A soccer fan's first AFL experience

People are often sceptical to try new things because they fear the unknown.

I’ve never been one of those people, nor have I ever been a traditional New South Welshman, in that a hatred of AFL is not ingrained in my psyche.

I had no desire to be a Swans fan as when I first started watching the sport they were the best team. I instead picked Hawthorn because I thought Shane Crawford was funny on the AFL Footy Show, and there I stuck.

But then as the Hawks drafted Buddy Franklin and came into their successful phase, I realised it wasn’t for me. There was no emotional investment.

I was pretty happy when they won the grand final in 2008, but I don’t think my heart rate would have risen at all when I was watching the decider.

And then in 2012, as they were gunned down by the Swans, I felt very little emotion. I certainly didn’t feel that hopelessness that comes with a lifetime of supporting Leeds United and South Sydney – in fact, I didn’t care at all.

That was when I made a conscious decision to try and support the GWS Giants.

For one, I could actually go to their games. Secondly, I live in Western Sydney and, most importantly, their team song is so ridiculously catchy, with its massive trumpets and suspiciously Stonecutter-esque beat.

However, the Giants usually got shafted with bad timeslots, or when they did have a home game that worked with my schedule it was in Canberra or a foreign country.

That is until Saturday, when my first experience as an AFL fan since I went to a Swans game in 2001 (they lost to North Melbourne I think, and Wayne Carey was playing) actually proved to be a winning one, as they saw off the Demons to get their first win of the year.

I enjoy AFL, but I’m not an expert by any means. I do have a passion for going to live sport, and I am serious about trying to throw my support behind this team.

As a lifelong NRL and football tragic, I was surely in for a culture shock, right? I didn’t know when to shout ball, when’s a good time to make a run for the concession stands to avoid queues (early second quarter) or why most of the free kicks that were called during the game were called.

So I’ll try to be as objective as possible. Here’s a humble ‘sockah’ fan’s first proper AFL experience. And seeing as I’ve swallowed up almost 500 words of preamble already, I should get started.

My only experiences at Skoda Stadium had been at music festivals, and given the last time I was here I saw my favourite band of all time play at Soundwave (Blink-182) it was going to be hard for a battle between two of the league’s worst franchises to live up to that evening.

I arrived with my friend Brendan (a Demons fan, because God decided making him a Blackburn, Orlando Magic and Wests Tigers fan wasn’t enough) and a friend of his. Of course, due to typical of Sydney traffic, we were late.

I was immediately impressed with the lack of ticket barriers, where instead they had people with handheld machines to scan your tickets.

Not wanting to wait for my friend Brent (who was bringing out a spare ticket he had for me) I noticed the four or five blue jacketed security wardens having a mother’s meeting, and seized the chance to walk past them undetected, and without a ticket.

To me this day could only go downhill at this point, as if there’s one thing I love more than live sporting events, it’s stealing stuff. (Although, I did buy a pretty nifty fitted cap on the way in and did not realise it was $60 until the woman scanned my credit card)

After making our way to seats just behind the interchange benches, which I assume are quite decent, I immediately noticed how aesthetically pleasant Skoda Stadium was.

The colour scheme is nice, the big screen isn’t too gregarious and it’s actually laid out very well. The overall atmosphere was sort of similar to a Test match, in that people weren’t taking it too seriously, rather just sitting out in the sun enjoying the game. It was a glorious day.

By the time we sat down the Demons were up by a couple of goals. I know very little about AFL but I did know this was probably the best chance for GWS to get a win this year, and they quickly came roaring back with a couple of quick goals. I shouted “Ball!” a few times but again, my cries were ill-timed and apparently nonsensical.

A nice touch was that every time a free kick was awarded, a section of the big screen would explain what the foul was for. Which may seem condescending at say, a Collingwood match, but given the proportion of the crowd who were curious day-trippers like myself, it was a very helpful addition to the overall presentation of the match.

Right on half time, Johnathan Giles nailed a long kick to give GWS a 19 point lead. The crowd erupted at this point – they sensed that this might be the day they’ve waited for all season.

The halftime entertainment served a timely reminder to me that people that organise things like this are painfully out of touch with society.

Former Big Brother loser, Sara-Marie is the MC and if that wasn’t campy enough they then panned the camera around the ground for little kids to do a dance-off to Gangnam Style. Obviously it’s still October 2012.

Mercifully, the second half begins and the Giants pulled away before Melbourne came roaring back in the last few minutes of the quarter – a few times this year GWS had led or been well in a game at three-quarter time before collapsing in the final term. The fans had seen this dance before.

But this was no ordinary day and the Giants streaked away in the fourth. When Jeremy Cameron potted one with 12 minutes to go (to tie him for first in Coleman Medal standings) everyone knew it was over.

I knew we were going to get to hear that team song which, because of the number of times I’ve played it to antagonise co-workers, I knew every word of.

The game finished and a lot of people around me looked genuinely shocked. People joke that players/fans of rubbish teams don’t know the words to their team’s song, but that was legitimately the case here.

After the song was belted out four or five times, we were allowed to kick a footy around on the pitch; apparently a common occurrence.

After a few minutes of this Brent told me that the point was to kick the ball through the posts, rather than grubbering it at the small children who decided the goal square was a sensible place to stand when hundreds of people are bombing footballs towards the posts directly behind you. I ignored his advice and continued what I thought was a far more rewarding pastime.

We headed out and towards Olympic Park station, where the train announcer blared over the PA to “please move down the platform to avoid congestion,” a fair point after the hundreds of Souths games I’d attended, but in this case, there was literally less than 30 people on the platform.

A nice chuckle to finish the day.

So that was my first AFL experience. Would I go again? Yes. They’ve got another home game in a couple of weeks against Richmond – I’ll be there.

As far as I’m concerned, they win every week.