Game day experience in Melbourne

[LightTower4]

Yep worst part about footy. The new animated boundary ads are distracting too.

I'll second that.
Might get used to it eventually but it drove me nuts on Saturday.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Hawks fans are tired of winning. Geelong fans a bit shocked. That's the reality. Doesn't make them less of fans.

This is the issue I think. I went to the 2011 PF Geelong v WCE and couldn't believe how blase the crowd was about making another GF.

As you said, 27k at the G on Saturday and they were going nuts, sounded more like 40k.

 

[SJ]

This is the issue I think. I went to the 2011 PF Geelong v WCE and couldn't believe how blase the crowd was about making another GF.

As you said, 27k at the G on Saturday and they were going nuts, sounded more like 40k.

When you think a premiership is the expectation, and you're well up in the preliminary final, then it's not that exciting.

It's all about expectations versus achievements.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

When you think a premiership is the expectation, and you're well up in the preliminary final, then it's not that exciting.

It's all about expectations versus achievements.

It was like that from the start of the game though.

 

[Iason]

I have spent Easter in Melbourne this long weekend and, as usual, took in the best AFL game not involving my team (Port), that being the Hawks v Cats game today. I was particularly interested in comparing today's matchup in terms of form and experience to Port and what I am used to in watching home games at the Adelaide Oval, as today's game was supposed to be a blockbuster between two traditional opponents.

I have been watching football for nearly 40 years and have been struck by the decreasing amount of tribalism and passion in AFL games in Melbourne, including finals, and including today's game. I was nonetheless struck today by how, Hawks and Cats supporters, all 73,000 of them, which is a vast number by any definition in world sport, approached the game almost like theatregoers today.

Geelong were very average yet there was no fierceness in the support from their fans, and Hawthorn were excellent as usual and I felt that their fans were subdue (bored?) in their support of their team.

I have to say that there is absolutely no comparison between supporters of these teams and Port supporters who are much, much louder and more passionate in their support of their (our) team, particularly in Showdowns. This may be because we are a 'smaller' club in a smaller city where perhaps winning and losing seems (in my view) to mean more than the somewhat dilletantish approach of Victorian crowds who are divided between 10 teams only a handful of which seem to have any chance of winning the flag from time to time.

I can imagine Saints and Bulldogs supporters would be vociferous and passionate in their support of their teams not having won the flag in so many years but I still doubt they would be as loud and engaged as Port (and possibly even Crows) supporters are. Oh and I have been to Richmond and Collingwood matches and, their crowd numbers notwithstanding, still don't think they can match the loudness and fervour of our crowds at the redeveloped Adelaide Oval.

West Coast and Fremantle supporters may feel the same way as me and say the same about their crowds (I can't comment as I have never been to Perth to watch an AFL game but will be sure to go when the new Perth Stadium opens), but I really do think people in Melbourne are far less tribal and vocal than they used to be, which I think is a shame.

The Australian version of the Seattle Seahawk fan.

 

[tazaa]

Was lucky enough to attend 3 finals at the G last September.
2 for my own club. 1 with a workmate as a neutral.

There is no better place to watch football.