Team Loyalty

[Voice]

Sorry if this has been done before.
Interested to hear if people had trouble changing from their original VFL/AFL teams to the Crows/Power, or, if like myself, the thought never crossed your mind to change.
I know alot of people that stuck with their team but also like to see the Crows win, except when they play their original side.
I understand that when I now say that i'm a parochial South Australian it's not going to make sense to alot of people but I have plenty of passion for 2 SA teams, Sturt and the Croweaters.
Not judging anyone if they did change, just thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss.
BTW, wiki's description of why we are called Croweaters is because early settlers used to eat crows breast when there was a shortage of red meat http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/croweater .
Interesting that our first AFL side was then called the Crows

[Wedgie]

Yeah, its been a gripe of my mine, I could never work out why South Australians are Crow Eaters yet so many South Australians decided to follow the Crows which is virtually the opposite.
Its un South Australian!

[JK]

I was a pretty mad Collingwood fan, but must admit I jumped on the Crows band-wagon when they first commenced for a combination of reasons:

- It fit well with my social group at the time
- I got to watch more Norwood boys (pretty much the reason I'd been following Collingwood previously)
- I got to see live AFL footy each weekend
- I was playing Amateur League at the time and that ruled out most Norwood games, but not the local AFL games which were never played on Saturday afternoons.

I noticed a weird conflict for sure in those early years, because I couldn't get Collingwood out of my system .. A number of ago I realised that there's only one club I'd been attached to since I could remember anything, and that was Norwood.

So I now find myself going to most local AFL games (Crows and Power) and I take an interest in both teams, but Im not passionate about any AFL club, and remain a neutral observer (probably explains why I spend %90 of the time at those games in the bar).

[Wedgie]

I was a pretty mad Collingwood fan, but must admit I jumped on the Crows band-wagon when they first commenced for a combination of reasons:

- It fit well with my social group at the time

Doesn't sound like a Norwood/Crows supporter!

[Voice]

- I got to see live AFL footy each weekend

That is a very good point that I hadn't really thought of. Damn it costs alot to follow an interstate team. I go to Carlton games in Melbourne at least 5 times a year and it costs me a bit of coin, especially once the missus goes shopping.
Also we try to get over to Melb for at least 2 or 3 Fremantle games so the missus can see her team play (crazy woman she is). It's a little harder to go to Perth but we are heading there for the Fremantle v Carlton game in July.
Geez, this footy thing is costing me.

[Psyber]

I'd never followed "foreign" football in Victoria, apart from a vague fondness for Hawthorn - not even enough to bother to check the scores though.
I objected to the way the "Alternative Football League" was formed as an extension of the VFL rather than as a true national league.
However, I followed the Crows in that league because they included enough Norwood players to give me an interest.

Doing so also got up the noses of my Port Adelaide supporting acquaintainces, who were arguing a composite team could not attract the support Port would have done had they been given the first licence..

[rod_rooster]

I never followed the VFL at all before the Crows came in. I started following Hawthorn because Darren Jarman went there. He was and still is my favourite player and who was i to argue with him. When he started playing for the Crows they became my second side.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Ever since I first saw Peter Hudson play, he was my childhood hero. Because he played for Hawthorn, I became a Hawk in 1968. Up to the time the Crows entered the AFL, the Hawks had given me 7 premierships and provided hundreds of special memories.

I was a member for years, I had raised money for the club, and done some recruitment work as well. Supporting the Crows was simply not an option. Supporting the Power was only something I would do in a very bad nightmare.

Since the Crows, the Hawks have won 2 more premierships, so I really couldn't complain, even if I wanted to. I think I made the right choice to stick with the Hawks

[Jimmy]

When the crows came in, I was 10 and a mad double blues fan then and didnt really have a vfl/afl team. And from day one, with the help of the old man, knew that an SA side in this new league would slowly kill the sanfl. Always kinda disliked the crows but kinda got a very very soft spot for them only coz my bro likes em and they are an SA team, but never enough to barrack for them. In 95 after a few years of carlton support, I changed to the saints coz of plugga and never looked back on that side of the border, although I only ever waste my energy on sturt, I like to see the saints win. 97 was brutal, watching the gf with my then gf and her family...mad crows fans.

in other words, never any question where my loyalties lie...the double blues

[Hondo]

I never had a VFL team I was passionate about pre 1991. I followed the VFL but, like other sports I follow, found it hard to emotionally attach to a team I had no real connection with. I had a soft spot for Geelong due to a remote family connection and because of Blighty and they remain my second team.

When the Crows came in I felt a connection immediately. It was made up of SANFL players I had followed closely and I wanted to see them succeed. It never crossed my mind to pick a Melbourne based team instead!

One of the uglier sides of football in this state I discovered since posting on here is the judgements that are made of people like me who chose to support Adelaide. Who you support is your own choice and no-one should be made to feel they have to justify it to anybody.

[goraw]

[quote="Constance_Perm"]I was a pretty mad Collingwood fan. is there any other kind?

[gadj1976]

I've followed Carlton since about 81 or 82 when VFL replay used to be on on Sunday arvo's. When I knew there was a "Blues" team I stuck with them. Anyone I hear of changing teams, either when the Crows came in or Port came in, I call "turncoat" just because I can.

I've never considered changing to the Crows, because 1. I can't stand them 2. when they came in I couldn't consider barracking against them.

[Sojourner]

I only ever followed the VFL loosley, much like I do with the WAFL now, I originally barracked for Carlton simply because Mark Naley played for them and they were Navy Blue and White and had a jumper similar to the Panthers, as a teenager I elevated Geelong player Gary Ablett to Idol Status and changed to barracking for Geelong, Ablett appealed to me for both his football ability and his Christianity, which was something I had discovered myself at the same time. When the Crows came on the scene naturally I barracked for the Crows for the same reason that most of every one else did being that they were a side from S.A and had a number of SAFC people involved in the playing list. I got sick of the Crows with what I felt was disrespect being consistantly shown to the SANFL competition by means of the Crows taking players out of matches to be "emergencys", then the issue of AFL listed players making themselves not available for SANFL finals put a bad taste in my mouth for the Crows - the Power I automatically disliked, so it made little difference anyway. Result being a move back to Geelong! I have since had the opportunity to travel to Vic to watch football and of all the Vic club matches I have seen its the Geelong games that have all the atmosphere and I feel a part of it, I just wish it wasnt so far to have to go to see an SANFL type football atmosphere unlike the one sided affairs we get here in S.A

[Wedgie]

I think people are too harsh on a lot of Crows supporters (god knows a hell of a lot of them deserve it though) as most Crows supporters I know similar to Hondo had virtually no interest in the VFL pre 1991, in those days it was only the diehards or freaks like me that followed teams in more comps than just the SANFL.

[brod]

Was brought up in a Hawthorn household, and so grew up as a Hawks fan. Having supported a team so strongly, there was never a chance that I would be willing and /or able to support another side...so therefore I stayed true to the Hawks

[Voice]

Hopefully from this thread the media and the like might realise there isn't 650,000 Crows supporters and 300,000 Port supporters which seems to be a common thing to hear over here. Around 50% of my friends and associates (which is not a small group let me tell you) do not follow either of the 2 SA teams.
BTW i didn't start this thread to chastise anyone for changing teams, just thought it would be interesting reading.

[FOURTH ESTATE]

Have always followed Richmond since I was a 5yr old in 1969 and will never change.
What annoys me the most is people who followed a VFL/AFL team before the crows/power came in and were sucked in and followed the stupid rantings of KG & Cornes "That as you are a South Australian you must follow a SA team and not any of the evil empire teams south of the border"

That is one of the main reasons why I dislike the Cows and hate the Ferals as they betrayed the rest of the SANFL when they lied and went behind their back and destroyed a vibrant local comp.

[Hondo]

The Crows didn't destroy the local comp, it was the expanding AFL that forced the creation of a local AFL team. The Crows were a by product of that expansion.

If we didn't get a team based in Adelaide 90% all the players we lost would still have gone to other AFL clubs anyway. We still would have got saturation TV coverage of AFL and 4 of the SANFL clubs would have died by now.

Even the Port betrayal at the time did nothing more than bring the Crows start date forward 2 years.

I know it's hard to swallow, but there's more far cash being generated out of footy in this state from the 2 AFL teams than there would be if there were no AFL teams here. Also, I don't know if as many people "jumped ship" from other VFL teams as some make out. The VFL barely got coverage until page 3 of the sports pages in the 80s and many South Australians followed it from a distance without passionately supporting any one team. Those that did like wedgie made the right decision to stick with their team. The rest naturally went with the local team as the Western Australians did with the Eagles.

The slide of the SANFL began before 1991.

[Dirko]

Started following Carlton when Steve Kernahan went over there in 86.

The Crows nor Port have ever given me a good enough reason to switch.

[Zelezny Chucks]

Started following Carlton when Steve Kernahan went over there in 86.

The Crows nor Port have ever given me a good enough reason to switch.

Could say Carlton haven't done anything to keep you either!