the time the Fosters cup started I remember my Dad taking us to the game against Geelong in Feb of 1991 at Footy park and from then I never looked back. 99% of my extended family are Port Magpie fans.. My Dad is a Sturt fan in the SANFL (so am I) which pretty much saved me from the darkside so it was only normal to support the Crows when they joined, Mum and the brothers became hooked as well. So ever since 91 we have been Crows members. The first number I had on my back in 1991 was number 17.. Scotty Hodges but by April 1993 the number 6 was stitched on my new larger size Guernsey.. MODRA!!! GOOD TIMES
 

SacksonvilleJags

Team Captain
May 14, 2018
548
618
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
I was born in Perth in the 1980s.

I was also born in Perth in the 1980s...but I don’t follow the eagles or freo (even tho I lived in freo when they became a team).
No one in my family supported a team or even watched footy. So I had no ties to any team.
We were pretty damn poor and lived in a car for several periods of my childhood. My dad’s friend gave us a sheet of stickers with all the footy teams with their cartoon mascot on them. My favourite animal was a lion so naturally I picked the Fitzroy lions sticker. Being how poor we were, my twin sister and I rarely had anything that we didn’t share, but this sticker, this was mine, all mine. Once I got a bit older (and we had tv) I started watching footy and getting into it. So I just stuck with the lions and followed them when they merged with the bears.
 
When I moved to Perth as a kid I quickly got into the footy through my dad’s work tipping competition. I was always going to pick a local team , but chose the Eagles over the Dockers in 2000 because of the following dubious reasons:
-I lived SOR in Docker territory but didn’t like the docker-supporting kids at my primary school
-Reading up on history , the eagles seemed a better cultural fit as I considered myself a snob.
-I had a crush on Ben Cousins
The rest is history :)
 

Macpotata

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 22, 2017
9,595
10,877
AFL Club
Geelong
anne hath.jpg
 

Macpotata

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 22, 2017
9,595
10,877
AFL Club
Geelong
I also like eating a meal. A succulent chinese meal. Which sometimes contains cat in it.
 

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