So why are you a Cats fan?

[vinum coupe]

You know what sticks in my mind the most?
It was my dad leaving before I went to bed to go and sleep at Kardinia park to get the tickets we wanted before a final.

I'll never forget that.
Sure, doing it one week is ok. But when we won, I'm sure he thought "FFS here I go again"

 

[SJ]

Did anyone else actually start out hating AFL?

I know I did- I'd especially hate it when I was really young, cause we'd never get to see the 6.30pm-7.30pm hour of Hey Hey its Saturday, because of that bloody Footy Replay.


It wasnt until I was taken to a live match at the MCG is when I did a complete 180.

I can't stand the AFL now.

I love the game of Australian Football and the Geelong Football Club though.

 

[Commando]

Did anyone else actually start out hating AFL?

I know I did- I'd especially hate it when I was really young, cause we'd never get to see the 6.30pm-7.30pm hour of Hey Hey its Saturday, because of that bloody Footy Replay.


It wasnt until I was taken to a live match at the MCG is when I did a complete 180.

I hated HHIS because I often missed out on AFL today...

 

[BotsMaster]

Originally was an Essendon supporter due to heavy influence from an uncle of mine, then a friend of mine brought a Geelong pencil case to school and I thought it looked really cool. So I stuck with the Cats ever since.

Found my old (and quite small) no.17 geelong jumper at my parents place couple of months back.

 

[Cat A]

Dad came home once in '89 and said they were on top of the ladder, and after that it was just bang! Geelong nut. From having no idea at all to Blue and White blood within a second.
It's amazing how it grabs ya and it grabs ya for life.

 

[Play it Sam]

First memory. Doug wade unloads a drop punt for his 100th goal.
Ball smashes into my white furry bonnet behind the goals. What a privilege, he got it!
It's on old black and white footage somewhere.
Hooked ever since, what a no brainer. LOL

 

[manboob]

You know what sticks in my mind the most?
It was my dad leaving before I went to bed to go and sleep at Kardinia park to get the tickets we wanted before a final.

I'll never forget that.
Sure, doing it one week is ok. But when we won, I'm sure he thought "FFS here I go again"

Love stories like this VC! For me it was memories of getting to the G before the finals, this was back in the old days as an AFL member when you would almost campout then rush inside when the gates open at 7am to get the best seat you could. Before being bored out off your titts waiting for the game to start!

 

[Emperor66669]

I'm a cats fan cause I was born in Geelong, it runs in our blood to be a Geelong cats fan ...

 

[Vdubs]

First memory. Doug wade unloads a drop punt for his 100th goal.
Ball smashes into my white furry bonnet behind the goals. What a privilege, he got it!
It's on old black and white footage somewhere.
Hooked ever since, what a no brainer. LOL

Welcome Sam, you must be about my vintage. I was there for that game. I think he was taken off in the lastQ, after his 100th, v the hapless Dogs, iirc.

 

[Cataholic]

I identified with Geelong as a kid simply because I had been there as an infant.....

My earliest memory is sitting by the radio every Saturday listening to 3GL (I was devastated when 3GL went to FM and we couldn't recieve it anymore) and the likes of Malarkey, Peake, Bews, Bruns, the Nankervis Bros and Robert Neale running around.....

It was a torturous ride though for so many years......we had some incredible players grace the club and I grew up thinking a premiership wasn't far away, but the last 7 years have made it all worthwhile.

 

[Play it Sam]

Welcome Sam, you must be about my vintage. I was there for that game. I think he was taken off in the lastQ, after his 100th, v the hapless Dogs, iirc.

Thanks. Was VERY young, lol. Stood behind the cheer squad because we loved their chaos but couldn't afford to join. Couldn't swear either because our parish priest stood on the hill behind us (for 40 years) Made up for that last Sunday. hahaha

 

[RiggoDiesel44]

Posted this before but don't mind re-running.....HUGE CATS FAN!

I was channel surfing on Oct. 1, 2011 and stopped on ESPN for a moment. WTF??? Australian Rules Football!?!?!?!? I hadn't seen it since ESPN put games on when I was in high school in the early 80s. ESPN was very new then, and used footy merely to fill up hours with sports.....any sports (they didn't have rights to football/baseball/hockey/hoops yet). So I locked it in about mid 2nd qtr (right before Cameron Ling got his nose bashed by someone's head). Well, Pies are up a bit and not knowing either of the teams then, I started cheering on Geelong....just wanting to see a closer game. I don't know why, but I just thought the Cats' players were cooler, especially Hawkins and Enright. You know the rest, Cats come back with a vengeance......and I became a Geelong fan, right on the spot. Oddly enough, I flew to Melbourne a mere month later with my dad on one of his business trips. While he was speaking about some infectious disease or some such, I drove out to KP, checked out the stadium and dropped a couple hundred on Cats swag (damn, stuff is expensive in AUS!!!). Later, I took the MCG tour, dunked a few in the netball court, kicked a few goals in the footy simulator, and sat in the same dressing room the Cats were in a month earlier.

I know....it makes me a bandwaggoner. Can't help it. Like I said before, it's like that hot girl you meet and are immediately smitten. So now I've got a season and a half under my belt. Favorite game so far? Easy.....the Hawkins bomb at the buzzer, 2012 Rd. 19. Just awesome!!!

 

[Whit3y]

Ablett snr, Brownless, Couch, Bairstow, McCrabb. why wouldnt you be a cats fan if u were born in the early late 70s/early 80s.

 

[steady2]

Dad went to the 63 GF but I was little too young to know much about footy, living in country Vic it was the local team that was most important. A few years later, not my father, but my cousin and uncle put me on to the Cats, and I saw Polly, Billy Goggin and Denis Marshal on TV and that was it. Later I found out that Doug Wade's sister lived in our town married to a local guy, my respect for her went up. A Horsham girl.

At school most kids were Essendon supporters as it was a Bomber zone with a sprinkling of Collingwood, Melbourne, Carlton and Sainters. One day someone said "Hey Dutton barracks for Fitzroy!", "What! Hey Dutton do you really barrack for Fitzroy?" "Yeah" (sheepishly) "WHY OH WHY?" "My Grandpa got a few games with them back in the 1930's". "Oh you poor sucker!!"

 

[FredLeDeux]

Ablett snr, Brownless, Couch, Bairstow, McCrabb. why wouldnt you be a cats fan if u were born in the early late 70s/early 80s.

Because of that dud Hocking?

 

[footscore]

Posted this before but don't mind re-running.....HUGE CATS FAN!

I was channel surfing on Oct. 1, 2011 and stopped on ESPN for a moment. WTF??? Australian Rules Football!?!?!?!? I hadn't seen it since ESPN put games on when I was in high school in the early 80s. ESPN was very new then, and used footy merely to fill up hours with sports.....any sports (they didn't have rights to football/baseball/hockey/hoops yet). So I locked it in about mid 2nd qtr (right before Cameron Ling got his nose bashed by someone's head). Well, Pies are up a bit and not knowing either of the teams then, I started cheering on Geelong....just wanting to see a closer game. I don't know why, but I just thought the Cats' players were cooler, especially Hawkins and Enright. You know the rest, Cats come back with a vengeance......and I became a Geelong fan, right on the spot. Oddly enough, I flew to Melbourne a mere month later with my dad on one of his business trips. While he was speaking about some infectious disease or some such, I drove out to KP, checked out the stadium and dropped a couple hundred on Cats swag (damn, stuff is expensive in AUS!!!). Later, I took the MCG tour, dunked a few in the netball court, kicked a few goals in the footy simulator, and sat in the same dressing room the Cats were in a month earlier.

I know....it makes me a bandwaggoner. Can't help it. Like I said before, it's like that hot girl you meet and are immediately smitten. So now I've got a season and a half under my belt. Favorite game so far? Easy.....the Hawkins bomb at the buzzer, 2012 Rd. 19. Just awesome!!!

that's unreal that story

Were you born in Oz and then moved over to the US later on?

Shame you only stumbled across them in 2011, you missed some seriously ridiculous football the previous 4 seasons.

 

[BotsMaster]

that's unreal that story

Were you born in Oz and then moved over to the US later on?

Shame you only stumbled across them in 2011, you missed some seriously ridiculous football the previous 4 seasons.

And he missed the 2004 prelim, 2005 semi, 2006 season, 2008 Grand Final and 2010 prelim.

 

[RegHickeyStand]

I was a little kid standing outside Moorabin in '68. Big crowd and Dad and I were waiting to get in. The crowd was roaring and to me that could only mean inside Doug Wade must have been kicking goals, and plenty of them. I turned and said to Dad "Do you hear that? I bet we must be winning!" Dad said he didn't think so. I couldn't understand why he thought that, but he was right. When we got in we were getting thrashed. Paddy Guinane had just belted Ken Newlands right on the wing where we were, and big Bill Ryan was about to belt Paddy. Paddy wisely ran for his life. The game went on. Wade was put to centre half back to get a kick. And boy oh boy, did he get a kick! The crowd roared when he got one because they went a mile; huge kicks. And that was the only good for us that day. We got belted. Before that and even younger I can remember I barracked for the Cats, but didn't know what it meant, really. I remember playing with the next door neighbour's kid and telling him I did. I remember he seriously asked me if I barracked for his cat. I told him no, but it got me thinking. I might have been 4. So really, other than it being a family tradition, I have no idea. I do know that I hate other teams and think people who barrack for them are silly.

 

[footscore]

And he missed the 2004 prelim, 2005 semi, 2006 season, 2008 Grand Final and 2010 prelim.

and 89, 92, 94, 95, 97 (Colbert's infamous mark...)

 

[BotsMaster]

and 89, 92, 94, 95, 97 (Colbert's infamous mark...)

TBH I missed 89, 92 and 94.

 

[Munich]

I was another bulldogs supporter as Dad followed them. Then in grade 2 or 3 I switched to the cats as my best friend at the time was mad Geelong.

Am very pleased I decided to jump ship! Poor Dad has never seen his club win a flag.

 

[mac_cat]

Dad went to the 63 GF but I was little too young to know much about footy, living in country Vic it was the local team that was most important. A few years later, not my father, but my cousin and uncle put me on to the Cats, and I saw Polly, Billy Goggin and Denis Marshal on TV and that was it. Later I found out that Doug Wade's sister lived in our town married to a local guy, my respect for her went up. A Horsham girl.

At school most kids were Essendon supporters as it was a Bomber zone with a sprinkling of Collingwood, Melbourne, Carlton and Sainters. One day someone said "Hey Dutton barracks for Fitzroy!", "What! Hey Dutton do you really barrack for Fitzroy?" "Yeah" (sheepishly) "WHY OH WHY?" "My Grandpa got a few games with them back in the 1930's". "Oh you poor sucker!!"

I grew up in the Essendon zone too (Hopetoun and Horsham), and apart from my family, didn't know any other Cats fans. And they were the grim times of the 70s and early/mid 80s, when success was rare. Luckily I moved to Melb in time to see the Gary Ablett Snr era, many fond memories of him kicking bags of goals at the MCG!

 

[Play it Sam]

And he missed the 2004 prelim, 2005 semi, 2006 season, 2008 Grand Final and 2010 prelim.

So Riggo, that's some serious heartburn you've avoided. But you've hitched your bandwagon to the stars, so good call.
Looks like you already bleed blue and white.
Is Bloomington a smaller cool town like G town? (the Freo forum flogs are calling us Geetroit this week, that's a laugh coming from we of the never never)

 

[Silverado]

Being from the country, going to Melbourne was a seldom event but during one of my trips, my uncle took me to a Geelong v Saints game at Moorabbin as a very young kid. We went after half time because it was either free or cheaper(?). He bought me a badge of some player whom I was too young to even remember, that was it, been a cats man ever since!

Many years later I played on that ground during some rep games, we got hammered but I still loved playing there in front of the 12 people brave enough to face the weather.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Being from the country, going to Melbourne was a seldom event but during one of my trips, my uncle took me to a Geelong v Saints game at Moorabbin as a very young kid. We went after half time because it was either free or cheaper(?). He bought me a badge of some player whom I was too young to even remember, that was it, been a cats man ever since!

Many years later I played on that ground during some rep games, we got hammered but I still loved playing there in front of the 12 people brave enough to face the weather.

The area around (well, actually, on) the ground used to be notorious for "localised Friday night thunderstorms" during St Kilda's worst eras.