Losing fans have no time for tolerance
By Rohan Connolly
The Age
August 6, 2005
There's a queue of angry supporters after one bad quarter.
Life is a lot more comfortable for the AFL footballer than it used to be. Good money, access to best facilities, a fully professional environment in which to prepare and playing conditions light years ahead of what was common a couple of decades ago.
You could argue the same goes for the AFL fan, too. Underground car parking, shelter from the elements, gourmet food at their fingertips rather than a 10-minute wait in line for a cold pie.
Few people would argue that those considerable modern-day advantages have made the AFL footballer "soft". But supporters? I'm not so convinced.
Consider the growing trend of the "anguished" fan venting his spleen in the most public of forums and in that most dramatically charged of symbolic gestures — tearing up the membership ticket.
You used to see it happen towards the end of a long, losing season. Now, it seems, there's a queue of angry fans waiting for the TV cameras to play out their dissatisfaction after one bad quarter.
The Carlton fan who bailed up the Blues' interchange bench after his side stopped to a walk a few weeks back against St Kilda even had a gratuitous lecture for his side about how he spent 50 hours a week running his business, and all he demanded of the Blues was a couple of hours' effort.
Wonder if he turned up last week and offered a bit of overtime for a terrific win.
That's if he could have squeezed past the disgruntled Tiger fan delivering his own thundering address to the Tigers' bench. Yes, you read right.
Hang on a minute. This is the same Richmond virtually everybody had pencilled in for a spot in the bottom four pre-season. The same Richmond that has defied all those expectations to hang on to a spot in the eight until a fortnight ago.
The team that, with four rounds to play, already has notched up more wins than in any season since 2001, uncovered genuinely exciting youngsters and has a coach in Terry Wallace and a gameplan good enough to take it forward some way yet.
Yes, last Sunday afternoon was a bad day for the Tigers. But was this guy for real? If Richmond's efforts in 2005 have not been enough to satisfy their most demanding supporters, how on earth did they survive the late 1980s and early '90s?
That was a low ebb, one that inspired supporter responses you had no trouble believing were truly from the heart.
I was there the night early in 1990, when after conceding 13 goals to North Melbourne in the first quarter and then losing by 141 points, a posse of infuriated Richmond supporters could take no more, and stormed the MCG dressing rooms after the game to let the players know just what they thought of their "performance".
That really was genuine anger. And at least they had a case. Last week's disgruntled fan should talk to a few Fitzroy supporters, who suffered through a string of 100-point losses in the Lions' final season of 1996, knowing they at least still had a team to support.
Or the old South Melbourne fans, who continue to follow their side religiously in Melbourne despite having not seen it win a flag for 72 years, and surviving its relocation to a foreign city 23 years ago.
But in the new sport of "footy fan theatre", it seems the less dedicated you are, the more likely to make a spectacle of yourself.
Remember last year's hunt for the elusive spitter, a Richmond fan so apparently enraged he felt the need to expectorate over the player's race in the direction of Tiger coach Danny Frawley?
When 23-year-old Jared Robinson "gave himself up to authorities", we were introduced not to a crusty old Tiger who had stood on the Punt Road terraces for decades, but an immature young man who lived in Brisbane and barely had been to a game.A disgruntled Geelong fan rang talkback radio last week to say that he was a 10-year member, but so disgusted with current performances he, too, had shredded his ticket. A much older, long-suffering Cats fan was on the line soon afterwards with a succinct piece of advice: "Tell him to get back to me in another 30 years, or just shut up." Hear, hear.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2005/08/05/1123125905063.html?oneclick=trueWhen was a queue 2 idiots Rohan and the spitter wasn't even a real Tiger supporter? ???
What a nightmare that North game on that Friday night was
. It came on the back of a 10 goal flogging to the Bears in round 1 that year too from memory. IMO that game alone made many people within the club lose faith in KB as a senior coach. I know at the U19's and elsewhere they didn't believe he trained the seniors and reserves hard enough so KB gave the team a tough time on the track during the following week. It worked for a half in the next game against reigning premiers Hawthorn at Princes Park but we kicked inaccurately to cement a big lead and the Hawks caught up and overran us by the end.
