Tiger Army worth four goals - at least - against GWS in preliminary finalGlen Quartermain,
PerthNow
21 September 2017IF a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If Greater Western Sydney wins this year’s premiership and there is no one there to see it, will it actually happen?
These are philosophical times in the AFL as Greater Western Sydney (David) prepare to tackle Richmond (Goliath) in front of 95,000 plus at the MCG on Saturday, with a spot in the grand final on offer.
On Monday, when public tickets were sold out for the second preliminary final, just over 3000 were purchased by Giants fans.
Given their lack of support at last weekend’s home final, when fewer than 15,000 watched GWS smash the West Coast Eagles at Spotless Stadium in the AFL’s last frontier in Sydney’s wild west, it is fair to assume most of those supporters will be expatriate Sydney-siders now residing in Melbourne.
While Giants’ fans were as scarce as an AFL scarf in Homebush when tickets went on sale, more than 75,000 Richmond members snapped up seats at the ’G at the startling rate of 1200 per minute.
That’s Adele-esque.
A record 95,028 watched the Tigers beat Geelong in the first week of finals and the majority were wearing yellow and black. But it’s not so much the crowd size that’s important, rather the noise they will make.
Tigers’ fans are the loudest – by the length of Punt Road – in the competition.
There’ll be players who won’t hear the umpire’s whistle; there’ll be umpires who won’t hear each other talk.
GWS in full flight might represent an orange tsunami on the field, but it’s an entirely different story off it.
This will be a crowd that will be ALL yellow and black and if you squint and really concentrate you will spot a sprinkling of orange rind dotted about the terraces.
The off-field mismatch is worth four goals on the field. At least.
The Giants even had speakers with crowd noise turned up full volume at training this week to try and mimic the atmosphere their players will encounter on Saturday.
The thing about Tiger fans is, by and large, they are not all that respectful of the mob they are playing. So it won’t be much of a chill zone for the Giants.
Richmond supporters take no prisoners, including their own.
There was even a story on Channel 7 this week about a Tigers’ fan this week who named his son Richmond. Poor kid. Never really had a chance.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/afl/quarterback-afl-column-tiger-army-worth-four-goals-at-least-against-gws-in-preliminary-final/news-story/7084ae0faa05fa4067d719d1dabc2a27
