Would you support the Hawks if...?

[Mercy Seat]

Some of the older people in this chat may remember when the AFL moved away from Waverley and the ground went into ruin. My family loved going to Waverley and one person in my family was more heartbroken than most when we could no longer go to a local game. My brother broke into the ground and used the bench seats to write the words “Shame AFL” ... or was it AFL Shame... something like that in the middle of the oval. A TV station helicopter saw it and made it news.

My brother no longer goes to games. His thought was, why support Hawthorn if they will not be where I want them ... or at least that is what I understood from his actions.

I think my brother was a poor supporter of Hawthorn. He gave up on them when they left Waverley Park.

Why is it that we only support a team that is near our home? Many in bigfooty support soccer teams in England and NBA teams in the USA. Their location is irrelevant.


Hell yes I would support Hawthorn wherever they went. A home is not where you sh*t but where your heart lives.

But I want to go to games. If that Tennent is respected, I’ll follow the team to NZ.

Your melts can start here !

No disrespect but Waverley was only our home for about 8 years. I’m only in my 30s but am young enough to have gone to Princes Park every week, followed by Waverley and now the G.

 

[TazHawk15]

its a silly question really, Jerff's latest outburst was just a trolling reaction to the Tassie PM trying to act tough and deliver the AFL an ultimatum.

When did the AFL ever bow to outside pressure?

Our club has enough money and assets to stay where we are, we arent going anywhere.

This.

However if they did relocate, I would still be a Hawk until I die.

I have been a Hawk since I was 8 years old and now I am as old as the hills (used to work on the pyramids)

 

[hfc70]

I’m only hanging on as it is. The constant changes/tinkering with the game does my head in. The game is not what it once was (for the worse in my opinion). However, I have always been 100% Hawthorn.

Relocating us would be the final straw for me. I would casually keep an eye on our club but other than that I could take it or leave it (most likely leave it).

More than happy to fight the fight if relocating became a possibility but if that fight was lost - then stick a fork in this sloth - I’d be done.

 

[bris tarangau]

Yawn. Just another BS from Jeff.

 

[eldorado]

Well, I live in Adelaide, so of course I would.

Interesting.

I grew up following Hawthorn only on black and white tv, and ABC radio in the country. I didn't see them live until they came to play a pre-season game in Sale when I was 10 or 11.

So, like you, I may be more flexible to the idea that the team I follow isn't necessarily local to where I live.

Following from a distance didn't stop me being any less fanatical, I think...

 

[eldorado]

Folks, BTW, this is purely a hypothetical question.

I don't think it is based on any fear from Jeff's comments, just a hypothetical question that has arisen from it. So it's not a 'silly' question in that sense.

 

[Argy]

If for whatever reason the Hawthorn FC relocated outside of Melbourne and dropped the Hawthorn to Hawks, would you still support them?

I'd probably just lose interest and find something else.

 

[dermott]

The Hawthorn Football Club won’t relocate but hypothetically if it did I would still support it as I have for more than sixty years.

 

[Dinsdale]

ok.
I started supporting Hawks when I grew up in Perth when I started watching The Winners on ABC.
Hawks were then at Glenferrie Road. They relocated to Waverly, I relocated to ACT, I relocated to UK, then to NSW. I'm a 26 year member, I'll still support them.

 

[arupist]

The Hawthorn Football Club won’t relocate but hypothetically if it did I would still support it as I have for more than sixty years.

I, too, have 60+ yearssupporting them. But I support Hawthorn Hawks. If they were to become, say, Hobart Hawks, it is not the same team. My team would have become defunct the day of the move. I would have no team.

 

[Falco131415]

It would be an easy decision for me.
I'm big into my camping & 4wding.
Just use the winter months to travel up North & O/seas (hopefully 1 day soon) & not worry about my footy team.
Plus getting sick of this corrupt AFL system anyways!
Would just follow a local Aussie Rules side.

 

[OnTheRocks]

I, too, have 60+ yearssupporting them. But I support Hawthorn Hawks. If they were to become, say, Hobart Hawks, it is not the same team. My team would have become defunct the day of the move. I would have no team.

I'm not suggesting that they take up a new name ie: Tassie, Hobart, GEM (Greater Eastern Melbourne) but if they dropped the Hawthorn.
I've just been thinking what it means to our supporters?
I guess to some it would seem to be like cutting the ties to our past but I don't think it would be cutting the ties to our future.

 

[arupist]

I'm not suggesting that they take up a new name ie: Tassie, Hobart, GEM (Greater Eastern Melbourne) but if they dropped the Hawthorn.
I've just been thinking what it means to our supporters?
I guess to some it would seem to be like cutting the ties to our past but I don't think it would be cutting the ties to our future.

Move them out of Melbourne and the club, as it was, folds. South Melbourne and Fitzroy no longer exist, and whilst some supporters continued to follow Sydney and Brisbane, many didn't. Can Brisbane lay claim to the 8 premierships won by the Maroons and the Gorillas? Fitzroy Football Club continues as the Reds - do they have as much right to claim those 8 premierships as Brisbane?

 

[OnTheRocks]

Move them out of Melbourne and the club, as it was, folds. South Melbourne and Fitzroy no longer exist, and whilst some supporters continued to follow Sydney and Brisbane, many didn't. Can Brisbane lay claim to the 8 premierships won by the Maroons and the Gorillas? Fitzroy Football Club continues as the Reds - do they have as much right to claim those 8 premierships as Brisbane?

Idk if we fold, perhaps evolve? Yes our past premierships would also be included in our future

 

[QuietB]

its a silly question really, Jerff's latest outburst was just a trolling reaction to the Tassie PM trying to act tough and deliver the AFL an ultimatum.

When did the AFL ever bow to outside pressure?

Our club has enough money and assets to stay where we are, we arent going anywhere.

And this is the key thing. Hawthorn are a rich club. If the AFL made them move I would abandon the AFL permanently. plenty of other sports to follow.

 

[KermitJagger]

Treating this as a purely hypothetical question, I would continue to support the Hawks but it wouldn't be with the same intensity. My old man was a Fitzroy supporter, and he kept up supporting Brisbane, but he's not as committed as he was and he would still identify as a Fitzroy Lions man.

I think it'd make me become more fair weather. I'd support us if we were going well but I'd not be as invested if we were doing poorly.

 

[Big Hotdog]

I would become a die hard Essendon fan and get a tatoo of James Hird on my shaft

 

[Bumps"N"Grins]

This takes me back to 1996 and the merger talk.

I was an anti merger supporter as far as I could kick my hat, wasn't going to have a bar of it, then as time went on and my thoughts turned to who I was going to support should the merger go ahead, I really struggled with the prospect of following another club that I have and Hawthorn had locked horns with and all that I have supported against and I realised that I wasn't going to bring myself around to following any other existing team of that time. I made peace with myself that it was going to have to be the Dawks or nothing as I felt it was better to follow what little bit of Hawthorn that was left than not to follow footy at all.

That brings me to the OP and the question raised. Would I follow a relocated Hawthorn team under whatever guise that it would become?

Yes, for all the reasons I have given in my merger rationale.

 

[phlogiston]

This takes me back to 1996 and the merger talk.

I was an anti merger supporter as far as I could kick my hat, wasn't going to have a bar of it, then as time went on and my thoughts turned to who I was going to support should the merger go ahead, I really struggled with the prospect of following another club that I have and Hawthorn had locked horns with and all that I have supported against and I realised that I wasn't going to bring myself around to following any other existing team of that time. I made peace with myself that it was going to have to be the Dawks or nothing as I felt it was better to follow what little bit of Hawthorn that was left than not to follow footy at all.

That brings me to the OP and the question raised. Would I follow a relocated Hawthorn team under whatever guise that it would become?

Yes, for all the reasons I have given in my merger rationale.

Worked with a bloke in '96 who was a died in the wool Melbourne supporter. Someone asked him if he would support the merged team, and he said no, he wouldn't and would probably switch to support Essendon.

Ironically enough, he's now inside for large scale drug possession and trafficking.

 

[eldorado]

Worked with a bloke in '96 who was a died in the wool Melbourne supporter. Someone asked him if he would support the merged team, and he said no, he wouldn't and would probably switch to support Essendon.

Ironically enough, he's now inside for large scale drug possession and trafficking.

I like how you inferentially linked those two separate statements.

 

[Kanga Commando]

Vaguely yes... As a passing interest.
But I would definitely cancel my family membership.

 

[kirbatron]

No Hawthorn No Kirbatron

 

[Birdofprey]

I would not pick up another team, so it would be the Hawks or nothing.

Glenferrie/Waverly/Box Hill/Dingley (and MCG for matcof course), has some geographical theme to it - always the outer Eastern Melbourne team. So further east of Melbourne, but still Victoria, might maintain some level of that continuity? But where is that going to be? Is there a stadium big enough at Traralgon?

I am praying we stay in the outer east of Melbourne - Dingley is far enough thank you.

 

[hfc70]

Better idea - relocate the AFL to Tassie (Gilbert would love Hobart)

 

[arupist]

Idk if we fold, perhaps evolve? Yes our past premierships would also be included in our future

I just don't feel the same way you do.

Let's just hope it never comes to that.