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

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

I might get barred from my own board but I started off as a cat. I still remember asking my Dad if I could change teams because Geelong weren't great in the mid 80s. I flirted with being a Dees fan but changed to Hawthorn at qtr time in the 1988 GF and its stuck ever since.

Brave

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

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).

That's the thing if you live outside Victoria. I grew up an Aussie Rules fan in NSW. My primary support as a youngster was Glenelg but also the Hawks in the VFL. When I moved to Sydney I could never take a shine to the Swans because of the elitist Edelsten thing at the time.

When the Giants came along everything clicked into place.

 

[Benny78]

Germans

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Never followed a team in the VFL growing up and to be honest knew little about the VFL, WAFL was footballs king in Perth and West Perth were the be all and end all for me in football.
Started taking an interest in the VFL in the late 70’s when The Winners was on tv every Sunday night, watching how the WA boys went.

Was a no brainer to follow the Eagles as they were from WA. West Perth will always be my number one club and the Eagles are my AFL club, attend both the WAFL and the AFL and are members of both clubs.

 

[DockerLoz]

Half the family were East Perth supporters, I was in the other half who supported South Freo. While I do remember going for the Eagles in the early 90s I wouldn't say I was a massive fan. When Freo came along I was of the age where I had started to care a bit more about AFL, plus the South Freo connection also, and since then it has been a bloody painful journey but I'm purple all the way, as are the rest of my family aside from my brother who jumped to the Bulldogs a few years ago and now gets to rub a premiership in our faces... bastard

 

[Chaisa]

Lived all my life in Sydney, whole family supports them. Obvious choice.

 

[The_Flying_Egg]

I was forced to go for the Doggies. I am a 5th generation Doggie on my fathers side, dating back to the 19th century VFA days

 

[Ocha905]

Changed clubs plenty of times up until I was 5. Dad tried to make me a Bomber and have a few photos wearing a Darren Bewick jumper. I wouldn't covert although I have a soft spot for them. Anyway a random Adelaide v North match was on TV in 1997 and decided to support whoever won the match. North got up and for once I stuck fat.

 

[footyfan1978]

Fun thread to read.
God, so many of you people are vanilla in simply going for a team you parents went for. ZZZZZZ

These are more interesting readings:

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.

Good reasons. Respect your path to picking a team.

My uncle won 3 flags and captained the club.

Fair enough. A direct club connection is always a good enough choice.

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!!!

Like the unique path to finding your own team. Builds character vanilla types will never experience.

Dad went for the Pies, Grandad went for the Pies.
I guess that meant I should go for the Pies

Vanilla reasons but like your blunt acceptance of being vanilla. Can respect your honesty of outing your own vanillaness.

Daddy barracked for them

Pissweak reason.

I was born in Perth in the 1980s.

Another vanilla reason but least you honest.

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.

So much character here. Respect your path.

View attachment 605091

Using a different side of brain to make a club choice. Respect.

I received a vision from Vlad in a dream.

Fair enuff. You do not have to share if in this dream your were Vlad's gimp.

A deep psychological reason: I liked Essendon colours as a kid.

Colours is more than fair enough reasons.

Giving my age away. Grew up in Geelong at a time when Polly Farmer, Billy Goggin, Doug Wade, Alistair Lord, Bill Ryan et al ruled the roost. How could I follow any other club?

Fair enuff.

Growing up in the area where I live it was a choice between Carlton Collingwood or Fitzroy all my family are Collingwood Carlton or Essendon supporters so I went against the grain when Fitzroy merged with Brisbane I followed them to Brisbane

An individual with a path of character. Good reasons.

Dad was an East Freo fan & he never really took to the Eagles - he said (and I'm paraphrasing) "I used to love watching the individual stars they had on display and seeing the greats from the Hawks, Essendon and Geelong teams of the late 80s/90s come to WA, but not them as a team".

He was one of the many WAFL fans that saw the Eagles nail another coffin of the WAFL - plus a lot of Freo based players ended up at the Eagles, too

When Freo came along it seemed natural to follow them. Little did we know the club wouldn't really immitate the past success of both the Freo based clubs in WAFL

You stuck fat with your choice. Good enough for me.

Came to Perth in 2013 to check out the city we might move to from the UK. Landed three hours after the prelim against Sydney had finished and left 3 hours before the grand final bounced down. The whole six days was a festival of purple across Perth and we go caught up in the excitement. Was really sad to see they had lost by the time we got back to the UK.

Having decided to move here, we then thought it would be great to go to some games - and we could only get tickets for Dockers games at Subi. Since then two things have cemented my love for Freo:

1) being a lifetime fan of Ipswich Town and English Cricket, supporting a team that is success starved and always has a few 'what if...' stories up their sleeves makes supporting the Dockers feel like slipping on a pair of comfortable shoes.

2) spending time with Eagles fans just reaffirms we chose the right WA team to support. I actually went for West Coast in the 2015 grand final, but after five years of suffering abuse for my choice to follow the Dockers I was behind the Pies all the way last year (both of which also go to show how much I seem to instinctively align with the losing team)

Fair enough. You lose credibility a little in being behind Pies on grand final day but given your short journey so far you can be forgiven in not realising so much more fun to enjoy them done again in another grand final. You won't make that mistake again. Good luck on your Freo journey. Hope you see some flag in your life.

I moved when I was 8 years old from Sweden to Melbourne around 1973.
Didn’t know anything about the game but it was talked at school at the time and I was expected to pick a team.

Clueless my dad suggested Footscray because he worked near there. So I picked the dogs.

My next door neighbor got me to pick Essendon and that is what I told the kids at school around 1974. Still had not seen a game though.

Footy Cards was all the rage and when I saw the Fitzroy jumper I got a buzzy feeling, I loved that jumper (maroon at the time). I’m sure Lions would have been my team if not for the fateful day when walking home from school where I wore a t-shirt from Sweden that had a tiger in the middle and my name above it (lame-haha). So anyway I meet a kid and he looks at my shirt and says are you a Tigers fan? And I say yeah!

So next Monday at school the kids teased me about Essendon disgraceful performance. I told them I barracked for Richmond and they went ape, calling me turncoat, you just can’t pick the top team when you feel like it.

I then started taking a little more interest and was exited hearing the 1974 Grand Final on radio.

It wasn’t till 1975 that my dad and me went to our first game. Richmond vs Essendon at the MCG and we were hooked and thereafter attended all Tigers home games + VFL Park games (we lived in Glen Waverly). We also attended a few away games.

But I’m pretty sure I would have been a Fitzroy fan if it wasn’t for that fateful day.

Proof in the pudding was when saw the Lions taking on the Tigers at the Junction Oval in 1981 and would dettimine a Finals spot. I was secretly barracking for the Lions and my dad got irate as I was’t my usually sooky self.

1982 we moved to Sydney and could only go to Swans games. From 1983-1989 I followed Sydney (which felt wrong as South Melbourne a kind of don’t care about team - no love, nor hate).

But in 1989 when I moved back to Sweden it was Richmond again (secretly Fitzroy as well)

The Lions not making the Grand Final in 1983 still bugs me, and them loosing their license in 1997 is heartbreaking.

Now it’s 100% Richmond.
Try to have a soft spot for Brisbane - but it’s not Fitzroy.

FMD, such a wishy washy, pleasing others story, and not owning your own choices. No backbone, at least not vanilla path but still just weak and Richmond deserve types like you.

I just really, really like rebuilds

ha ha, sick *.

Effectively baptised as a baby in the bar under the old South Melbourne grandstand so there was no escape from supporting the Bloods through their many travails in the subsequent decades.

Fair enuff.

Half the family were East Perth supporters, I was in the other half who supported South Freo. While I do remember going for the Eagles in the early 90s I wouldn't say I was a massive fan. When Freo came along I was of the age where I had started to care a bit more about AFL, plus the South Freo connection also, and since then it has been a bloody painful journey but I'm purple all the way, as are the rest of my family aside from my brother who jumped to the Bulldogs a few years ago and now gets to rub a premiership in our faces... bastard

Character but so sad in only grand final, they looked nothing like purple.

I was forced to go for the Doggies. I am a 5th generation Doggie on my fathers side, dating back to the 19th century VFA days

Usually those just going for team family follows is a sign of weakness but as it goes as far back as to VFA days, for some reason it tickles my fancy as some substance. Got no idea why but I like it. Heritage that far back is worth holding onto I guess.

 

[AvantGardener]

Changed between Pies and Swans early on due to my parents but settled on Carlton after the 99 Prelim victory over Essendon.

 

[ThatsjustDappa]

Fun thread to read.
God, so many of you people are vanilla in simply going for a team you parents went for. ZZZZZZ

These are more interesting readings:



Good reasons. Respect your path to picking a team.



Fair enough. A direct club connection is always a good enough choice.



Like the unique path to finding your own team. Builds character vanilla types will never experience.

Vanilla reasons but like your blunt acceptance of being vanilla. Can respect your honesty of outing your own vanillaness.

Pissweak reason.

Another vanilla reason but least you honest.


So much character here. Respect your path.



Using a different side of brain to make a club choice. Respect.

Fair enuff. You do not have to share if in this dream your were Vlad's gimp.

Colours is more than fair enough reasons.
Fair enuff.

An individual with a path of character. Good reasons.
You stuck fat with your choice. Good enough for me.
Fair enough. You lose credibility a little in being behind Pies on grand final day but given your short journey so far you can be forgiven in not realising so much more fun to enjoy them done again in another grand final. You won't make that mistake again. Good luck on your Freo journey. Hope you see some flag in your life.
FMD, such a wishy washy, pleasing others story, and not owning your own choices. No backbone, at least not vanilla path but still just weak and Richmond deserve types like you.
ha ha, sick ****.

Fair enuff.

Character but so sad in only grand final, they looked nothing like purple.


Usually those just going for team family follows is a sign of weakness but as it goes as far back as to VFA days, for some reason it tickles my fancy as some substance. Got no idea why but I like it. Heritage that far back is worth holding onto I guess.

Taking the piss out of other posters stories, yep confirmed Carlton supporter

 

[Blue and Silver]

Patrilineal tradition.

 

[Carson Dial]

Em ok why not just say your Dad supported them?

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

Em ok why not just say your Dad supported them?

Sharpening up your googling skills?

 

[Carson Dial]

Sharpening up your googling skills?

No. You?

 

[Blue and Silver]

Em ok why not just say your Dad supported them?

I did.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Carson Dial]

Lol

 

[Colonial]

Born and raised in league territory(MtDruitt)
Hate what league had become and what my club, 4th gen Balmain, had become.

Decided to follow the Giants as my team in the AFL when they were formed as something to look in on or answer as if asked.

It quickly changed.

Going to all those early training and fan sessions and games watching us grow made me fall for the club and the sport.

Now this once was League fan is now more an Aussie Rules fan than any other sport.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[DEVO]

Back in 1976 my parents bought their first colour television to watch the Olympics. One weekend I watched my first ever game of VFL, which turned out to be the Grand Final between North Melbourne and Hawthorn. I chose to support North Melbourne because the Hawthorn uniform looked to much like my baby sisters soiled nappies. Disgusting.

 

[Coaster2012]

*shrugs

Born in Subi the first year WC were in the comp.

 

[Scotland]

Another vanilla reason but least you honest.

If I was a bit older or a bit younger I may have landed on a different path.

I was pretty much born into the AFL era starting up and WA having one team. I went for Swans because the old man went for Swans and I went for WC because the old man went for WC. When WC won the 1992 GF I was 8, 1994 I was 10. I have a few memories of 1990/91 and went to my first game in 1992. It rained, I wasn't undercover, we lost by a point.

A few years older and I might have followed a VFL team and a WAFL team and stuck with my VFL team (probably Essendon or Footscray with Baker and Rance) even with the Eagles coming in. A few years younger and I would've been primary school age (when most kids choose) when WC and Freo were both in. Might have chosen Freo as the shiny new thing or the underdog, or even got on board with North or Adelaide who were good in the mid to late 90s. I don't really see myself growing up in Perth and going for a team from Melbourne, though. Not like watching the NBA or EPL or the tennis or whatever and just going for whichever teams/players I liked.

 

[Engimal v3]

Dad fell in love with Malcolm Blight as a kid and brainwashed all us kids. One of my middle names is even "Carey", thanks to my older, equally as brainwashed brother getting an opportunity to pick one of my middle names.

 

[footyfan1978]

If I was a bit older or a bit younger I may have landed on a different path.

A few years older and I might have followed a VFL team and a WAFL team and stuck with my VFL team (probably Essendon or Footscray with Baker and Rance)

Baker, Terry Daniher and Van der haar are best thing that ever happened to Essendon. Could almost respect the club when had such guys. Worst thing Hird, Dank and Thompson.

 

[windyhill]

Dad. No option. Missed five since 1973.

 

[Bastyy]

Honestly no idea. 4 year old me was watching the 2006 finals series I think? Maybe it was late in the season because I think we won that game, but Pav kicked a bag and I really liked the purple and I've followed them since.

Pav was my idol during primary school and in prep we had to write about someone we admired and I wrote about Pav, Mum wouldn't let me send it to the Dockers HQ