A Letter to the Brisbane supporter

[Northern Pie]

Hi everyone this is a long post and the Article will be up on the Northern Army Website soon, but I would love to hear everyones comments...(sometimes I surprise myself...Eddie..Any jobs going???? LOL)

Dear Brisbane Supporters,

Okay Brisbane supporters you have recently had the opportunity to have the Collingwood supporters in your front yard. Time for this old Collingwood supporter, living in Queensland, to put his butt well and truly on the line and say the way you supported your team last Thursday was an absolute Joke.

Now we Collingwood supporters cop a fair bit of flack. When the Pies traveled north this year I am sure you were expecting half-drunk yobbo’s out in the streets, looking to pick a fight and steal your daughters. Simply not the case was it. Let you in on a little secret…. We support the Collingwood Football Club and really don’t give a stuff about you or your team! We do not go to the footy looking for fights; we go to support our team that runs out on the field week in week out.

When Collingwood kicks a goal; honestly I do not care who you are or what you are saying because I am cheering the great bit of play that My team had just completed and screaming my lungs out for more. Maybe that is something you should be doing instead of completely wasting your time, turning your back on the play that was just completed to pick out anyone who is wearing black and white to verbally assault them.

Imagine this scenario…. You are at playing in your first game of footy and you get onto a monster kick and slot it through…you look to the sidelines for your Dad expecting a huge round of applause and some encouragement to go on to greater things, instead you see him with his back turned yelling at the dad of an opposing team member. You try and get his attention but he is too busy yelling “nah nah nah nah nah” in someone else’s face. Then later in the game you get put down in the back line, some kid kicks a goal on you and you look over to the crowd and there is the kids Dad standing up clapping and yelling encouragement…how would you feel? Which Dad would you rather have…then you slam on a few goals and there is no way of the opposing team catching you. You look to the stands once again and see your dad going off for a hot dog, or worse he is not there but sitting in the car waiting for the game to finish…. Then as the siren goes you walk off, no one decides to sing the song of your club…they just stand around and boo the opposing team as they walk off, even though the gave a pretty good fight. While you hear them booing, you hear some clapping and cheering…anxiously you look into the stands only to see it is the parents of the opposing team giving their boys a worthy send off for trying their guts out. You make you way to the Car…a winner but a little disappointed. You look at your dad, He smiles and says; ”better go, don’t want to get caught in traffic” Just think what it would be like to be that little boy.

Now I hear you saying, “but these are grown men, professional Football Players, they can handle it, right?” Wrong! They notice, they hear you, you are a factor. Queensland supporting is in it’s infancy I know but here are a few tips for you as you ponder the way you support your team in the following weeks:

 Jibes and remarks from opposing supporters are not personal, the sooner you learn to laugh them off, the better
 When your team kicks a goal, cheer for them, they did all the hard work. Why waste your time having a go at an opposing teams supporter? They honestly do not care about you or your team…trust me!
 This is not Rugby League or Rugby Union, you are allowed to cheer for your team whenever you like; you do not have to wait for a good passage of play or a goal to be kicked. Why not try a chant when your team is not performing to well, you never know it might lift your teams spirit to know you support them through good and bad times.
 Never Ever Leave – If your team is winning by 100 goals then stay to applaud their fantastic result, if they have lost the game by 100 goals stay on, clap them off the field and show them you really support them as a team.
 When your team wins…sing the song loud and proud…seriously I heard the song over the PA better than your supporters did. As a matter of fact the Collingwood Chant that I was involved in drowned out the people singing the song….sheez
 Why boo the losing team when they are coming off the ground? Um excuse me, if they weren’t there, then you would have nothing to be happy about, as there would be no winning side…. It is however fine and actually tradition to Boo the umps off the ground Win, Lose or Draw!

I am sure there is a lot more instruction that can be given, but as you are still all learning then I will leave it here for now…One thing I will not be able to teach you and that you will not be able to learn from books like “The Idiots Guide to Supporting your team” is Passion…. If you don’t have it then you are not supporting your team, you are theatre goers or a Bandwagoner…if you do not have the passion, the real passion to support your team through thick and thin, Win, Lose or Draw then Hoyts have a some great movies on and the bandwagon is heading west…be on it. You see, that is why, we as Collingwood Supporters can and always lay claim to the simple notion….”WE ARE COLLINGWOOD, YOU ARE NOT, EVEN IF YOU BEAT US, WE WILL ALWAYS BE BETTER THAN YOU! Maybe in a few years, you will understand what that means!

Cheers

Northern Pie

[PieClive]

Great letter Northern Pie - the RW Clan expressed similar sentiments when they rang me on their way from Brisbane after the game. Something along the lines of..."Brisbane supporters are pathetic!"....Then a few expletives.

[pepstar]

well done northern pie.

I suppose that is why you never see Brisbane supporters down here.

[The Prototype]

Good letter, Northern Pie, and very true.

But if you look at it, most Brisbane fans are bandwagoners, like a family friend is. She's barracked for St. Kilda for years, and now she "supporters" Brisbane and St. Kilda. And a few years ago, she was a One Eyed Saints supporter. I am only saying most, because there are many former Fitzroy fans that turned to Brisbane once their club died, and the rest didn't follow until Brisbane won the flag. I really hate this sort of fans, the one's that only like the team that is winning, and not they team they have been following all their lives.

I can say, that I am a Magpie supporter, have been since the day I was born (My dad, and mum have been long supporters and I was born into a Magpie home) so, even though Collingwood may lose I will always stay a Magpie. I support all Magpie teams (From Port Adelaide Magpies. to Glenorchy Magpies) although I haven't actually been a One Eyed Port Magpie fan.

[2 PIES IN CAIRNS]

Great post, Greg, but probably wasted on 95% of Brisbane "supporters".
You saw the looks we got approaching the Gabba, you saw the lack of jibes we got walking into their dung heap, you saw the disblieving stares we got when , as a group, we clapped and cheered our boys off the ground after we had been beaten. Those clowns who call themselves Lions fans just don't know what real footy fans are. One hundred and forty of us walked into their home and twenty thousand of them shat themselves.
We know what a real supporter is....we are Collingwood.

GO PIES

[Northern Pie]

HAHAHA you are absolutly right there mate...the looks on the people' faces when we got off the bus was the best, they really did not know what hit them when 2 buses with everyone on it singing our mighty anthem at the top of our lungs.....They will get it eventually...at the end of my article I wrote .."in a few years...." thinking of changing it to..."in 113 years you may begin to understand" They were hopeless....

May I also add that the in action by the inept police department at the ground was deplorable.....One of the Pies supporters was hit with Ice from a Lions fan in a corporate box, He stood up to tell them off and when he did he was struck in the eye and had his eye cut! he then yelled at the guy who did it...the cops came down to the guy with the cut eye and threatened to kick him out and to sit down!!! then when he got his story accross about what had happened..the police naturally ran straight up to the corporate box to find the on responsible..right??? WRONG!!! they pointed up to the box and said "stop throwing ice" wow brilliant, and they wonder why fights break out....apart from the very few..Brisbane supporters are a disgrace..and they have the nerve to treat us as trouble makers.....

Cheers

[Northern Pie]

Might post this one on Bigfooty and get the reaction??
lol

[The Prototype]

I think that there's too many trouble makers going to sporting events in Australia and around the world. It's ruining it for all the people that want to enjoy the sports event and those who don't act up, are always the one's that suffer for it. As soon as we get the "Hooligan" part of sports out the better every sport will be for the fans. And to touch on the cops, most of them do nothing anyways. When I went to see Fitzroy/Essendon in Hobart, I saw this cop just sitting there watch the game instead of what he was surpose to be doing. There were some very abusive people at the game, most of which were very drunk. It heppened at an old game I went to it was at Bellerive, these guys were drunk, and they were swearing at these young kids, and threaterning them aswell, the cop that was standing a few metres away was too busy watching the game to care. When I say young kids, I mean 8-9 they were standing down at the feace which is near the bar (I think the bar has moved now) I was only 9-10 around that time I think.

[mudlark]

Great post NP, but apart from the bandwagoners, and the ones who have the lions as thier second team, the other 97% can't read, so it's totally wasted on them.I was indeed proud to be a Collingwood supporter at the Gabba last Thursday. WE ARE better than them all !!