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When I was 17 years old, I bought a copy of Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. The book was recommended to me by a friend who said it was written for “people like me”.
From the moment I opened the cover and read the first paragraph, I knew this was an author who understood me.
This was a man who ‘got’ what it meant to be a sports fan, and to this day I’ve not had my experience as a fan captured quite like this:
“I fell in love with [rugby league] as I was later to fall in love with [men]: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.”
And lord knows my relationship with the Parramatta Eels has brought plenty of pain and disruption along the way, with my joke being that the Eels are like a bad boyfriend that I just can’t get rid of.
But being a sports fan wasn’t meant to be easy – or at least that’s what I like to tell myself – and the trials and tribulations are sent to test me, and make the good times that much sweeter.
When it comes to trials and tribulations each team has their moments. The Knights fan-base has continued to stay loyal with average crowds of more than 16,000 last year despite their lack of success on the field.
Eels fans knew suffering like no other in 2016 with their season characterised by salary cap scandals, sex tapes and the spectacular walk-out of Kieran Foran mid-way through the season and board-room bickering was the catch phrase often used to describe the back-offices for the Dragons and Sea Eagles.
This year, it looks like it’s the Wests Tigers fan-base that is being tested. In the last couple of years, the team has lost a number of promising and key players including Benji Marshall (who led the club to its only premiership in 2005), Blake Austin, Josh Addo-Carr and Chris Heighington.
Robbie Farah left the Tigers in 2016 after a rift with now ex-coach Jason Taylor and, if you believe the rumours, the only one out of the ‘Big Four’ that the club will retain at the end of this year is Luke Brooks. Mitch Moses is heading to the Eels, Aaron Woods to the Bulldogs and James Tedesco going to the Roosters.
For Huffington Post reporter Anthony Sharwood, the departure of Woods and Tedesco was enough to see him make a decision to divorce the Wests Tigers.
Despite being a Balmain fan since he was in nappies, Anthony decided that after the shenanigans of the last couple of weeks it was time to throw in the towel. He had seen enough and no longer had hope that success was coming any time soon.
I completely sympathise with Anthony’s position, but it is a position I could never take.
Call me an eternal optimist, but for me, no matter how dismal the situation, I can’t get behind the idea that for any sports team all hope is lost.
I continue to draw inspiration from the Sharks and their historic premiership in 2016. In 2014, the Sharks had hit rock bottom – both on and off the field. In the midst of an ASADA scandal which cost the club almost $5 million in legal fees, Shane Flanagan being banned for a year for his part in the banned substances scandal and irreparable damage done to the reputations of several players, it looked unlikely the Sharks would even survive the turmoil.
But survive they did and then two years later a playing group led by Paul Gallen, Michael Ennis and Luke Lewis finally got the opportunity to tell the Shire to turn the porch lights off.
This demonstrates how quickly things can change at a rugby league club and that no matter how dire the situation, there is always a way back. Let’s be real, in comparison to the Sharks, what the Tigers have been through in the last couple of weeks pales in comparison.
For me, being a fan is part of being a community and something bigger than myself that I cannot control. The Parramatta Eels do not take the field on the weekend – ‘we’ take the field. When Todd Greenberg looked down the barrel of the camera last year and said “the Parramatta Eels have systematically been breaching the salary cap”, he was speaking personally to me.
Last year demonstrated that my relationship with the Eels would withstand the test of time and that there is almost nothing the club could ever do to stop me from being a part of it. Even at my lowest of moments when I was embarrassed and ashamed of the behaviour of a couple of officials whose actions resulted in Parramatta being stripped of 12 competition points, I decided deserting the club in its hour of need was the easy way out.
Instead, I wanted to be there for the rebuild and to do whatever I could to turn my club into the powerhouse it was destined to be. I have a similar message to Wests Tigers fans – your club needs you now more than ever and I encourage you to stay strong.
Even though I have no success of my own yet to boast about, I know that when Parramatta do win a premiership, every single moment will have been worth it.
I couldn’t help smiling as I watched the final moments of the game on Sunday between the Tigers and Bulldogs which saw Wests win 18-12 as a result of a late comeback. When the siren sounded the players embraced and David Nofoaluma grabbed his jersey and used it to wipe tears from his eyes.
Ivan Cleary described his team as the ‘Big 17’ and I have a feeling that every Wests Tigers fan was reminded once again why they love their team so much and why, no matter how hard things get, they will never give up on them.
And I know the Tigers faithful will be there at Leichhardt Oval to watch their team take on the Sharks – ready for any glory, pain or disruption that that performance may bring because there are some relationships are meant to last forever, no matter the cost.