We're Going To Struggle BIG TIME

[tez]

Without Sth Melb the Sydney Swans would not exist and
this cannot be disputed. Those Melbourne supporters
who followed their clubs move to Sydney are true red and
white and not like the fickle who drop off after a couple of
losses. These are real supporters. I still remember
going to see the Frances Jacksons, Stevie Wright,
Colin Hounsel , Mark Browning etc at the SCG playing
their hearts out for the Red and White and have been to
most games since then. If more Sydney supporters were
true Red and White like our Melb supporters our club
would be a lot stronger. Yes, we are the Sydney Swans
but always remember how we came to be.





BY the way I am a Sydneysider.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by omnipotent
well I am sorry guys but the way I see it, if a club moves interstate it is not an amalgam but becomes a new club. I have friends in Melbourne who did follow south and most don't follow Sydney - their children follow other clubs like Richmond. Some are annoyed that south didn't fight hard enough to retain its base in Melbourne. I don't want to be associated with South. I know we will never have the tradition like clubs such as Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon but we can still build something here. We are SYDNEY, not MELBOURNE, and we should create our own club as a separate entity totally divorced from links with south. And if you check South's records since about the 1930's it was a loser club. I pity people like Charlie who think the two clubs are linked. Do you really believe that the Paul Kellys of this world were playing for the south jumper? Get hold of yourself! The kids growing up around me know more about the Brisbane lions than south, and south doesn't interest them. Go and have a burial ceremony for south if you still are stupid enough to see them as being married to us. We don't want to be haunted by the sceptre of a loser club. I will not crawl into my hole Sydney Swans are Sydney and not south. And I would love us to get rid of the Swan and take something like the shark which is not as gentle. No wonder south were not successful with a moniker like swan. It is a bit risible really. Let us start afresh with a nickname which is more quintessentially Sydney. We have already modified the jumper anyway. So Melbourne swans supporters you are only welcome if you consider us as a Sydney entity, not some relic of South's sad past.

What a sad excuse for a Sydney supporter.

Who is the WE you talk about??? You think you are superior, or actually have any support for your viewpoint??? WRONG!

You think that the Sydney based fans can decide whether Melbourne fans are welcome? WRONG! I see the Sydney based membership of our club going down a little each year, but the Melbourne fans stick around. You know why??? South Melbourne didn't give up.... WE DON'T GIVE UP EITHER.

You think we are supporters of an extinct loser club. Bullcrap. Although I wasn't born in the days of the SMFC name, I am priveliged to share the tradition of the Lakeside Oval, through the people who I go to watch the game with. Yeah, you know those people who never shut up, WHO NEVER LEAVE BEFORE THE END OF THE GAME, even when we are surrounded by 50,000 moronic Collingwood or Essendon fans, ready to rub in our defeat the moment the siren goes! We don't skulk off to the pub to catch the end of the rugby mate!!!

You are the first supporter who is too bloody-minded to realise, WE ARE THE SAME TEAM! Before you go telling us who's welcome or not, I'll let you know, YOU'RE not welcome at MY club!!!

[Charlie]

Oh, and by the way. They will change our club's nickname over my dead body. I know that Robbie and JF at least would join me in chaining ourselves to the SCG goalposts to prevent that from happening.

Omnipotent, you aren't part of our club.

[desredandwhite]

I'll have to go in to bat for the South Melbourne connection too. I've lived in Sydney since moving to this country, and have only followed the game seriously for 6 years. However, I believe that the old South roots are what make our club so interesting. While it is true that we are now the Sydney Football Club, we are merely adding to the history that began way back when with the South Melbourne Football Club. From Pratt to Cazaly to Skilton to Healy to Kelly, they all played for The Club.

As someone mentioned above, you need to understand where you came from to really appreciate where you're going.

Oh, and if you consider being "a loser club" a valid way to decide where your allegiances lie, you're probably following football for all the wrong reasons.

[desredandwhite]

BTW guys, please remember to argue the topic and not the person. Thanks.

[liz]

In many ways there is room for both views.

The majority of Swans fans are Sydney people through and through, some of whom were never even aware of the Swans in their SM incarnation (myself included - I didn't live in the country). If those people want to follow the Swans as Sydney's team and have no interest in its SM history, so be it.

But those whose interest does stem from the old South Melbourne connection are exceedingly welcome as far as I am concerned. And those who only date from the club's Sydney phase but are interested in the pre-Sydney history (again including myself) surely have the right to do so. It is clear that many associated with South Melbourne view the Swans as a continuation of their club - eg Bob Skilton who regularly attends Sydney functions.

I do have a problem with anyone who denies the rights of the other group, however, particularly when it doesn't affect their own reasons / methods of following the club.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Get out the boltcutters, again!

Originally posted by Charlie
Oh, and by the way. They will change our club's nickname over my dead body. I know that Robbie and JF at least would join me in chaining ourselves to the SCG goalposts to prevent that from happening.

Yeah, but we should leave that for Ian Frazer, aka Give the Kids a Kick. Apparently boltcutters had to be found to get him to leave his seat that he handcuffed himself to.

I lived in North America for a year where everyone remarked on how unmanly it was to call a team the Swans. (as if we just thought that thinking up a name for a sporting side was something we did over here, well just in rugby league then! )

I then had to remind them of the fact that in the 30s the club got the nickname because of the amount of West Australians in the line-up, and not because of the things that swim around Albert Park Lake, as is commonly known. It is called HISTORY, something most Americans seem to forget when relating to sporting franchises.

I then went on to take the piss out of sporting teams called the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, or Toronto Raptors (named because Durassic Park came out the year the team was created). Or even worse, teams called the Quebec Nordiques one year and the Colorado Avalanche the next. Great traditional names, those!!!!!

JF Go Montreal Canadiens (NHL), Montreal Alouettes (CFL), Toronto Blue Jays (MLB) by the way

[robbieando]

If someone doesn't like the history of this club and wants to change it, go support another club that suits your needs. You would have to be stupid to think the club would be willing to lose over 6000 paid up members just because a small number of people want a club with a better nickname, better colors and a better history.

I love this club too much to just let some small minded people effect what we have - A GREAT CLUB WITH A GREAT HISTORY.

Sure we don't have the preimerships the Collingwoods and the Carltons have, but heck the lack of success is what inspires me to new heights where this club is conserned.

When we finally brake though for that 1 premiership, I tell you it will mean more to me than it would if it was premiership number 20. We value success more than the big clubs do, they just take it for granted. Failure hurts but at least I always look on the bright side of life and can see the bright days ahead. In the early 90's when we were always losing and I was having to put up with endless **** from the kids at school I would always look ahead at what could be, not what should of been.

I love this club, I love what its about and most of all I accept the history for what it is - A GREAT ****ING HISTORY.

Try and take away MY club and I'll make sure you'll be in court for years blocking any attempt. Trust me when I say the day the colors change, the nickname changes and the history wiped is the day AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL dies for me.

JUST TRY ME

[SWANSBEST]

Well said Robbieando and others

I have been a passionate Swans supporter for 50 years . My father ,now dead ,attended the 1933 Grnd Final and his father was also an old Bloods supporter . The family lived in Middle Park.I remember as a child being taken to the Lakeside Oval to see great players like Ron Clegg and Fred Goldsmith play and also watching the night premierships which we won more often than not..

. There is a great sense of history in my continuing support of the Swans. When South moved to Sydney there was never a question about changing allegiances in our family . We were red and white through and through. Following the Swans was also compatible with my father's philosophy of spreading the game north of the border. I think our family became even more fanatical as we considered the Swans were on a crusade The lack of premierships has increased the desire and when we do win one the feeling will be so much better because of the struggle involved.

To even contemplate a change in name or colours is madness as far as I concerned and would destroy that bond or sense of belonging that most of us feel for the Swans.

[TheMase]

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone that has defended the South Melbourne connection.

I believe that our club has a fantastic history, and I don't think that should ever be lost.....

A great history is it...

What about the 1945 Bloodbath Grandfinal, how many players were reporter? 11?

Bob Pratt, set the highest goalkicking total back in the 30's and that still stands today at 152.

We have the most brownlow medals out of any club in the competitions history (well we did, not sure if that is still the case).

A fantastic history, and one that should NEVER be forgotten.




Also another thanks to Robbie and Charlie and everyone else that has defended this connection again. It just reminded me on how much PASSION our supporter have for this club, nearly brought a tear to my eye. Thanks guys

[Dpw]

Got to agree with you guys(robbie and co)

Histroy has many angles, we should respect all of them.

As a WA lad it was from the VFL highlight packages on saturday and sunday that started my interest in them and the amount of WA players playing for them and my absloute fav Brad Tumbridge.

[Cheer Cheer]

Just on the old south melbourne fans in melbourne, me , like charlie have been watching sydney play in melb for 8 yrs now and the reason we have a huge following in melbourne is because, unlike a previous person said, all the old south melbourne fans have accepted sydney as their team to follow and come out in droves to the melbourne games.
We have close to the strongest interstate following in melbourne and we can attribute this following largely to all the south melbourne supporters who have continued their support for the swans after the move to sydney.

[Ajn]

agreed. As a fellow Melbournite, it was a tough transitition and not all followed, many changed teams, but we will stand strong through the good and bad times. As we have done!

[robbieando]

The ones who remain are the real fans, the ones who left (and they are very few it has to be said) well its there loss. I was born the winter we moved to Sydney and my father decided to wait a few years before getting me involved in Footy just because he was an active member of KSAS. Its a family thing for me and many others. I believe the support we have in Melbourne is the greatest in the league. After all how many fans would stay with a club when they are yanked interstate and mistreated for many years and finally put up with bad management who nearly sent the club bankrupt. Not many.

We have massive passion for this club and slowly but surely the same passion is being instilled in the "newer" supporters.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Years of failure make the yearning for success all the more real.

I can only concur with what Robbie is talking about. We have always been a battling footy club, one that would often just be satisfied with keeping the wolves at bay for another week. Whereas clubs like Hawthorn in the 80s-90s would become blaze about success, it sometimes seemed over the years that we have been fighting an insummountable tide.

Whether I deny it on not that this footy club is pretty much a huge chunk of my life. Put it this way; my Grandpa died on one Saturday early in the morning in the 90s. I was naturally extremely emotional for a while, especially especially in lieu of my mother's hystrionics. Then at 4pm I got my bag and scarf and said "See ya, off to the footy!" I came back totally refreshed and over the sadness of losing my grandpa (wins over Carlton help!!), much to the bewilderment of my totally clueless mother. The footy is a very powerful emotional tool in my life. Regardless of whether things are going well or bad for me in life my moods still have this strange way of sinking when we have gotten beat, and soaring when we put together last quarters like against North Melbourne last year. (Was I the only one who couldn't sleep that night because of the adrenalin?)

I know this sounds very pathetic, but as somebody who has grown up since 1983 watching the Swans, I liken their involvement in my life as very much that of a parent does of a child. In the early days we were an unloved bastard child- ridiculed by most and cherished by so few. Involvement with this child proved difficult most of the time. People would laugh, call you names, or wonder why you could feel proud in continually having such pride in wearing my red and white scarf to games.

With the hard days grew an attachment to this troubled child. Just as a parent would not desert a child in need of support, I refused to part with them, even as my 'other child', the Canberra Raiders were winning premierships etc etc in the NSWRL. Others who have not been through these hard days with their 'child' are never going to contemplate what it means when the thing you devote your heart and soul to suddenly comes good.

People may think that going to the footy is a passive thing. To the first-game watcher it is. There is no attachment, hence no emotional involvement. They may like the game though. Hopefully the adrenalin factor of a big win will have them hooked. Hopefully they'll come again.

In Melbourne much of the attachment comes through hereditory lines. "Once a Sainter, always a Sainter". Hence the respect and emotional attachment is continued from generation to generation. So somebody denouncing the Swans South Melbourne history is indirectly denouncing them AND their family.

It really took me until the finals in 96 to realise just how important this club was to me. My reactions when we beat Essendon in 96 were more hysterical than anything I think I have experienced ever in my life. For at least an hour I was not politely sobbing but WAILING HYSTERICALLY, so much so that I managed to see a guy run off with a 10 foot flag right from under my nose.

Several who have been there through the hard times were similar to me. Only they could describe what it feel like to see this retarded child finally come good and stick it to the world. Disbelief, wonder, excitement, shock, vindication; words cannot describe what was running through my vains in the minutes after that kick went through. To this day the most powerful emotions I have ever experienced IN MY LIFE!

I yearn for something greater. A premiership and a life's ambition realised.

The next chance for that begins in late March against Carlton.

Anyone for one better than 96?

JF