Swans Fanaticism

Yes, it’s true. I am a Sydney Swans Tragic. There, I have admitted it. It truly dawned on me last year when I gathered all my Swans merchandise together and realised that I have enough to clothe a small nation.

It all started back in 1993 when my mum wouldn’t let me play Rugby League (back then I was a Parramatta Eels tragic). I was small and not very tough. It was feared that I could get severely injured if I pursued playing this sport. Mum actually had some grounds for her concerns after a summer training clinic at Wenty Magpies as an 8 year old. She was also turned off by the mothers club on the sideline who were either smoking, yelling, or both.

The first game I watched was Sydney Vs Melbourne at the SCG in 1993. Unknown by me was the fact that Sydney were on a year long losing streak and Melbourne were one of the form teams of the competition. Dad bought me my first Swans jersey at that game (which I still have) and a 10 goal haul by Richard Osborne led to an emphatic Swans win and mass hysteria after breaking the losing streak. I guess I was hooked from then on.

The Super League dramas came at a time when I was just starting to get into the Swans, soon after my first game. It killed off any passion I may have had for League at the time. Plus Parramatta weren’t going too well at the time anyway.

It’s a struggle being the only fan of any AFL team in your whole school, and when your team loses, everyone wants a piece of you. Some people were so predictable. When the Swans lost this one person would always seek me out and ask the same question, “What happened to the Swans eh?” Of course he was expecting me to get worked up about the loss and get all emotional but instead I responded with, “They lost.” I never heard from him again, until their next lost.

Then came the year of the bandwagon, 1996. Suddenly it became cool and fashionable to support the Swans. (Some of you probably know what I think about things being fashionable). The season started ominously under new coach Rodney Eade (now coaching the Western Bulldogs), losing the first 3 games by healthy margins. Somehow it turned around and we had a lengthy winning streak. This was foreign to us and we had it in the back of our heads that we could go all the way. It was the fairytale story without the fairytale ending. The Swans made the Grand Final against North Melbourne whom we had beaten by 70+ points earlier in the year. Dad had somehow secured a package deal to get us to watch the grand final. He said it cost an arm and a leg. I never asked how much I actually cost, I don’t want to know. In the end we lost by about 40 points. Back at school, “What happened to the Swans eh??” “They lost” I replied for the last time.

So I have been a fan ever since. For about 6 years Dad and me were season ticket holders and would go to a least 10 games each season.

Sydney is a team that, in the space of a game, will give you hope and lose a game or make you lose hope and win a game. If dad were as big a fan as I am then he would have died of a heart attack already.

These days I’m more philosophical about a loss. I still feel depressed but it’s nowhere near as long as when I was a young teenager, and a loss doesn’t involve tears anymore. However I think that if we had lost the 2005 grand final on the siren then the tears would have made an appearance.

Most people don’t understand, saying that it’s “only a game.” To those people it is hard to explain. I say, come to the footy and see what all the excitement is about. Come and see what keeps thousands of people on the edge of their seats for over 2 hours. Come to the footy.