2013 Membership - THE ROAR IS BACK

[Smokey]

The sooner they put nought into tassie the better, get the hawks out of there and see a drop of 10k tassie supporters off their membership total to put them back in their box. tbh I still find it hard to believe they have 50k members in melbourne, just dont buy it.

Since Hawthorn came to power with their 1971 Grand Final win, in the next 41 years to 2012 they have only missed the finals 15 times, with their longest stretch of 'outs' being 5 years from '02 to '06.  In the same period Collingwood have missed 17 times with their longest stretch of 6 'outs' from '95 to '01.  In that time Hawthorn have won 9 flags and finished runner up 5 times.  On those figures alone it's not hard to see how their supporter base could have and would have built up with such a long period of sustained success.  They had powerful sides with charismatic figures (Hudson, Matthews, Knights, Brereton, Dunstall, Platten, just to name a few) and sheer weight of successful results would have proven irresistible to many young kids over time.  I still think they fudged their figures early on when they miraculously 'doubled' their membership in the very same year that the AFL was using it as a basis of calculating compensation for losing Waverley as their home ground but I don't doubt that today's figures are genuine.  Whether their supporter base is as passionate as ours is another matter entirely because ours has stuck and grown through a couple of embarrassingly long periods of failure ('48 to '66 and '83 to today) whereas Hawthorn were perennial easybeats for the first half of their club history, taking 52 years from 1925 before playing in their first finals match in 1957 and only making 3 finals series (1 flag) prior to 1971.  Our support is genuine, hardened and proven while their hardiness and ability to stick the tough times is unproven.  And while we have a very large latent support base that has yet to fully come back out of the woodwork, I believe the support we see from Hawthorn is all they've got.

smokey, i just find it interesting that their huge membership never seems to translate into crowd figures. In the blockbuster games you will always see large gaps in their members section. Over the years at various times you go to big blockbuster games involving us, carlton, coll and ess now and then you will concede they have more fans, louder roar etc, I cannot recall once ever going to a haw richmond game and thinking "poo they have a big contingent".

Also about the success, absolutely they have been stunning in the past 40 years, but prior to that they were the worst side in the comp, they would have been coming off a tiny base from the previous 40 years of nothing. I also look at noughts success in the 70's and again in the 90's with arguably the greatest player of all time at their helm taking them to 8 prelims in a row and that has done sweet f all for their base. I think a large portion of the fans from the old power clubs have a strong success rate in keeping their kids following in the tradition so whilst the hawks have had a stunning run of success I dont think that would equate to this large a membership base. ill concede I have no facts to back me up and i may be wrong - just find it hard to believe 

I'm with you TM in that I don't have any facts to back it up, just that I'm not surprised by their figures and I believe they are genuine.  Re: their crowd figures compared to ours - I think that is a direct consequence of their lack of success in their first 50 years.  While the Collingwoods, Richmonds, Essendons and Carltons were winning flags and building huge partisan support for the communal rivalries, Hawthorn was a redundant force that could build no support base because of location and years of failure.  Translate that to nowadays and I think the reason you see big crowds at our games is that we (like Collingwood, Essendon and Carlton) have a much larger supporter base and on game day between the 'big' clubs this latent supporter base kicks in - those that are just as passionate supporting their club but haven't yet stumped up for a membership.  Of the 'big' clubs, only Collingwood (for whatever reason) has been able to translate a big chunk of that support into memberships.  Hawthorn, like Collingwood, have been very good at translating support into memberships but the difference between them and the rest is that they don't have this large supporter base behind them and what you see is what you get - an overly strong representation of members vs 'walk-ups' on game day and hence the smaller crowds.

And comparing Hawthorn to North Melbourne using 1971 as the same starting point, North have missed the finals 19 times in 41 years (a fair effort and you would say successful by most measures) but they have only managed to translate that success into 4 flags and 4 runners up, a long way short of the dominance and success of Hawthorn.  On top of that, North were coming from even further back than Hawthorn as far as lack of early success goes as they had only played in 1 Grand Final (losing in 1950) in their history prior to their first win 1975.  Hawthorn on the other hand had played in 3 and by winning their first in 1961 they had a 14 year jump (and 2 flags on North by 1975) when it comes to picking up new supporters based on flag success.

I think the last piece of the puzzle that helps explain Hawthorn's 'abnormal' membership figures is that the club was jolted by reality and galvanised itself into action when faced with the merger with Melbourne and they had a champion for their cause in Don Scott who rallied their club for survival.  I remember at the time that Hawthorn and it's supporters very quickly stood up and grew from that experience and I think that was another major difference between them and North because when a similar thing happened to North there was more just a financial restructure that saved their existence rather than any lasting or galvanising impact to get their supporters 'on board'.  Added to that, since 1996 North have had controversy and conjecture both within and outside the club.  They attempted a failed merger with Fitzroy in 1996, they tried to become the 2nd Sydney team in 1999 and changed their name to the Kangaroos in the process, in 2002 Wayne Carey split the club apart, in 2005/6 they played home games at the Gold Coast but eventually rejected the offer of a permanent move and to this day they continue to court Ballarat and Tasmania as second homes.  All this instability would have had a significant negative impact on the chances of them solidifying and growing a supporter base to compete with the bigger clubs, and it's no surprise to me that they haven't shown the same improvement in support or memberships than Hawthorn.

[gerkin greg]

in summary, Hawthorn sign up pets and Norf are faeces

[Hellenic Tiger]

in summary, Hawthorn sign up pets and Norf are faeces

Nought wish. They are the steam that rises up from the dung when the cow expels it on a cold morning.
If you want to describe them as faeces they are the crusty dog turds that have turned white on the nature strip three weeks after expulsion. In fact the crusty dog turd has more value.
Useless characterless, absolutely nothing. Waste of space.
Out they come out they come
Out they come to play
Just to take AFL money
And waste it all away
No character no money
All day every day
Nought Melbourne fans are hard to spot
When they come out to play.

[Yeahright]

@ 30/4/2013

56,039

A very slow day indeed 

They either haven't updated the figure

Or..............

Yesterday was a really slow day 

Still no update since Tuesday 

People not happy with the tiggy express

[dwaino]

@ 30/4/2013

56,039

A very slow day indeed 

They either haven't updated the figure

Or..............

Yesterday was a really slow day 

Still no update since Tuesday 

People not happy with the tiggy express

That's the first time I've seen the Geelong cheer squad without their knitted quilts.

[gerkin greg]

That's the first time I've seen the Geelong cheer squad without their knitted quilts.

You obviously haven't seen Capper's DVD

[Tigeritis™©®]

The more dawks supporters I meet confirms the suspicions I've had for some time...

They have the most turncoat, disloyal supporters in the VFL/AFL.

In my opinion their success in the eighties has created a generation of support to the detriment of clubs such as Richmond.

The dawks really didn't have a big supporter base that we see now. This was a result of their success in both day and night grand finals which caught the imagination of many many youngsters.
Now in my household I didn't give my kids a choice who they wanted to barrack for, but obviously there are many softie limp wristed parents out there who allowed their kids to choose another team.
If you don't beleive this to be true just ask every Whorethorn supporter what his first team was or what jumper his parents bought him when he was a baby! You'll find I'm spot on with this.
In my understanding most of them just went with team on the top at the time and during the eighties the dawks were there most of the time.
Really as much as I scoff at them for being the traitors, defectors, deserters, apostates and jumper swappers, I don't really blame them as much as I blame their pussy parents for allowing it.
In this city it's sacrilege.

[Yeahright]

The more dawks supporters I meet confirms the suspicions I've had for some time...

They have the most turncoat, disloyal supporters in the VFL/AFL.

In my opinion their success in the eighties has created a generation of support to the detriment of clubs such as Richmond.

The dawks really didn't have a big supporter base that we see now. This was a result of their success in both day and night grand finals which caught the imagination of many many youngsters.
Now in my household I didn't give my kids a choice who they wanted to barrack for, but obviously there are many softie limp wristed parents out there who allowed their kids to choose another team.
If you don't beleive this to be true just ask every Whorethorn supporter what his first team was or what jumper his parents bought him when he was a baby! You'll find I'm spot on with this.
In my understanding most of them just went with team on the top at the time and during the eighties the dawks were there most of the time.
Really as much as I scoff at them for being the traitors, defectors, deserters, apostates and jumper swappers, I don't really blame them as much as I blame their pussy parents for allowing it.
In this city it's sacrilege.

I'd hate to be your son

[Smokey]

The more dawks supporters I meet confirms the suspicions I've had for some time...

They have the most turncoat, disloyal supporters in the VFL/AFL.

In my opinion their success in the eighties has created a generation of support to the detriment of clubs such as Richmond.

The dawks really didn't have a big supporter base that we see now. This was a result of their success in both day and night grand finals which caught the imagination of many many youngsters.
Now in my household I didn't give my kids a choice who they wanted to barrack for, but obviously there are many softie limp wristed parents out there who allowed their kids to choose another team.
If you don't beleive this to be true just ask every Whorethorn supporter what his first team was or what jumper his parents bought him when he was a baby! You'll find I'm spot on with this.
In my understanding most of them just went with team on the top at the time and during the eighties the dawks were there most of the time.
Really as much as I scoff at them for being the traitors, defectors, deserters, apostates and jumper swappers, I don't really blame them as much as I blame their pussy parents for allowing it.
In this city it's sacrilege.

 

Love your work Mr T!   

[tigs2011]

The more dawks supporters I meet confirms the suspicions I've had for some time...

They have the most turncoat, disloyal supporters in the VFL/AFL.

In my opinion their success in the eighties has created a generation of support to the detriment of clubs such as Richmond.

The dawks really didn't have a big supporter base that we see now. This was a result of their success in both day and night grand finals which caught the imagination of many many youngsters.
Now in my household I didn't give my kids a choice who they wanted to barrack for, but obviously there are many softie limp wristed parents out there who allowed their kids to choose another team.
If you don't beleive this to be true just ask every Whorethorn supporter what his first team was or what jumper his parents bought him when he was a baby! You'll find I'm spot on with this.
In my understanding most of them just went with team on the top at the time and during the eighties the dawks were there most of the time.
Really as much as I scoff at them for being the traitors, defectors, deserters, apostates and jumper swappers, I don't really blame them as much as I blame their pussy parents for allowing it.
In this city it's sacrilege.

  reminds me of my childhood. Tried to change in Prep. Wasn't allowed. FFS Richmond you owe me 2 premierships that I missed out on. Get it done FFS. 

[one-eyed]

As of 03/05/2013

56,229

[tigs2011]

As of 03/05/2013

56,229

Back in business 

[mightytiges]

Our membership department won't be too busy on the phones this week. Losing the past 3 games has left a missed opportunity for the off-field areas of the Club.

[Phil Mrakov]

I seriously doubt we'll get 60,000 now.

[mightytiges]

We'll probably still crawl to just 60k over the coming months. We did get roughly 4000 joining up from May to August last year. Repeat that this year and we'll reach our 60k target.