Rab D Nesbitt

Ah, that's brilliant daisy. I'd never have twigged of course because I'm not actually a Nesbitt. Sans Peur is mine which I think translates as Without Fear?

You've lost me daisy. What does this mean?

Hey Neil. My initial thought was that it was placed in a footy thread knowing the predictable reactions it would receive but the original poster says not, who I take at his word. Admin could have moved it at any time I guess but sometimes it's not a bad idea to see how a thread plays out first as you don't know where it might go. I've now learnt that I'm not patriotic because I enjoy a foreign game and should consider returning to the land of my birth for even contemplating the passion of an AFL crowd 🤦🏻‍♂️

Hi Forky. You're trying to project your reasons for not liking football into why I shouldn't like it which surely you would agree is a pointless exercise. I like both sports and enjoy discussing their similarities and differences. Quite why that seems to infuriate some people on here though I don't quite know. I understand that you don't like football and the reasons why and will under no circumstances attempt to convince you that you should like it.

You realise that 'A Grand Old Flag' is 1 minute 39 seconds long. I really hope we're all friends again by the middle of March.

We need something to keep us entertained until the next training report DubDee. Thankfully there's a lot of SPL and EPL football on over the festive period which will help fill the void (ducks for cover).

Hi Forky. It's actually quite easy to both sing and be engrossed in what's playing out on the pitch. Like walking and chewing gum or brushing my teeth while I'm taking a pee. It's interesting to see how hyper sensitive some people are to any form of criticism of our native game in this country. I've actually been told in this thread that if I didn't like the crowd noise at an AFL game to go back to my own country which is the sort of response I probably haven't heard since primary school. It's fine for someone to articulate why they don't like or understand football, but surely even they understand the futility in trying to articulate to someone else why they shouldn't enjoy it?

Yeah, it's an incredible sight if you're not used to that sort of thing. I've taken a couple of good friends back to Scotland on different occasions and we scored tickets at the away end of Easter Road for a game against Hibs. After the game (we won 4-3) we all had to wait until the ground emptied before we were all herded by a large contingent of police down a thin residential street with terrace houses lining either side for well over a mile to where all of the supporters buses were. It didn't help us because we were staying in Edinburgh and I'd parked the car back in Leith way past where the home end of the ground was. My mate, who used to think getting out of Windy Hill was hair raising was completely agog at it all. The look on his face throughout was priceless. There was no riot police though from what I remember. It's a fact that none of Rangers and Celtic, Hibernian and Hearts or Dundee / Dundee United can play at home on the same weekend in their respective cities as it would suck up all of their police resources.

Hey tilly. I would kill to see the Pack play at Lambeau Field and I'm well aware of their tailgate parties. Pre game at the Cambuslang Orange Lodge or the Loudern Tavern is pretty good too though. I saw them play down at Joe Robbie Stadium against the Dolphins and also a game between the Redskins (now Commanders) and Giants at the old RFK stadium. I've also been to the Bridge for a game. Chelsea were playing Hertha Berlin in a Champions League game and I must have been in row ZZ of the huge East Stand. Incidentally I took two Chelsea season ticket holders up to Ibrox for a title decider against the sheep sh@ggers (Aberdeen) when we had half the Dutch national team playing for us and Andrei Kanchelskis and they were blown away by the intensity of the crowd.

If it's any consolation pitmaster pretty much all of the places colonised by the above mentioned are hopeless at football. Most of the Sahel was conquered by France but you'd never really know it in a football sense. Maybe because all of their better players now have EU passports and play for Les Bleu. Haiti, Mauritius and Madagascar are also rubbish. I don't think Namibia learnt much about the round ball game from Germany although it might partly explain why Argentina have been so good since the second world war ended. As for England, Australia might be their greatest success story, along with the USA. Both late bloomers. That leaves the likes of Belize, Ghana, Canada, NZ, India, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Even the home colonies of Wales, NI and Scotland aren't very good. In a footballing sense you could say that in the English Empire the sun never sets on mediocrity. It's fair to say though that Portugal hit the jackpot.

Hi George. At the Philips Stadion where PSV play there is a railway line that goes right past the ground. Visiting fans must have tickets and board a specific train that pulls into a platform adjacent to a small corner of the ground where they walk down a tunnel into an area that is completely surrounded by netting to catch anything being thrown in or out.

Are you based in Utah by any chance David?

That we are daisycutter, that we are. Roll on March 18.

Ummmm, no ‘gotcha’ moment I’m afraid. I suspect this thread was set up to feed the ‘I can’t stand soccer’ brigade among us which is fine. Knock yourselves out. My game is better than your game. Whatever. I saw the topic of discussion being specifically related to the fans that follow football and my comment related to that. I’d love to be able to create the sort of atmosphere you see up and down the UK every weekend at the G but how can it be done without the sort of scenes we witnessed last night. Solve that one and the Nobel peace prize is in the mail.

I think that perhaps people that may have grown up watching and / or playing football before being introduced to Aussie Rules at a later age have a slightly different take on what makes a great atmosphere. For me it will never be one team chanting Melbourne when they score a goal followed by the other team chanting the name of their team when they do likewise for two hours, backwards and forwards. Even with 80,000 in the ground it has always felt a bit lame. A bit like attending an NFL game perhaps. Lots of woohoo's and high fives which is all very civilised but nothing compared to the feeling of taking up one entire end of a stadium with your own tribe singing non stop for 90 minutes. Trust me, the two aren't even close. One problem with crowd segregation however is that it creates a lot of false bravado, particularly with the minority of people that want to emulate some the stuff they see in Latin America and Europe that has no place in our country. What happened last night was a disgrace and has set the game here back years I think. It was only a few weeks ago that the 'supporters' of an ethnic backed state league side in Sydney were giving nazi salutes. There's no question that The City Football Group (PLC) should be awarded the 3 points and Victory should have to play their next 2-3 games behind closed doors and pay a large fine. Security also need to be taking games like these seriously as there is no way either set of fans should have been able to take flares inside the ground. What possessed the city keeper to throw one back into the crowd I have no idea.

I feel like I've just missed a home & away game after reading this thread. Very envious of what our track watchers got to see.

One day soon we'll have a virtual training facility in the metaverse and I will send my avatar down the highway to Geelong on cold Thursday nights in July.

Bosh. Long weekend to Hobart booked. Contemplating an overnight stay for the Port game.

Don't know if he was a Dees fan but there are plenty of photos of Bon Scott wearing our national team's football shirt. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Angus Young is a bear and preferred wearing this beauty on stage. bear / teddy bear = Rangers supporter.

😂😂😂

For anyone interested in who we will play during our loading period it looks like Port away, Dockers, Carlton, Collingwood then Geelong in Moggydishu.

Hey OD. Yeah, I went last year. Stayed overnight in North Adelaide and had a great time. My only previous time was the first year the Crows came into the competition at Football Park. I normally go interstate once a year and next season it will be Hobart again which is my favourite of them all. Nothing better than a crisp, sunny weekend down there for the football.

Not sure how I feel about being the warm up act for Port v Dogs. If an entrance ticket allows you to watch both games will we see the supporters and cheer squads of three Melbourne based teams all shoehorned into the grassed hill at the scoreboard end?

I hear ya BBO. I can actually sense my brain cells dying if it's on in a mate's car. That said someone at SEN hasn't done their jew diligence on this one.

Hi LH. I think I read earlier in this thread that it’s Adelaide v Carlton, Port v Dogs and one other I can’t quite remember.