Melbourne Storm - The Least Popular Football Team In Australia

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Red_and_white

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Sep 12, 2005
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Wollongong
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Dragons
Hated in NSW/ACT. Attitudes vary from hated to irrelevance in QLD. Not heard about in WA and SA. Viewed as inconsequential in its home state for all of the year except one week.

If Melbourne hadn't of been playing in 3 GFs over the past few years they would undoubtedly be the least liked first grade football team in this country, and even now you could put up a strong argument for this title.
 

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I got all nervous and worried, then I saw that you support the dragons.

You need someone to blame for everything thats gone wrong at your club since 1999.

must be hard being you...
 
then I saw that you live in wollongong, so you are probably a steelers supporter.

Hows that going for you?

within 5 years, there'll be no more games at WIN and they'll have dropped Illawarra from your jumper.

Storm will probably have a couple more flags by then.
 
Dramatic dive in NRL club support

By Steve Mascord | June 05, 2008 12:00am

ORGANISERS of a survey which indicates 400,000 fewer people consider themselves supporters of an NRL club than this time last year say the results do not mean overall interest in rugby league is down.
Roy Morgan Research this week issued statistics which showed of all clubs, only South Sydney, Melbourne and Manly had an increase in the number of respondents who said they followed them.
The total number of people who named a rugby league club as their favourite, once extrapolated to represent the entire population, was down 400,000 to 6,400,000.
But Roy Morgan research spokesman Gary Morgan said the 21,061 people were not asked if they supported the sport.
"These are not people who go through the gate," he said. "What it does show is that there is more competition than ever. There might be fewer people who take a casual interest (in rugby league clubs).
"Soccer has really emerged and we will release research tomorrow that shows Melbourne Victory have 600,00 people who consider themselves fans."
Brisbane remain the best-supported club with 1,273,000 fans. Melbourne are next with 769,000 followed by Wests Tigers with 489,000.
Souths' supporter base is up 74,000 or 30 per cent while Canberra lost 68,000 fans in the last 12 months.
Other quirky findings include North Queensland fans being 17 per cent more likely to drink alcohol at home and Wests Tigers supporter being 58 per cent more likely to drive a Lexus.
An NRL spokesman said: "This is like any other poll. It's frustrating if people believe fewer people are playing and watching the game because the figures say the opposite."


The also forgot to add the fact that 100% of Dragon's supporters still haven't got over '99.
 
Im in WA and i know there is a alot of suport for the Melb storm over here.I dont think the Storm care cos they are the best and some ppl in NSW hate the cup leaving there state.Well its going to happen again.Go Storm Back2Back in 08.
 
Smiley43 said:
Dramatic dive in NRL club support

By Steve Mascord | June 05, 2008 12:00am

ORGANISERS of a survey which indicates 400,000 fewer people consider
Brisbane remain the best-supported club with 1,273,000 fans. Melbourne are next with 769,000 .
Click to expand...

765,000 of them are Victorian
 
Red_and_white said:
Hated in NSW/ACT. Attitudes vary from hated to irrelevance in QLD. Not heard about in WA and SA. Viewed as inconsequential in its home state for all of the year except one week.

If Melbourne hadn't of been playing in 3 GFs over the past few years they would undoubtedly be the least liked first grade football team in this country, and even now you could put up a strong argument for this title.
Click to expand...

And this is the funniest thread I've read on this board all year!

Please do keep it coming :thumbsu::thumbsu:
 
I don't mind the Storm, I just like stirring Victorians up more :)

And anyway, we have lots of spectator sports out here and the Storm do very well with what they've got, plenty of sports and clubs out here that would love to have their average crowd.

Take the AFL glasses off and look at the bigger picture.
 

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bruce29 said:
Don' t live in Rugby heartland, so can someone tell me why Manly is hated?
Are they the Collingwood of rugby?
Click to expand...

I would say yes. However, I don't know why Collingwood are hated...

Manly are hated because they were seen as always trying to "buy" premierships by recruiting talented players from Western Sydney... it's a bit of a class thing - with Manly being from the more Middle Class Northern Peninsula as opposed to more Working Class areas the other Sydney teams came from... hence the "Fibro's versus Silvertails" rivalry (there's a doco on it on the ABC in October).
 
Smiley43 said:

Other quirky findings include North Queensland fans being 17 per cent more likely to drink alcohol at home and Wests Tigers supporter being 58 per cent more likely to drive a Lexus.
An NRL spokesman said: "This is like any other poll. It's frustrating if people believe fewer people are playing and watching the game because the figures say the opposite."


The also forgot to add the fact that 100% of Dragon's supporters still haven't got over '99.
Click to expand...


Cowboy fans drink at home, probably they live next door to the Stadium :)
Tigers fans probably aren't even rich enough to even buy a Lexus :D but want to buy one anyway

But I am a Storm fan, does that mean I have to have Medibank as my Health Insurer? Drive a Suzuki? and use HostPlus as my Super? wrong on all 3 counts
HBA, Ford and AustSuper (formerly STA).

Take a Poll on people who don't like taking Polls and you probably find 75% of the population missing...

Walk down Darlinghurst Rd with a Storm Jumper and you won't believe the reaction you get, all positive, they hate Manly, everyones second team is Manly's opponent.
 
CumberlandsAshes said:
I would say yes. However, I don't know why Collingwood are hated...

Manly are hated because they were seen as always trying to "buy" premierships by recruiting talented players from Western Sydney... it's a bit of a class thing - with Manly being from the more Middle Class Northern Peninsula as opposed to more Working Class areas the other Sydney teams came from... hence the "Fibro's versus Silvertails" rivalry (there's a doco on it on the ABC in October).
Click to expand...

Also after what they did to North Sydney.
 
The Storm always used to be a LOT of people's second favourite team. Well, that was up until now anyway........



http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24416087-10389,00.html

Melbourne Storm faces mounting ill-feeling
Dean Ritchie and Dave Donaghy
September 29, 2008 12:00am

MELBOURNE will have to overcome a tidal wave of ill-feeling if it is to defy the odds and beat Manly in the NRL grand final.

While it once was considered everyone's second favourite team, the never-ending grapple tackle controversy and last week's extraordinary attack on the integrity of the game has seen Storm plummet in popularity.

So much so, the club fans traditionally loved to hate, Manly, will start as a warm fan favourite on Sunday at Sydney's ANZ Stadium.

Storm may add further fuel to the fire today when it considers appealing against the record $50,000 fine following enraged comments by coach Craig Bellamy and chief executive Brian Waldron regarding skipper Cameron Smith's season-ending two-week suspension.

The club's board will consider its options when the breach notice is formally dispatched today. Waldron was contrite when contacted last night.

"I don't even want to talk about it," he said. "We won't say any more until we get notification. We've got a game to prepare for."

Storm is desperate to put the controversy behind it in an effort to focus on Sunday's decider but even one of the club's former greats, Robbie Kearns, conceded few fans would be in Melbourne's corner.

"All Victorians will be going for Melbourne this week," Kearns said.

"But I'd imagine everyone else will be following Manly. They (Manly) used to be (hated) but I don't think that's the case any more."

Manly was yesterday installed a $1.80 favourite to turn the tables on its 2007 grand final conqueror. Melbourne is $2.

Sea Eagles players are expected to use their representative snubbing by Bellamy, the NSW State of Origin coach, as added motivation this week.

Ten Storm players played Origin this year – four for the Blues – while Manly's sole representative in the series decider was fullback Brett Stewart who played only the final 20 minutes.

Brent Kite, Matt Orford, Glenn Stewart, Josh Perry and Anthony Watmough were all overlooked.

"It will be added motivation for those that should have been there like your Kites and Watmoughs," said former premiership-winning Manly forward Mark Carroll.

"They will want to stick it up Bellamy and show that he was wrong and that they should have picked them. That's what I'd be saying if I was one of those players.

"If they go out and win the comp, they could say they are better players than the ones Bellamy chose for NSW. If they had picked them, they might have won the series."

Carroll agreed that his former club would enjoy the majority of support this week.

"Melbourne have been carrying on," Carroll said. "I think a lot of people who used to hate Manly might now support them in the grand final."


~~~~~~~~~~


http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24414945-10389,00.html

Storm replace Sea Eagles as the team we love to hate
Robert Craddock
September 29, 2008 12:00am

CAN you do it? Can you shout those two words which have been forever blacklisted from your sporting vocabulary . . . 'Go Manly'?

Sadly, that's what the rugby league season has come down to for thousands of disillusioned fans and it is a desperate state of affairs.

For the first time in a sportwatching life I find myself at peace with the prospect of the dreaded Manly, the team we all loathe, winning the rugby league grand final.

And it's not because I have the slightest bit of affection for the Sea Eagles.

It's just that fellow grand finalist Melbourne Storm has become a total pain in the southern hemisphere.

Storm officials and players have become such champion whingers that even a grand final win may not placate them.

There's every chance they could accept the trophy on Sunday night then give the world a sermon on how they still feel wronged, compromised and cheated ... don't put it past Melbourne.

It could be the only sporting team in history whose tears on the victory dais could come not from sheer joy but the fact that it still feels persecuted.

Melbourne used to be many people's second favourite team, the cheeky over-achievers with the strong Queensland flavour. The team you couldn't dislike.

But its siege mentality has become so deep-seated that if coach Craig Bellamy saw Santa Claus come down his chimney on Christmas Day his first words would probably be, "sorry mate this is a closed session ...and don't give me that crap about goodwill to all men".

It's sad for Melbourne that at a time when people should be rejoicing over its achievement in making three grand finals in a row from AFL heartland, the club is leaving many people cold. Bellamy said after his side's pulsating finals win over Brisbane he thought his head was going to explode.

A week later, after Friday night's nonsensical outburst which cost his club $50,000, it sounded as if his head must have exploded some time between games and Melbourne staff did the worst patch-up job since Humpty Dumpty trying to put it back together.

Bellamy and hot-blooded Storm chief executive Brian Waldron knew that by blasting league officials over the Cameron Smith case, and effectively suggesting they were robbed, they stood every chance of being heavily fined.

So they subscribed to the John McEnroe theory that if you are going to go down you might as well bring out the heavy artillery and do it in style.

Bellamy made the occasional fair point but the impact of any logical observation was lost in the hysterical delivery.

Bellamy claimed some journalists had a vendetta over grapple tackles, and he has become obsessed about the fact others have got away with the type of tackle that rubbed Smith out of the grand final.

The Storm even handed out DVDs showing as much at its Friday press conference.

The point was fair enough - others have got away with as much - but what Smith did was still wrong.

It's a bit like being the unlucky motorist nabbed at a stop sign by a lurking police car when you know dozens of others got through unscathed.

Protest all you like but you broke rules just as clearly as Smith did.

That's why, in the betting market Bellamy alluded to, Smith was $1.18 to be suspended and $4.25 to escape.

Bellamy said the betting market had a "smelly" sense about it.

It didn't. It was based on common sense, not inside knowledge. Once nabbed, Smith was certain to get a stretch because there was no way out.

In any case it was just one of those lightweight novelty markets bookies put out to promote themselves, not one shaped by a huge volume of money.

If you had waved a few $100 notes in front of that bookmaker's nose he would probably have fallen off his stand.

The great plus for Bellamy's outburst is that his team will love it.

The Storm is a great team but some of its players are tiring. They need a lift.

They know that no matter what happens to them their coach is behind them in good times and bad. It's a nice platform for a coach entering grand final week.

The extraordinary size of the fine against the Storm came after NRL boss David Gallop was concerned about the image of the game being tarnished by some seriously wayward accusations.

He shouldn't have worried. The sporting public has become almost desensitised to the grumblings of league coaches.

There is so much griping and whingeing going on that people find it hard to tell who is making sense.
 
Couldn't give a stuff to be honest. Also from my experience Queensland does not hate the Storm. Maybe they do now after the steal against the Broncos but before that it was nothing compared to NSW's anti Storm rubbish. I really don't care about other supporters. What annoys me is that it creeps into the commentary every ####in game.
 

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Melbourne Storm - The Least Popular Football Team In Australia

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