Our trip to subiaco

[magpie joffa]

A group of us from cheer squad went to perth to see the pies take on freo and what a weekend it was, although we lost which was dissapointing the trip and the people we met was fantastic met up with piesprem and his very beautiful girlfriend bought a collingwood CD from JB hi fi which i have not seen in melb with some pretty classy songs about our maggies but i will keep that one for a later post.
Sat with jarrod and brodie on the way over..eat your heart out girls.
Met the boss ( eddie ) at the ground

Bumped into mick malthouse at about 7 am sunday morning in perth he was power walking and i was having a cigger and a coffee i tried to hide the cigger but didnt get time nah mick is a great bloke and actually stopped for a few minutes to say g'day.
The subiaco ground looks nothing like it does on telly.
I was impressed with the passion of the freo fan i actually exchanged email adresses with some freo fans they were ok and wanted to know all about the footy back in melb, i think in a way they looked up to us because we are hard core collingwood people from melbourne.

Alf nearly getting bowled arse over tit by a car in car park after the game.

In the last quarter when the FREEEOOOO chant echoed around the stadium was bloody unreal it was like being at a FA cup final.

I met with pants 42 at the subiaco hotel before the game and had a drink with him he is a top bloke and met up with sandie from bigfooty.

Two old ducks who support freo found our chant sheets dispicable, shit that was so funny.

Comming home an hour away from melbourne fog had hit melb airport and was closed so we got to stay in adelaide over night which was a bloody pain in the arse because we were all tired and dissapointed and just wanted to get back home but it was an adventure.
And i wouldnt be too critical of collingwood let me tell ya they tried there bloody butts to win that one but gee freo at subi in front of there passionate supporters will be hard for anyone to beat.

And we flew virgin blue and them stewardess's are BEAUTIFUL

All in all with the exception of the loss and the abscence of the man in gold it was a great weekend.

1892 _ 2002... THE PROUDEST JOURNEY IN FOOTBALL CONTINUES, WITH ARMS LOCKED TOGETHER,WHILST MARCHING SIDE BY SIDE, WE WILL FOREVER STAND AS ONE TO SUPPORT OUR BELOVED COLLINGWOOD FOOTBALL CLUB, it's more than just a club it's a way of life !.............................http://www.mp3.com/joffa

[This message has been edited by magpie joffa (edited 17 June 2002).]

[Black_White]

To bad the M_I_G could not make the trip with you.
Would have been a welcome sight at siren time.

-Craig

[Dr Alf Andrews]

Freo at Subi is a tough gig. For the players. And for the supporters.

They like to make it hard for you. Like putting the Cheer Squad ... all 6 of us ... at the OPPOSITE end of the ground to the Collingwood W.A. supporters group. We were in a bay that was roughly 50-50, with plenty of Freo supporters within easy taunting distance. Not the ideal situation for creating any sort of vibe. You'd try to get a chant going and it would be quickly drowned out by jeering from the Freo fans.

While we were on top early in the game we ALMOST got something happening down there ... but as Freo asserted their authority on the game after half-time it just got harder and harder. Every time I turned around to start up a chant I'd have a whole lot of Freo fans right in my face pointing at the scoreboard.

I think, after a while I started to get off on the hostility a bit. When the final siren sounded ... and while I was feeling completely shattered, I turned around, looked at these 3 Freo supporters that I'd been on the verge of coming to blows with all day ... smiled at them, congratulated them, shook their hands and wished them all the best ... It was surreal. Completely unlike me to do that. Then I turned around and bawled my eyes out. It was a very emotionally charged moment.

As the others in the Cheer Squad were trying desperately to get me out of the place alive, I had all these supporters (of BOTH clubs) coming up to me saying what a great game it had been and how much they enjoyed the passion of it all. A few Freo people were abusive, but mostly, they were really friendly, and I think by the end of the match they admired our small group of Cheer Squad members for the passion we brought to the game ... something they probably don't see a lot of from opposition supporters at Subiaco.

As we were leaving across the oval I did have one turkey who said something like "I'd bury that scarf if I was you."

I was feeling kind of warm-and-fuzzy after meeting all those great people behind the goals and I tried to be nice to him. I said something like "I'll be wearing this scarf till the day I die, mate." But he went on with the abuse, saying words to the effect that a Collingwood scarf is only good for toilet paper ... and then I just lost it ... I really gave this prick a much deserved verballing right in the middle of his home ground. And I don't regret it.

Then security whisked us all off down a race to get us out of harm's way ... or so we thought. As Joffa mentioned earlier, I nearly got cleaned up by some lunatic in the car-park, attempting to reverse his car at high speed while there were people (including my good self) walking behind it. I don't think he was aiming for me in particular. I'll just put it down to typical W.A. cowboyism.

They're like that over there.

I think I like Western Australians. They're pretty friendly people ... but they're also a bunch of bloody cowboys. God love 'em.

Plenty of Collingwood fans there. The W.A. supporters group seems like a pretty strong group. What a pity we couldn't have sat with them and really stirred up some serious pro-Collingwood noise.

Apart from that, Perth is a visually stunning city ... great place for a holiday ... I couldn't live there ... People are really nice but maddeningly slow. I waited for an eternity for a meal in a lebanese place on Hay Street on Saturday afternoon. I was getting so pissed off thinking about how utterly incompetent the service was ... rah rah rah ... and then when the woman finally brought me my meal she was just so nice that I couldn't bring myself to say anything unpleasant.

Another thing that's really odd about Perth is that it is just too bloody clean. The place is friggin' spotless. They must polish and steam clean the streets over there, I reckon. Everyone is so well-dressed and tidy. Seems a bit sterile to me. I kinda like walking around the streets and seeing lots of punks, hippies, bohemian weirdos, derros, lesbians, psychotics and bogans intermingled with the yuppies. But in Perth you walk around the streets and you just see all these hyper-normal types. Very strange indeed. Even their yuppies are kinda laid-back.

Probably the less said about the plane trip home the better. It was weird finding ourselves walking around the completely dead streets of Adelaide on Sunday night looking for something to eat. But we were the lucky ones. At least we got some accomodation laid on for us at Virgin's expense. More than I can say for those poor buggers I saw on the news trying to sleep on the seats at Tullamarine. So we can't grizzle ... but of course we did.



floreat pica
**************
My Ph.D. thesis, "Football: the People's Game?" is now available for viewing and/or downloading at http://alf.magpies.net

[foxy]

great stuff, alf and joffa. wish i could've gone over.

[stik35]

Thanks for telling us about your trip.
I was wondering how you guys went.
The game didn't look much good on Foxtel.
Our guys seemed to just let Freo run with the ball all the time and not do a lot to stop them.
What a shame that you didn't get to sit with the WA Cheersquad.
There is nothing that spoils a game more than having to listen to hostile opposition supporters.
I'm glad your weren't hurt when they tried to run you over Alf.
It sounds like it was an different experience.