Toast The Freo Faithful - Keeping the Faith

[Grape Bear]

The dismal performance from our team today - after such a promising beginning to the season - has certainly shaken my faith and hope that we can make the most of our flag chances this year. One of those days that it's really, really hard to be an emotionally invested fan. Part of me wishes I hadn't cast my lot with any bloody AFL team at all, to be honest. It's exhausting.

That said, I haven't been an emotionally invested fan for half as long as many of you. I can't say I've been through the worst (but 2011 was pretty damn horrible) as much as I have been through the best. And when I think that today was a pretty damn awful day to be a Freo fan, I can't help but raise a glass to the lot of you who have been doing it for a whole lot longer, through even shittier times.

I found this essay here that talks about sporting teams and faith, and I just wanted to share it with you all as part of my toast. I'm sure you've had your moments of doubt and despair, but you keep fronting up and keeping the faith despite a lack of success over the past 25 years. Here's hoping that we won't have to wait as long as that to have the faith repaid to the supporter base 10-fold. Goodness knows we deserve it.

In secular societies, sports teams are the subjects of near-religious following. The term faith is most commonly used in reference to spirituality, but it can also refer to a belief in something unproven. Sports fans, in particular, believe in and have loyalty toward their team; the best players are gods, the worst are unworthy, and rooting for your team can be a religious experience. Optimists for teams of all calibres have a firm belief in their team’s impending success in spite of past performance or disparate talent levels. Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, faith in sports is a major part of the fan experience.

Sports are an opportunity to invest those hopes and volitions in a visible, if not tangible, result.

Having a team to fervently cheer on adds to the sports experience, but is certainly not vital to it.

The absence of faith alleviates the anxieties natural to a die-hard fan. Indeed, that’s how fandom starts for many people – but after a while, it’s hard not to pick a team to associate with. It’s a quality that makes the narratives of sports that much more compelling.

In the end, faith is a facet: one which religions use for growth, but also one from which people can find comfort. Faith in sports, however, just makes the process more engaging. Being a sports fan is often about the highs and lows of emotions in fandom, which is only accentuated by ardent faith in a team. And the good news is that you can’t go to hell for being a sports fan.