Poll: Docker supporter demographic

[ozzie69]

There is definitely an element of truth in the north vs south theory. While there are Freo supporters all over the country, you will definitely find a massive concentration of them in the greater Fremantle area. And that flows on to nearby areas (mostly south of the river) where people often have a history of some connection with the town of Freo through either having worked, lived, played or watched footy or merely spent significant time in Freo at some point in their lives.

West Coast supporters would be spread all over WA (predominantly) with a few less supporters in the Freo heartland. So you'd expect a significantly greater proportion of Freo supporters to live south, rather than north, whereas WCE supporters would be more evenly distributed.

It's evident when you catch a train to the footy from Freo. For Freo games the train is full by the time you hit Mosman park. For WCE games it fills up much more slowly as you get closer to the ground, particularly from Cottesloe onwards.

Certainly there is merit to the notion that a fair proportion of the southern population would be Fremantle supporters, I just question the corollary that the north is therefore WCE territory.

 

[Banker]

I feel there is more Eagle supporters than Freo ones simply because of our history. Success attracts fans and usually all the bandwagoners lol

I would guess most Freo fans come from Freo and south of the river. However, the more affluent suburbs SOR support the Eagles as I rarely met docker fans years back.

Before the Ross era the amount of crap one would get was endless, so I can see why many people would change their support to the Eagles.

 

[Tazmania]

I feel there is more Eagle supporters than Freo ones simply because of our history. Success attracts fans and usually all the bandwagoners lol

I would guess most Freo fans come from Freo and south of the river. However, the more affluent suburbs SOR support the Eagles as I rarely met docker fans years back.

Before the Ross era the amount of crap one would get was endless, so I can see why many people would change their support to the Eagles.

Yep give it a couple of years and it will change. The kids now want to support the dockers because they win. My daughter the other day said she likes the dockers and not the eagles because they win games and the eagles dont.

 

[sportsmaniac89]

Proud Victorian Freo supporter here. Have lived in Victoria my entire life.

 

[pavsbootlace]

Yep give it a couple of years and it will change. The kids now want to support the dockers because they win. My daughter the other day said she likes the dockers and not the eagles because they win games and the eagles dont.

I'm banking on it. My brother (Eagles supporter) took his son (my eldest nephew, first born boy in the family, 4 years old) to his first ever game of footy on Sunday. My bro claims the golden child will support the Eagles because he will go to watch the Eagles play as he grows up. I'm hoping watching the Eagles play will have the opposite effect. And, little do they know that I often have a spare ticket myself and more importantly, the boy's birthday present from me this year will be a sparkly new Dockers home guernsey with a great big 7 on the back. It's a foolproof plan... Mwahahahahaaaa!

 

[Purpletown]

Regional Victoria are not pulling their weight with no BF members voting from that region. Moe locals must all be off spending the GST bonanza from WA on Collingwood jumpers and Tats.

 

[Moo]

My boys jr footy is dominated by Freo jumpers now.

 

[MadMac]

There is definitely an element of truth in the north vs south theory. While there are Freo supporters all over the country, you will definitely find a massive concentration of them in the greater Fremantle area. And that flows on to nearby areas (mostly south of the river) where people often have a history of some connection with the town of Freo through either having worked, lived, played or watched footy or merely spent significant time in Freo at some point in their lives.

West Coast supporters would be spread all over WA (predominantly) with a few less supporters in the Freo heartland. So you'd expect a significantly greater proportion of Freo supporters to live south, rather than north, whereas WCE supporters would be more evenly distributed.

It's evident when you catch a train to the footy from Freo. For Freo games the train is full by the time you hit Mosman park. For WCE games it fills up much more slowly as you get closer to the ground, particularly from Cottesloe onwards.

I agree with most of that, but Leeming and Bull Creek area is an Eagles heartland if there is one. You will struggle to find any Freo supporters there [just ask Palmer and Masten]. And that's south and pretty close proximity to Freo. Ellenbrook has them covered and it just about couldn't be further from Freo in the Metro area

 

[Nickos66]

Out near the Swan Valley so East I suppose.

I put North, north for this.

In some ways it's funny I go for Freo because I mostly dislike south of the river.

I'll also vouch for this - i've always been a northy since i've been in Perth (since I was 5). SoR smells funny.

 

[Allikat]

I'm one of those skewing the numbers because I've moved interstate. Voted for Melbourne, but I spent 18 years of my life barracking for Freo from North of the River (not north-north)

Regional Victoria are not pulling their weight with no BF members voting from that region. Moe locals must all be off spending the GST bonanza from WA on Collingwood jumpers and Tats.

I know 1 regional victorian fan! Don't know if they're a BF member though. I just sit with them at the footy some times.

 

[Schauermann]

Overseas.

But actually regional Victoria when I became a supporter.

 

[Bicco]

I'm banking on it. My brother (Eagles supporter) took his son (my eldest nephew, first born boy in the family, 4 years old) to his first ever game of footy on Sunday. My bro claims the golden child will support the Eagles because he will go to watch the Eagles play as he grows up. I'm hoping watching the Eagles play will have the opposite effect. And, little do they know that I often have a spare ticket myself and more importantly, the boy's birthday present from me this year will be a sparkly new Dockers home guernsey with a great big 7 on the back. It's a foolproof plan... Mwahahahahaaaa!

Give it to him now, the night before you take him to a game. He will be pumped, you'll steel their thunder if they have the same plan and even better, you'll be awesome for giving a gift outside of Christmas/Birthday.

 

[freoextra]

Proud Victorian Freo supporter here. Have lived in Victoria my entire life.

So what or who made you want to support Freo???

 

[beelzebob]

From freo but one of three dockers men in norway i know of

 

[Fred Ziffel]

That is a very bad article. The main reason both suburbs have the most supporters is because they have the highest populations. Canning Vale is just about the biggest suburb in Australia as they keep adding estates and won't break some of them off and call them a different suburb. It takes 15 minutes to drive from one side to the other.

We could just rezone everything from Freo to the freeway and the new training facility and call it Fremantle and it would fix up all the stats. It would also stop the cockburn jokes.

and Cockburn isn't even a location in the poll. I'm offended.

 

[Alfonz]

As an aside to the north v south stereotype, there's also the bogans/ferals stereotype that the Eagles supporters like to cast on Freo fans. I would think that some of the strongest WC heartlands would be in the Balga area, along with traditional bogan stomping grounds like Wanneroo and Midland.

 

[Kram]

Have lived in Victoria my entire life.

My condolences

 

[freo84]

As an aside to the north v south stereotype, there's also the bogans/ferals stereotype that the Eagles supporters like to cast on Freo fans. I would think that some of the strongest WC heartlands would be in the Balga area, along with traditional bogan stomping grounds like Wanneroo and Midland.

Whoa Whoa Whoa.............I grew up in the 6056 locale and let me tell you that it is absolutely a bogan filled cesspool.

 

[basashi]

I wrote this on another thread:

Years ago there was some market research in WA. Freo obviously dominated Fremantle and its immediate area, but stronger heading to the south of the Freo than east from Freo. You didn't have to go too far east to get into majority Eagles territory.

Heading north from Fremantle, the dockers had a majority in North Freo, Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove and Mosman park. Claremont / Nedlands were split. Once you went any further it became stronger and stronger Eagles territory. I think from memory the worst areas for Freo were Midland and surrounds, foothills, and the northern sprawl. Around Perth CBD was majority Eagles but not too bad for Freo.

The upshot was that only a very, very small part of the state was majority Freo

and

Freo supporters were wealthier than the general perception would have it.


I am sure that over the last 10 or so years plenty of this has changed. Although last year there was data to suggest that Freo supporters are the second most likely in the AFL to have private health insurance, behind Hawthorn. That could be seen as correlating somewhat with wealth....

 

[Steinfreo]

As an aside to the north v south stereotype, there's also the bogans/ferals stereotype that the Eagles supporters like to cast on Freo fans. I would think that some of the strongest WC heartlands would be in the Balga area, along with traditional bogan stomping grounds like Wanneroo and Midland.

Yeah its bullshit. My GF works at an affluent Claremont school and she reckons more of the kids there support Freo. I like Freo's working class roots though but just like Freo itself it has moved on.

 

[Freodoc]

Yep give it a couple of years and it will change. The kids now want to support the dockers because they win. My daughter the other day said she likes the dockers and not the eagles because they win games and the eagles dont.

Dux of the school... this girl will go far!

 

[Kram]

Eagles are still quite comfortably more popular amongst the general population.

 

[wormburner67]

and Cockburn isn't even a location in the poll. I'm offended.

I was only after a general demographic.
I didn't think it would go this in depth

 

[Magnolia]

It's evident when you catch a train to the footy from Freo. For Freo games the train is full by the time you hit Mosman park. For WCE games it fills up much more slowly as you get closer to the ground, particularly from Cottesloe onwards.

This is a really prominent memory I have of going to the footy as a kid. Aside from the excitement of seeing that trim grass peak out from Soviet-bunker like stands, you'd end up at Subiaco Station as four empty trains went past and two packed ones stopped and slunk off. When you finally got on one, it'd usually be packed all the way to Fremantle Railway Station. Maybe it's my memory, but it seems like it was even fuller the whole way for night games. I suppose people from outside Freo still came into town for the day, had some lunch, parked there, then trained it from there.

And that in itself is a very nice, very rare thing for a non-VFL side to have.

Last night at the G, no one from the city side of the ground was in filthy, oil and bourbon stained Tiges' gear: they all get on the train and head to the eastern suburbs. I got on a northern line for a Hawks - Cats game the other weeks and it was absolutely deserted on the way to Jolimont. The fact we still somehow have discernible geography and demographics is a really cool thing.

Also, bizarre but not surprising to hear of the prevalence of Freo jumpers with the younger hoard. I remember growing up and the rarity of seeing someone else with an anchor. At school footy jumper days in country WA, I'd probably see more Richmond (especially when Cuzzy went over), North, and Essendon jumpers than Dockers one. Footy training was barely any different. Kids these days will never know what it's like to grow up as an outsider like that – when Freo had done nothing and the Eagles were winning flags (and hadn't yet flatlined...).

 

[sportsmaniac89]

So what or who made you want to support Freo???

I was a 5 year old kid. I entered a Hungry Jacks competition where you could run onto the MCG with a team of your choice. For whatever reason (whether they were the only team I could remember or whatever) I picked Fremantle. I won the competition, got to run out onto the MCG with them (had Stephen O'Reilly look after me that day) and I've stuck by them ever since.