Are things looking up Melbourne?
Source: www.qbd.com.au
Now that I have been living in Melbourne for 10 years, I thought it prudent to provide an analysis from a personal perspective on supporters from some of the AFL clubs. I wrote a similar article some years ago and things have changed since then. For instance, the "Feral Supporters" award no longer goes to Richmond but returns to its rightful club in Port Adelaide.
The "Little Engine That Could" award - Melbourne: Melbourne has improved from the "Sick and Sorry" award from a few years ago to this new award. Their supporters currently "think they can" make the Top 4 and "think they can" win the flag. Both the team and their supporters have some work to do to achieve both.
The “Feral Supporters” award – Port Adelaide: I bet you were all thinking Collingwood, but history dictates otherwise and it's something that will never change. They scream, swear and bully like a big club’s supporters would and worst of all think the whole world is against them. Furthermore, they got points for trying to make a half decent song into an anthem. Damn, I used to like Never Tear Us Apart from INXS too. Collingwood was a close second.
The “Juvenile Delinquent” award – St Kilda: An award that has not changed teams since the last time this article was written. The Saints supporters will happily “boo” opposition shots at goal and remind you of your clubs off-field indiscretions. The memory often fails the Saints supporters and their jibes often come back to haunt them. They really should remember the line that “Children should be seen and not heard” especially given off-field events of recent years.
The “Scarcity” award – North Melbourne: Another award that has not changed since the last time I wrote this article. The Kangaroos have a reasonably modest supporter base to begin with and when your side is not going well some supporters will drop off. But it is rare for North Melbourne to get more than 20,000 people when hosting an interstate club. I could pick the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney but they are relatively new clubs so that would be unfair.
The “Sick and Sorry” award – Carlton: The Blues have progressed (or regressed) from the "Hanging Shit on Your Own Team" award to win this award. Carlton always seem to be rebuilding and its supporters are basically resigned to see their club range from “Woeful to Terrible". After years of this merry-go-round the strain is starting to show. Carlton supporters are often resigned to defeat before the game has started.
The “We are the Competition” award – Collingwood: No change to the winner of this award. I'm not sure how many times I have heard the line from a Collingwood supporter “If it wasn’t for us, there would be no AFL” or the like. What rot, it speaks of arrogance and most of all there is not enough recent success to qualify the statement. Unfortunately it will only get worse if they win another flag in the next year or two.
The “Most Relieved Supporters” award – Richmond: After 37 years of not winning a premiership Richmond finally broke through with a win over Adelaide in the 2017 Grand Final. While we're still hearing about it as the Tigers go for back to back flags, the wait alone justifies the nomination.
So there you have it, congratulations to the winners and if your team did not win an award, there is always next year J
No comments:
Post a Comment