lostkiwi

Right then, it ocurred to me this morning - while dodging work, that there are quite a few peps about how are about to, or have recently landed in Melbourne and you may benefit from some insight (lived in Melb for 17 years) on how to fit in. :lecture:

Fortunately there is only ONE thing you need to do to be considered a local and be loved or hated, (but in a nice way) by all Melbournians... Pick an Aussie rules team to support.

Now by support I mean that you need to be prepared to bleed for this team... for a start, should you ever be asked if you would like to sell your youngest child to help fund the team - you should be happy to do this too. Simple eh?

A little tip - go for Hawthorn!!!!

Carn' the Hawks!!!

lostkiwi

oh I forgot - go to www.afl.com.au if you are interested... if you're not but are bored like me go to http://www.theonion.com

young_lad

Sounds fair enough to me. Perhaps you could give a little introduction though to the teams. For example, if I were to do one on English Premiership football teams it may go something like this (before I start I must say I'm a Liverpool fan)....

Liverpool - most succesful team in English football. Dominant in 70s and 80s. For the last decade tried unsuccessfully to recapture past glories. Will be back though in time!

Man Utd - dominant team since early 90s. Yet to emulate success of Liverpool in Europe. Non-Man Utd fans get fed up of Man U.

Arsenal - historically known as 'boring boring Arsenal' the introduction of the current French manager produced a team capable of playing great stuff (if only this would've been the result at Liverpool...). Under-achieved in Europe.

Chelsea - historically a team of fancy dans with no chance of any success. Recently the benificiary of a multi-billionaire Russian owner. Now called Chelski by media. Bought decent players and now serious challengers for silverware.

Leeds - where to start?

Wolves - destined for relegation.

If I've upset anyone by comments or by ommision - tough, it was just an example!

lostkiwi

Good thinking young lad,

OK here goes:
The AFL (Australian Football League) used to be known until late 80's as the VFL (Victorian Football League) - reason being that each state had it's own leage and opperated seperately. The VFL was by far the strongest league however and the administration choose to introduce interstate teams to (in their opinion) grow the sport.

As the AFL has evolved from the VFL you will notice that the majority of teams are still Melbourne based. That means that in Melbourne the most disliked teams (obviously) are interstate ones.

Who's who (Interstate):
West Coast Eagles
(aka Weagles) are right up there in the most hated stakes mainly because they ran all over everyone in their first few years in the league due to consessions that the administration gave them (they stole best players from Vic). Though are significantly less successful now so are less hated.

Brisbane Lions
They were originally known as the Brisbane Bears and were so bad that everyone loved them - even their mascot was cute. Then (in one of the worst VFL/AFL decisions ever) they were merged with one of the oldest Melbourne teams, Fitzroy Lions - thus becoming the Brisbane Lions (and now slightly less popular in Melbourne). THe Lions are THE strongest team in the league curently having won the last 3 premierships in succession. boo!

Sydney Swans
Formerly the South Melboune Swans, the team was the first to be based interstate in the early to mid 80's and were unpopular due to the fact that it coursed the demise of South Melbourne - some old times (like me) still refer to them as "South". More liked today as they are less successful (i.e. no threat to Vic teams). Loved in Sydney obviously.

Adelaide Crows
First South Oz team - not too popular in Melbourne as SA football is the historic rival to Vic. Middle of road team now.

Port Adelaide Power
Yuk! Second SA team and migrated from the existing SA League - SANFL. if you live in Melbourne and want to stay there - DO NOT even think of supporting them!

Freemantle Dockers
2nd WA team - nobody really cares about them (unless you live in WA)... next!

Who's Who - Vic TEAMS - YEAY!!
Hawthorn Hawks
(My team). Were absolutely the most dominant team of the 80's and early 90's - playing in 7 straight Grand Finals. Nearly every team in the league has there head coach or part of the coaching panel made up of Hawthorn players from the 90's. The AFL tried to MERGE Hawthorn with Melbourne (Demons) in the mid 90's - god knows why - this attempt caused massive uprising from all supporters and eventually each team's supporters rasised enough money to fight off the attempt. Today Hawthorn has one very strong financial position and very dedicated supporters - the team is young and developing and sitting mid table more often than not. My opinion is that HFC have the most heart of any club - best choice!!


Melboune Demons:
Middling to struggling in performance - been around for ever. Constant under achievers really - only go for them if you can handle dissapointment.

Carlton Blues.
Yuk!! Hated by nearly anyone that doesn't live in the suburb of Carlton - mainly because they always used to have buckets of money (wealthy supporters) and were a bit flash with it. Today they are very bad and if you could get relegated then they would be on their way!

Collingwood Magpies.
YUK YUK YUK!! Have probably the largest supporter base of any team - anyone that is not in that supporter base absolutely HATES them! Think Manchester United but without any loveable qualities.

Essendon Bombers
Oddly supported in the main by trades people - don't ask me why. If you go to a "Dons" game the car park will be FULL of utes. Go figure! Arch rival to Hawthorn due to some massive clashes in mid 80's - but regardless a pretty enjoyable team to watch and I'd guess. Consistantly successful though probably should have more tropheys than they do.

North Melbourne. Kangaroos
Bit bland to be fair - not a lot to say about them. OK team - not really hated or loved that much.

Richmond tigers
Were huge in the 70's and early 80's but have struggled since really. Considered to have a very large "fair weather" supporter base - i.e. they only ever appear after they have won a few games on the trott.

bored yet?


Geelong Cats
Often a laughing stock of the league. The Cats can look the most powerful and awesome team in the league one week and be humliated by the local girl guides under 7's team the following week. Their supporters must be the most frustrated in the league.

St Kilda Saints
Have never really been hugely successful and consequently are a lot of people's 2nd team. Can be very entertainly - that does not mean that they win!

Footscray Bulldogs
Bit similar to St Kilda really - have been more successful in the past decade, but still underachievers. The "doggies" are loved by many - except maybe their frustrated fans

There you have it - I hope someone finds this usefull cos its taken me ages to do and now my typing finger really hurts!!!

OzTennis

A very good summation I must say. Some trivial inaccuracies to correct, opinions to challenge and facts to add:

Brisbane Bears it was originally and then as a concession to Fitzroy Lions they changed their name to the Brisbane Lions - in the hope of picking up old Lions supporters and to remove their 'loveable' name.

The AFL is very much influenced by what happens in USA - the name change to AFL and the insistence that all teams include a mascot name for want of a better term in their name - Collingwood Magpies, Brisbane Lions, Fremantle Dockers, etc, etc. They also introduced a salary cap and a draft to try and equalise the standard of the teams. However, the concessions given to the interstate did and still rankles with Victorian team supporters.

Most important error - its now Western Bulldogs. The name change from Footscray was to try and draw support from a wider area of the Western Suburbs. The club was threatened with extinction by a previous much hated AFL commissioner called Ross Oakley (you'll still see bumber sticker 'honk if you hate Oakley'). The supporters and local industry (ICI as it was then became a major sponsor) rallied around and the team was saved. The AFL decreed that Western Oval was not up to scratch so the team relocated to the new sliding roof stadium at Docklands - formerly Colonial Stadium now Telstra Dome. http://www.westernbulldogs.com.au

Team colours are very important to some when choosing a team to 'barrack' for. For Western Bulldogs read Glasgow Rangers (R, W and B), for Collingwood read NUFC etc.

Collingwood as said are the nearest to MUFC. There are plenty of jokes about the average intellect of their supporters because they largely came in the past from the inner working class suburbs eg what has an IQ of 100? The Collingwood supporters club etc, etc.

Carlton were the traditional team of the Italian migrants who congregated in the suburb - their legacy is the superb restaurants in Lygon Street. Corporate types such as John Elliot favoured Carlton. Melbourne is the 'old school tie' club. Some people put their children down at birth for exclusive membership of the club. Their home is the MCG which is also ground shared with Richmond and other clubs such as Hawthorn use it as well.

People who move to Oz will be largely influenced by which state they settle in as to who they will support. That'll do for now!

Oh and Hawthorn defeated the Bulldogs in a Grand Final in the 60's so I don't particularly like them - or the Adelaide Crows who beat us in a preliminary final and a grand final in the 90's.

OzTennis

lostkiwi

Good points Oz,

Good point re Footscray/Western Bulldogs - as I've been in the UK for past 7 years I keep forgetting the name change! - Still Footscray to me though!

Trivia time: Footscray, Hawthorn and I think North Melbourne were the last Melbourne based teams to be added to the league - in 1925, Hawthorn clearly being the most superior of the lot! hahahhahahah!
To be fair I have a soft spot for the doggies particularly after you took Paul (Softboy) Hudson off our hands!

OzTennis

Most supporters still call them Footscray, including me, and they have FFC on the back of the jumper (none of this 'jersey' business!) Hudson retired last year but the 'Bullies' have recently recruited Jade Rawlings from Hawthorn who is quite a good player.

I can go back to when we lived in Bendigo and Peter Knights used to visit friends next door to us so got to know him quite well - really nice guy and I quite like the Hawks, the 'ribbing' is just a bit of banter.

You are perfectly correct about the 3 'newcomers' to the VFL - North Melbourne being the most successful with their flags in the 70's and 80's. Collingwood, Carlton etc go back to the 1870's or 1880's I think, and the game was invented by ? Harrison, an Irishman who based it on Gaelic football.

More trivia, where I come from in Williamstown a lot of footballers, particularly Bulldogs, live. Chris Grant the Western Bulldogs star lives just down the road from the place we have. And of course Mark Phillippoussis comes from Williamstown as well. When he won the deciding rubber in the Davis Cup in December he celebrated by buying an ice cream parlour in Williamstown to go with the other few businesses he has bought.

Gee, this is really getting into the trivia but this AFL thread has been a 'real winner' as far as I am concerned.

Do you watch the 'footy' on Sky? (March 28th Round 1 - won't be long).

OzTennis

lostkiwi

Ah you can't go wrong with a bit of footy trivia...

I know it just hit me that I don't think I'd ever read any thread of AFL... odd

I try and catch the footy on Sky whenever I get the chance - thanks for pointing out the 28th date. I'll add it to my reminders tonight!

Peter Knights is a top guy - maybe too nice to be a coach (got hammered when at Brissy) - but top guy. So was/is Dermott Brereton... here is some trivia - I'm pretty sure I made him late for the Grand Final dinner in 1988 - I managed to sneak into the changing rooms after the match to mingle with the lads and get all of their signatures on the Weg poster.... I cornered "Dermie" as he was (litterally) running to catch the team bus but he stopped signed my poster and had a chat (top guy!) - I heard on TV later that night that he had turned up late to the dinner because he missed the bus...whoops!!! - Still my poster looks ace!!

OzTennis

Too true about how good a bit of footy trivia is and that you don't see it much on here. My theory is that when the new migrant finally gets into the footy they are part way to getting over homesickness and are starting to settle in - so they don't post on the site anymore. I think there are a lot of 'closet' footy lovers from abroad who won't admit publicly how much they like the game!

Interesting story about Dermie. Do you remember how the lady bought him a Porsche and I think he was the first to play in coloured boots (or was that Warwick Capper)? And 'Dipper' playing the Grand Final with a punctured lung? Both are now successful commentators. Ah, the William Ernest Greene (WEG) Grand Final posters. They didn't have them in 1954 when the Bulldogs won their only flag! And of course there's 'Lethal' who has been so successful winning flags at Collingwood and the last 3 at Brisbane. What a player he was - I don't think I saw anyone harder than him.

And then in Bendigo we became very friendly with a former Hawk great in Des Dickson (Delicate Des they called him - probably harder than Matthews now I come to think of it). He had a milk bar near where we lived and I always used to talk footy with him.

Nostalgia aint what it used to be eh?

OzTennis

P.S. The weekend beckons so I probably won't pick up your reply until Monday - don't think I've forgotten our trip down memory lane!

lostkiwi

Ahhh Dipper and Lethal - what a combination they were!!!

I can vividly remember being at Windy Hill as a lad - watching another classic mid 80's tussle between Hawthorn & Essendon - Lethal accidently ran into the point post - I was directly behind it... everyone near us held their breath expecting him to collapse... instead the post snapped!!! Half way up... Lethal just kept on running like nothing ever happened... they don't make em like that anymore!!

1989 GF - in my opinion one of the best sporting moments ever - Dipper played with a puncture lung for 3 qtrs, Gary Ayres had split the webbing in his hand (how much would that hurt?) - Dermie played with brusied kidneys after being blindsided in the first few seconds - throwing up on the field! Then destroyed Geelongs defence (aparently he was P*ssing blood at half time), woof - now that is a man's game!!

Oh I have to get home soon - can't miss another season!!

redbod

prefer rugger me'self

Timber Floor Au

im FUQD then i was lost after the opening line Right then,.....


shit

NJFOZ

To keep it simple, on your first day at work just keep singing "go the pies" you will make some great new friends and fit in straight away.


Any views (from those who know) on either St Kilda or Collingwood. The Saints are the local team, but by surrorting Collingwood I get to piss my boss off !!! Very important as my son is booked for his tatoo on saturday.

Badge

Hawthorn is also supposed to be a good family team.

Tony Lockett aka Plugger (one of the most famous recent AFL players recently retired) also used to play for St Kilda before he went to Sydney Swans.

BM

HiddenPaw

I did exactly as you suggest LK and got myself an AFL team when I got to Melbourne. Actually, choice of team was pre-determined by my Aussie brother in law who insisted that I would follow Carlton. What I didn't realise at the time was that they were holding up the rest of the league. I was the ridicule of my work mates who surely must have thought "stupid pom, picks the worst team in the league"!!

Still, even tho it's a daft game , you can't beat a Friday night at the MCG with your friends (even tho most were Essendon fans).