What kind of fan are you?
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Is the premiership cup half full or half empty?
I reckon in football more than anything you are either one or the other, but never in the middle.
But optimism v pessimism is inbuilt, it’s the way you live, it extends past football so I guess it’s not something you can change easily.
The optimists amongst us think we can win the flag every year, have a pretty good list, 50/50 kids will come good, every draft pick will be a good one, we can win this week and will probably win next week, we will beat ASADA, we can come back from any in game predicament. A player inured for 6 years can still make it….
The pessimists (inexplicably to me) spend their time running down the club, our list is horrible, has too many holes, we are too slow, to old, drafted poorly, can’t win this week, we will probably lose to the bottom 4 teams next year, we have to fix this (hasn’t even happened yet). We are ten goals up with 10 minutes left but can still lose.
I don’t think optimism vs pessimism is linked at all to rationalism. It’s a state of mind. If I say we can win the next 5 games, even though we are playing the top 5 sides, I’m being positive, I’m putting a positive slant on every issue. I know it will be hard but I think on the good side of every 50 50 contest. Optimists see opportunity, pessimists see problems.
Personally I’m a supreme optimist, if we are twelve goals down I still think we can win, I’m rounding off the odd points and saying, ok it’s a straight 12 kicks now, we have a quarter left, that’s nearly a goal every 3 minutes, pretty easy, did it against Melbourne in 92, nth in 01.. my optimistic brain can pull out any stat from years gone by to try to justify my positive feeling.
But the big draw-back of being the optimist is you are easy targets for opponent fans, I find myself talking us up all the time, which brings the inevitable fall, and the return fire crap from other fans. And when I fall, I fall hard – like after that Carlton final loss, I was inconsolable.
Optimistic people generally feel that good events are linked somehow to something they have done, but bad things were just a freak occurrence of bad luck, which is where superstition kicks in for me. If I’m sitting in a particular spot, and we go on a run of goals, I’m not moving an inch. If I watched a game at a new pub and we win, I’m back there the next week.
The pre-season is when the optimist is in full swing, it even sways some pessimists to come change sides for a while, there are no poor results to bring the dark clouds, so everything coming out of the club is positive.
So that’s me, a supreme optimist fan with a heavy touch of superstition
What are you?
Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Is the premiership cup half full or half empty?
I reckon in football more than anything you are either one or the other, but never in the middle.
But optimism v pessimism is inbuilt, it’s the way you live, it extends past football so I guess it’s not something you can change easily.
The optimists amongst us think we can win the flag every year, have a pretty good list, 50/50 kids will come good, every draft pick will be a good one, we can win this week and will probably win next week, we will beat ASADA, we can come back from any in game predicament. A player inured for 6 years can still make it….
The pessimists (inexplicably to me) spend their time running down the club, our list is horrible, has too many holes, we are too slow, to old, drafted poorly, can’t win this week, we will probably lose to the bottom 4 teams next year, we have to fix this (hasn’t even happened yet). We are ten goals up with 10 minutes left but can still lose.
I don’t think optimism vs pessimism is linked at all to rationalism. It’s a state of mind. If I say we can win the next 5 games, even though we are playing the top 5 sides, I’m being positive, I’m putting a positive slant on every issue. I know it will be hard but I think on the good side of every 50 50 contest. Optimists see opportunity, pessimists see problems.
Personally I’m a supreme optimist, if we are twelve goals down I still think we can win, I’m rounding off the odd points and saying, ok it’s a straight 12 kicks now, we have a quarter left, that’s nearly a goal every 3 minutes, pretty easy, did it against Melbourne in 92, nth in 01.. my optimistic brain can pull out any stat from years gone by to try to justify my positive feeling.
But the big draw-back of being the optimist is you are easy targets for opponent fans, I find myself talking us up all the time, which brings the inevitable fall, and the return fire crap from other fans. And when I fall, I fall hard – like after that Carlton final loss, I was inconsolable.
Optimistic people generally feel that good events are linked somehow to something they have done, but bad things were just a freak occurrence of bad luck, which is where superstition kicks in for me. If I’m sitting in a particular spot, and we go on a run of goals, I’m not moving an inch. If I watched a game at a new pub and we win, I’m back there the next week.
The pre-season is when the optimist is in full swing, it even sways some pessimists to come change sides for a while, there are no poor results to bring the dark clouds, so everything coming out of the club is positive.
So that’s me, a supreme optimist fan with a heavy touch of superstition
What are you?
