How do fans decide which team they support?

[Jetafl]

I was forbidden as a kid from barracking for Port (SANFL) my olds go for the Eagles in the SANFL me and my brother go for Sturt. I followed Carlton in the AFL until the Crows came along.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I decided to follow the most successful one in my lifetime. Worked out better than expected.

 

[CURVE]

I grew up in a Rugby League family, my father is a St. George supporter and my mother a Canterbury supporter, and neither tried to influence my siblings or I into supporting our teams, but a comment my father made on the day of the 1976 Grand Final did influence me in supporting Parramatta. We travelled up to my Uncle's place in Goulburn where he and my father would catch a train into Sydney to attend the Grand Final. Before he left he told me that if I support the team in Maroon and White I'd be walking home, when you had just turned five, you take that kind of "joke" seriously and so I supported the Blue and Gold and have followed them ever since. Seven Grand Finals and four Premierships in the first 11 years made it look like a brilliant decision, but since then we have been as disappointing as Richmond were until about 5 years ago.

A week or so later I was watching the TV (my parents purchased a colour TV a month or so before to watch the Montreal Olympics) and this strange football game was on, it looked nothing like Soccer (I was a Liverpool supporter) or Rugby League, but it was fast and looked exciting, so I sat down and watched the entire game. There were two teams playing, one wearing an ugly Brown and Yellow jersey and White shorts and one wearing Blue and White Stripes, and even though the team in the ugly jersey won it, I supported the team in Blue and White. Another decision that paid off straight away with the team winning the next season.

My daughter on the other hand has been heavily influenced by her late mum and I, when she was born, I bought two bears, one in a Kangaroo jersey and one in an Eels jersey. I took her first AFL game when she was just 10 months old (1996 Grand Final) and took her to her second game when she was three (1999 Grand Final) and dressed her up in a North Melbourne jersey, beanie and bought her a flag, I even managed to turn her mother into a North Melbourne supporter, as she grew up a Rugby League (Parramatta thankfully) and Soccer (Toulouse and Liverpool) supporter.

 

[AFDogs]

Dad wanted me to be Bombers, apparently I wouldn't have any of it. So he brought me a Bulldogs jersey.

Won that one easily.

 

[Tigerlaird]

I chose to support Richmond because the country where my parent is from's national animal is the Tiger and one of the nicknames of the country is Tigerland, so I feel passionate as we are tiger blood.

Almost picked Wests Tigers as my NRL team for this very reason and in most sporting leagues I'll barrack for the Tiger team.

 

[Cool Kangas]

I was forbidden as a kid from barracking for Port (SANFL) my olds go for the Eagles in the SANFL me and my brother go for Sturt. I followed Carlton in the AFL until the Crows came along.

I totally get wanting to support your local team but how do you stop supporting a team you’ve been following?

 

[GWT6]

I was told that I could barrack for any team I wanted, but the house and the car were Melbourne, so if I wasn't Melbourne I'd need to find another place to live. Pretty straightforward decision for a 5-year-old.

 

[Coach_Required]

I think generally people support whoever their family/parent/friends supported when they were young. That's why you see so many embarrassing tribalistic shitfights like you do on this forum - people hear/read "(insert team) is bad" and their brain reconfigures it to "Your Dad is bad" and they fly off the handle. Only way I've ever been able to explain how weirdly argumentative people get about footy.

My dad beats your dad in finals.

 

[Coach_Required]

The first game my old man ever took me to was Richmond v Carlton at the G when I was about 7 years old.
He said son you can go for either of these 2 teams but if you pick Carlton you will be walking home.

Go Tiges

 

[rye]

Your dad overrated Hawthorn's abilities at the time when making that deal.

born a decade later and id imagine myself and my siblings would all be hawthorn everything else being equal

one dominant team followed by another really

 

[timokane]

It was about family for mine and been brought up supporting i always did what i family did and i like carried on the tradition im a Collingwood fan

 

[Tigerlaird]

I totally get wanting to support your local team but how do you stop supporting a team you’ve been following?

I imagine it must be painful.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

When I moved to Melbourne, and faced the usual question on who I barrack for. My sister told me to go for Collingwood as they are the biggest club, so I figured they didn’t need another supporter and went for the Bulldogs.

It has had its challenges, but I have no regrets.

 

[Rockford]

I didn't really like West Coast as a kid given WAFL affiliations. I nearly started supporting Freo along with mates from high school when they joined the league, but purple. I moved to Melbourne in my early 20s and figured I might support the Saints as I was living in St Kilda. Went to the 2004 preseason cup GF with a Geelong supporting mate from work. I just liked the way the Cats played, and jumping on St Kilda felt like a bandwagon as they were meant to be the next big thing, got my membership later that season and never looked back. Meanwhile, one of those mates from high school is still a Freo member after joining in their first season. Dodging bullets everywhere.

 

[Sky]

I didn't really like West Coast as a kid given WAFL affiliations. I nearly started supporting Freo along with mates from high school when they joined the league, but purple. I moved to Melbourne in my early 20s and figured I might support the Saints as I was living in St Kilda. Went to the 2004 preseason cup GF with a Geelong supporting mate from work. I just liked the way the Cats played, and jumping on St Kilda felt like a bandwagon as they were meant to be the next big thing, got my membership later that season and never looked back. Meanwhile, one of those mates from high school is still a Freo member after joining in their first season. Dodging bullets everywhere.

That paid off in spades. 13 prelims 6 grand finals and 4 flags later and missed finals just twice in those 19 years.

 

[Goomba1973]

Number 1 Reason - forced by parents + geographical location.
Number 2 Reason - Whatever Bandwagon is doing well.

 

[Mofra]

Born and raised in and around Footscray to a working class family that were Bulldog supporters, with couple of Fitzroy supporters among them.

It was always going to be the best fit.

 

[Sky]

Born and raised in and around Footscray to a working class family that were Bulldog supporters, with couple of Fitzroy supporters among them.

It was always going to be the best fit.

Clear cut best Doggies user on the website. Thought the same 10 years ago when I was 15.

 

[Bernie L]

Followed Geelong as a kid. Loved Gaz Snr.
Then played SANFL for a few years and a few of my team mates got recruited to the Crows. Made it hard not to follow them.

 

[Billy ray]

Clear cut best Doggies user on the website. Thought the same 10 years ago when I was 15.

Get a room you two

 

[BarbieITFC]

Moved to Perth from UK in early 2014, was mesmerised by Freo's first game of the season against Collingwood (was the season opener and was watching it with new colleagues - not really knowing what was going on), went to watch Freo the next week at Subi Oval against the Suns and was hooked.

Took a couple of years to start disliking the Eagles - mainly because of the shit that Eagles fans gave me over that time (especially the 2015 prelim).

 

[PieLebo87]

I’ve always thought you are just born that way.

 

[GreekLunatic]

dad came out from Greece and lived in Collingwood in the 60's that's how I become a Collingwood supporter

 

[The Sultan]

My dad did some work at Carlton FC before I was born, not sure if he was Carlton before he worked there, so i was born into it.

Mid 80s I decided to change to Essendon as they’d won a few flags in a row, but my elder brother told me you’d weren’t alllowed to change. Dodged a bullet there.

One of my kids is Carlton and the other two follow saints like their mother

 

[Kapow!!!]

Genuinely funky story.

Dad was a born and bred Carlton fan with a man crush on Jesaulenko but had fallen out of love with the gane because it had become too soft (this was as the start of the 90s btw). Mum born and bred Queenslander moved to Melbourne to be with Dad was asked immediately upon moving there "Who do you go for?" Being a sports mad lady and wanting to have a team but NFI who they were just said "Cats" and boom, she went for Geelong for a while. My brother was born the same day the Brisbane Bears were founded, decided he was a Bear and Mum followed because, well, it was a Queensland team.

As a 5-6 year in 95 living in Melton, I was influenced heavily to become a Footscray fan. I still remember mum taking my brother and I to countless games at Western Oval. Eventually my Brother's peer pressure moved me to a Bears fan in 96. Being a 7 year old Bears fan in Melbourne in 96-97 was basically like saying you were a satanic blood cultist and all for something I genuinely didn't really have a say in. So, my 8 year old mind at that point after the 97 season thought "F*** it, I'm going to actually think about it and choose my own team". My criteria was simple enough: Who were big underdogs (stuff favourite backing, I want it to really mean something when the team I supports wins a flag), wore funky colours (again, 8 year old logic) and weren't a Victorian based club (the whole Fitzroy saga really put me off Victorian teams, I just wanted a fresh start for a fresh life. No disrespect to the horrible fate that befell Fitzroy and their fans, I felt awful but burdened as a new footy fan and just wanted a clean slate to make my own supporting life). Boom, Fremantle was the choice.

This was further solidified when my favourite Bears player as a Kid, Adrian "Piggy" Fletcher, was traded to Freo that very off-season. It genuinely seemed like fate and I've been in love with the club ever since and haven't had a single regret (despite how f***ing frustrating it has been to follow this club over the years). It feels even better because it was my own choice, removed from any familial or societal pressure: It was me and my core making my decision for me and that's the most rewarding thing

The only poor thing about it was that we moved to Brisbane later that year and ever since the age of 9 I've had to explaing what the f*** a Fremantle Docker was to an increasingly AFL ignorant Queensland anytime I met someone