Mr Anderson
Senior List
My family emigrated from the UK and arrived in Victoria in the early 1970s. Parents had no interest in sports, and had no idea about football. After about a year, the neighbours - keen Bulldogs supporters - thought a proper 5 year old Aussie kid should know about the football, and prevailed on my parents to take me to a game - at Western Oval. Can't remember much about the game other than it was cold, but the guys in yellow and black won, so I thought I was a good luck charm, and hence started the love for the Tigers.
In the late 70s was lucky enough to have friends whose parents seemed very keen on football (and had connections) so would get taken to the football a few weekends a year. One of my mates' father was on the board of the old South Melbourne FC, and would get us into the rooms when the Tigers played (although sitting in the old Lakeside Oval Members stand meant I wasn't allowed to wear my Tiger colours or cheer if we won - which was pretty rare anyway. I was there in the last round of 1980, keeping very quiet as the Tigers got thumped). As a school kid in 1980, I though the success was a given, and when I was taken to the 1982 Grand Final, I never imagined for a moment that would be the best it would be for 3+ decades. I started taking myself to the footy in the 1980s, catching up with mates, and loved singing the song on the rare occasions we won.
In 1991 I was lucky enough to marry a girl who had no interest in football but was (and still is) very happy for me to go to the matches. When our 2 daughters were born, it became a family joke that I sang them the Tiger theme song every night, and decked them out in yellow and black every time we won. I started taking them to the football when they were about 5 - although kick-to-kick on the ground after the game was dangerous for little girls - and signed them up as RFC members. We had an agreement that I had to take them to at least one game every year that they got to sing the song at in the end. There were several years we attended 8 or 9 games... which, living in country Victoria, was quite the effort. They've both grown up to be avid Tigers, both are Gold members, often going to the games together when I couldn't, and the (4th) happiest day of my life was 30 September 2017 when the 3 of us were in the very last row of the Ponsford stand together, all crying and hugging as the years of frustration washed away on one glorious, scarcely believable afternoon.
This year, one daughter has relocated to London, but she was up watching on the WatchAFL app, while we face-timed her from the MCG last Saturday. And my 80 year old Dad, who still has almost no interest in sports, watched the game on TV and sent me a message at half time telling me the Tigers were clearly the best team. Could have knocked me over with a feather (and I didn't know he even knew how to send a text message!!).
In the late 70s was lucky enough to have friends whose parents seemed very keen on football (and had connections) so would get taken to the football a few weekends a year. One of my mates' father was on the board of the old South Melbourne FC, and would get us into the rooms when the Tigers played (although sitting in the old Lakeside Oval Members stand meant I wasn't allowed to wear my Tiger colours or cheer if we won - which was pretty rare anyway. I was there in the last round of 1980, keeping very quiet as the Tigers got thumped). As a school kid in 1980, I though the success was a given, and when I was taken to the 1982 Grand Final, I never imagined for a moment that would be the best it would be for 3+ decades. I started taking myself to the footy in the 1980s, catching up with mates, and loved singing the song on the rare occasions we won.
In 1991 I was lucky enough to marry a girl who had no interest in football but was (and still is) very happy for me to go to the matches. When our 2 daughters were born, it became a family joke that I sang them the Tiger theme song every night, and decked them out in yellow and black every time we won. I started taking them to the football when they were about 5 - although kick-to-kick on the ground after the game was dangerous for little girls - and signed them up as RFC members. We had an agreement that I had to take them to at least one game every year that they got to sing the song at in the end. There were several years we attended 8 or 9 games... which, living in country Victoria, was quite the effort. They've both grown up to be avid Tigers, both are Gold members, often going to the games together when I couldn't, and the (4th) happiest day of my life was 30 September 2017 when the 3 of us were in the very last row of the Ponsford stand together, all crying and hugging as the years of frustration washed away on one glorious, scarcely believable afternoon.
This year, one daughter has relocated to London, but she was up watching on the WatchAFL app, while we face-timed her from the MCG last Saturday. And my 80 year old Dad, who still has almost no interest in sports, watched the game on TV and sent me a message at half time telling me the Tigers were clearly the best team. Could have knocked me over with a feather (and I didn't know he even knew how to send a text message!!).