This is not a love song
Cameron Noakes | February 23, 2009
TOMMY Hafey believes the Richmond club song should be the national anthem, and Ben Cousins, understandably so after all those years of having to tolerate the soulless debacle that is the West Coast song, recently confessed he was relieved to be at a club with a decent theme song.
Yes, it is generally agreed by most two-eyed football fans that the Tigers have the best song, but, as football historian John Stoward discovered, best doesn't necessarily mean most popular.
Stoward has written a series of local football history books that cover a third of Victoria and they have all the information you could possibly want on 20 different competitions. He was surprised to learn that more clubs sing Hawthorn's ''We're a happy team ...'' than any other, followed by ''We are the navy Blues ...''
In fact, the ''yellow and black'' didn't even make the top four, with Melbourne's ''Grand old flag'' third most popular and the ''Saints go marching in'' rounding out the four. Not surprisingly, West Coast's ''We're flying high'' has struggled to capture the hearts of our country clubs.
Stoward's books also contain some cracking yarns, like the time Terry Munday bagged 35 goals for Melton against Craigieburn in 1973, and the day the 49-year winning streak of St Patrick's College (in Ballarat) ended. The books are available at Melbourne Sports Books in the city or go to
www.aussiefootybooks.com or email
john.stoward@bigpond.com.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/02/22/1235237455205.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
