At the heart of any AFL club is its fans. Without a dedicated and devoted supporter base a club has no purpose and no reason for being.
While following a team is about tribalism and shared experience, the relationship between every person and the club they love is different.
There are those fans that have just chosen a club arbitrarily, those who flick on a game every now and again and those who have been raised to follow a club like a family religion.
This article is for those people who consider themselves to be the true believers.
Those who consider themselves to be die-hard fans who show week in and week out. Some if not most of you deserve to be praised for bringing so much joy and passion to the game.
But I have another message for some of the other so-called true believers out there – when did you become so fickle?
I had the pleasure of going to watch almost every Collingwood game at the MCG last year in a reserved seat, surrounded by the same people every week. Although maybe they just looked like the same people because their personalities seem to change from week to week, sometimes from quarter to quarter.
When the Pies were on top and flying it was like my entire bay was made up of members of the Wiggles – singing loudly, gesticulating wildly and smiling so broadly that it hurt your jaw just to look at.
In between chants and songs, strangers would buy each other beers and shared stories about their families.
“I’ll tell you what, that Seedsman could be anything,” one overexcited Dad would claim.
A wave of approving bobble heads would nod throughout the surrounding rows. “I reckon he’s the next Pendles in the making,” would add another.
The bobble heads in furious agreement again.
Yet just the next week, when the Pies were off to a bad start, the Wiggles I had bonded with had morphed into the two old grumpy blokes from the Muppets.
There were no songs, no chants and no praise. Small talk was replaced by whispered heckles and groans of disappointment.
“How does Seedsman get a game in this team, I mean seriously?” was muttered from the same row as the week before. “Can’t kick, can’t mark, can’t play,” spat another.
According to my bay, world-beaters had become complete chumps in the space of a week. That is, until the Pies bounced back in the next quarter and colour began to return to the faces of the lifeless mannequins of despair around me.
It strikes me that all of the people in my bay must have paid through the nose to have those reserved seats. They turned out week in and week out like the most dedicated of fans.
And I would expect that each and every one of them would consider themselves to be a true believer.
So why were they so fickle? How could their feelings towards their club or players change so dramatically within days or even minutes?
Some might argue that their rollercoaster of emotions just goes to show how much they are invested in the club; how much they care.
I think that there is a difference between feeling the pain of a loss and turning against your team when times get tough. It goes against the very foundation of what a supporter is supposed to be.
I don’t believe this experience is unique to Collingwood fans.
I’ve heard many a Tiger, Bomber, Swan and Cat turn on their team faster than you can say “the coach has gotta go”.
My message to the supporters of any club who like to think of themselves of the true believers is to act like it when your team needs you most. When you start to heckle instead of cheer, you are giving up on your team in a way that they players never would.
You help define your club, just like your club can help define who you are. So remember, being a true believer means always keeping the faith.
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