My record. Shocking.

I went and saw Carlton play at the we-are whining-because-we-want-a-braadband-monopoly Dome on Friday night and my apologies to all the Carlton fans for doing so. Yet another club suffers a record loss at my hands. This time it was the wrong end of the Hawks biggest ever win over Carlton.

Is there any club that would actually think it’s a good idea to have me as a fan? I’ve basically spent the first half of the year denying that i’m a jinx, now i think it’s time to have a serious look at my form and fess up:

Kangaroos (L)
Essendon
St Kilda
Melbourne (L)
Hawthorn (L)
Richmond (L)
Geelong
Brisbane (L)
Adelaide (L)
West Coast (L)
Carlton (L)

3 wins from 11 games. The scariest thing is that i am running against form here – i have seen every team in the top 4 and for only ONE win – Geelong. What can i say? Shocking. That gives me 12 points and puts me ahead of only Richmond and Melbourne on the ladder (Melbourne’s only win came when i went to see Adelaide play against them!)

Only the Western Bulldogs, Collingwood, Sydney, Port and Fremantle left to suffer at my hands.

Does anyone know this idiot?

Has this guy poured beer on your Grandmother? (click to enlarge)

This is a call out for anyone who might be able to help me – particularly my friends from Essendon. I want your help to find this idiot who seems to have emptied his beer over an elderly lady’s head and then spent the next couple of minutes yelling abuse and gloating about it.

Anyone who has been following this blog or my saga on ABC radio will know that I have no team bias. I am new to the sport of Aussie Rules and am spending the winter trying to pick a team by “trying out” being a fan of each of the 16 teams each week.

I went with some great fans of Essendon in an earlier round and last Saturday i went along with some old Fitzroy fans to see their team play as Brisbane. I sat with the Brisbane cheersquad behind the goals at the away end. To be frank, it wasn’t the most thrilling game i’ve seen so far because Essendon totally dominated in the second half and ran away with it. Like every other group of fans i’ve been with, The Lions fans weren’t quite congratulating Essendon on their win but they took it their stride were good humoured about it and came up with a bunch of slightly unconvincing theories about how it was still a good omen for the future.

For most of the game i sat next to Ros, a woman well into her sixties who had been following the Fitzroy (now Brisbane) Lions for over 55 years. She is the sort of woman who is the backbone of any club and i’m sure the sort of person that any true fan of any team and any sport would respect and appreciate. During the game she proudly showed me the collection of old Fitzroy memorabilia that she has carried in her purse for the decade or more since the Roy Boys moved to Brisbane and told me stories about following the club as they moved grounds and ultimately cities over the years. I”m not sure she’ll like me saying that her playing days are probably behind her – she gets around with the use of a walking stick and would struggle to pass the pre-season fitness test.

The Fitzroy Lions!

This week i am pleased to announce that i am taking on one of my very local teams this week: the Fitzroy Lions. (the other one is Carlton but i haven’t got to them yet). I live right on the boundary of Fitzroy and my local pub has more than a few pieces of memorabilia from Fitzroy’s earlier days when the team was actually in the general vicinity of Fitzroy. Due to the some issues involved with a merger, I will actually be attending one of Fitzroy’s away games as their home ground has been moved to somewhere the other side of Northcote.

Having shared a house with a mad Queenslander who is a big fan of the ‘roys during two of their three recent premierships – i can safely say their is no other team whose theme song i know quite so well. I still hear former a certain former Queensland Young Writer of the Year singing it in my nightmares.

If you’re an old Fitzroy fan or even a new fan from the new home ground on the other side of Northcote – I’m looking forward to getting to the game with you.

What do you think?

Week one is over and the Roos are done and i have 15 further teams to check out. After week one, i have to say that i am very happy with the Roos, but not sold or committed yet. Fluffing that last minute goal right in front of me could yet prove the difference between lifelong commitment and what could have been.

I thought i should probably try to get you all to tell me which team i should be supporting and why?

Does anyone want to tell me that their team doesn’t want me? Which team shouldn’t i support?

What do you all reckon?

Before the game: The Kangaroos set the high bar…

After we finished on air on Friday i got an extra surprise that set the bar pretty high for the other 15 clubs…

Apparently people high up in the Kangaroos club were listening to the ABC and decided that they should roll out the red carpet to convince me to follow their team. So within an hour or so of getting off air, Matt their media manager had arranged a visit to the rooms before the game to see the boys warm up and meet the club’s CEO Rick Aylett who gave me a personal invite to jump on board the Roos …

[In my defence, this whole bar, high, jump and Roos stuff was not originally intended as a really bad extended metaphor it just evolved that way].

By Saturday morning I could already see where this is going to go this season. I will make many enemies this way and it will only end in tears. My Lion’s mad mate Ben Eltham had texted me from Brisbane the night before to tell me “You suck im not helping you w a project that cool” (you wouldn’t expect anything less articulate from an angry former Queensland Young Writer of The Year) and Lindy had apparently copped a little from her Roos supporting husband Pete. Pete has been following the club for a decade without ever getting an invite to the rooms.