Great support for the Swans in Tassie

[Cheer Squad]

I was at the game yesterday and was amazed to see so much red and white in the crowd. I don't know if it came across on the telecast, but the Gunns Stand was so full of Swans supporters I thought I was at the SCG At a rough guess we must have outnumbered the Hawks people by at least 2-1. Do we have that many fans in Tasmania or was there a mass migration from Sydney and Melbourne? One thing's for sure, if we play for premiership points there, we won't be short of genuine support.

[cruiser]

I was at the game yesterday and was amazed to see so much red and white in the crowd. I don't know if it came across on the telecast, but the Gunns Stand was so full of Swans supporters I thought I was at the SCG At a rough guess we must have outnumbered the Hawks people by at least 2-1. Do we have that many fans in Tasmania or was there a mass migration from Sydney and Melbourne? One thing's for sure, if we play for premiership points there, we won't be short of genuine support.

I can't imagine too many mainland Swans supporters going to Tassie just to watch a NAB Cup game. I did hear a lot of support for the Swans on TV.

[satchmopugdog]

I thought it was a massive show of support by us Tasmanians. Alot of people trace their Swannies support back to the fact that they were on Sunday afternoons a lot down here and thus stuck in people's consciousness.
It has really blossomed since '96. Before that I felt as though I was the only person in the world who barracked for the Swans.

Not so nowadays.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

The thing that was the biggest surprise to me was the support we had in the stands. Considering "the Tassie Hawks" are supposed to be the defacto Tassie team these days, we'd have had over 60% of the support yesterday. All this even though we never take the NAB Cup seriously & had a bad end to our season last year. Two girls behind me, all decked out in Swans regalia, were watching their first ever live footy game. I'm sure several other Swans fans there were in the same boat.

We have a TasSwans supporters club that at this stage holds meetings at a pub in Battery Point in Hobart.Mrs Pebbles & Cheer Squad Simon go to these dos whenever Simey isn't hopping on a plane north. (Please fill people in Mrs Pebbles on what happens at the events Mrs Pebbles) The guy to contact is Craig Wellington. His email address is [email protected]

Things were incredibly disorganised yesterday. We had 120 seats held for our "cheer squad" that nobody knew we even had allocated to us. I tried to ring a few Swans fan in, so I had somebody to help get chanted started with (much to the disapproval of several Hawks-following teenagers behind us whose best come-back lines were "Suck it" & "Suck" & chucking bottles at us).

We are organised in WA & SA these days. Queensland/nth NSW still needs a bit of work. Tassie is the place which remains largely untapped in terms of Swans members & support.(I suppose playing there for the first time ever probably had a lot to do with that). We should demand to play a game there again next season. Maybe make a Tassie weekend & give people lots of warning about getting involved. And maybe have an long after-match in Launceston so people can mingle.

I chatted with a bloke who wanted to get something going in Launceston. I told him about RWO, so hopefully he gets onboard & we can start planning stuff a bit better for next time.

Why so many Tasmanians support the Swans is kind of confusing. Maybe as Tasmanians they might bond with an 'out of town' team or something. Maybe it was the telecasts during the 80s. And Tasmanians like Cresswell who led people to start following the team.

All I want is that we are next over there, that we start getting ourselves more organised. That means mingling TOGETHER pre-match, sitting TOGETHER at the match, musing over the match TOGETHER afterwards.

Just because people live in Tassie, it doesn't mean they can't be part of our club. A flight from Launnie to an away game is only 40 minutes after all.

JF

[Old Royboy]

I can't imagine too many mainland Swans supporters going to Tassie just to watch a NAB Cup game. I did hear a lot of support for the Swans on TV.

Correct Cruiser, there were very few Sydney based fans. I have rellies in Lonnie so I went down for the game and combined it with a late Valentines weekend and a family reuinion. I was gobsmacked at the amount of support the Swans have down there, and can only put it down to normal supporter percentages, plus the Sunday televising of the Swans when they first went to Sydney.

The AFL's position on expansion seems to be that Tassie does not have enough population to support an AFL team. On normal reckoning that is true, but your average Taswegian is sports mad - they love fast cars, fast cyclists and their footy. Every Tasmanian seems to avidly support an AFL team. If there was a genuine Tassie based team, the entire population would get behind it (maybe less Satchmo, Simon and Mrs Pebbles) They would be the Green Bay Packers of the AFL. Tassie deserves an AFL team, it's a crying shame they do not have one. The best thing the AFL could do is give North Melbourne the boot and replace them with the Tassie Devils.

ps If our Swans play down there again, I recommend a visit. Lonnie is heaven on a stick. The country is beautiful, the people are friendly and the restaurants we went to were high quality and inexpensive. If the Eski had not gone down it would have been a perfect weekend.

[gloveski]

As a Tassie Swans supporter and member I to was amazed at the amount of Red and White in the crowd i didn't realise that we had so many supporters here. I was dissapointed in the Swans merchandise stand as it basically had nothing in it what so ever when I went for a look, but there did seem to be quite a few signing up as members. I think we outnumbered the Hawks supporters especially in the Gunns stand it was amazing.

Launceston would be a great place to start some sort of swans get together as it is central to everyone in the state

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

As a Tassie Swans supporter and member I to was amazed at the amount of Red and White in the crowd i didn't realise that we had so many supporters here. I was dissapointed in the Swans merchandise stand as it basically had nothing in it what so ever when I went for a look, but there did seem to be quite a few signing up as members. I think we outnumbered the Hawks supporters especially in the Gunns stand it was amazing.

Launceston would be a great place to start some sort of swans get together as it is central to everyone in the state

I know Lucinda from the Melbourne office had to pack up the stuff before the game started as she had a 5pm flight home. Hopefully seeing the amount of support we had will have the club @@@@@ing their ears about spending more time & effort in having more stuff down there for our Tassie-based fans.

They did have a dinner the night before in Devonport, but I had never been to Tassie before so wanted to see a bit of the place rather than going 4h in the car (fried Mars Bars at Campbell town! ) to hear Gerard Bennett speak.
I suppose apart from cricket ground Bellerive there is nowhere good enough in Hobart for us to play a pre-season game.

Yesterday was a start. Tasmania is always going to be there. And so are the Swans, you Tasmanians.

JF

[dread and might]

I suppose apart from cricket ground Bellerive there is nowhere good enough in Hobart for us to play a pre-season game.



JF

North Hobart Oval is easily good enough to host a game. I would say the capacity is more than Manuka.

Might have to check out that swans thing in battery point now that I live down here....

[cruiser]

I was gobsmacked at the amount of support the Swans have down there, and can only put it down to normal supporter percentages, plus the Sunday televising of the Swans when they first went to Sydney.

The AFL's position on expansion seems to be that Tassie does not have enough population to support an AFL team. On normal reckoning that is true, but your average Taswegian is sports mad - they love fast cars, fast cyclists and their footy. Every Tasmanian seems to avidly support an AFL team. If there was a genuine Tassie based team, the entire population would get behind it (maybe less Satchmo, Simon and Mrs Pebbles) They would be the Green Bay Packers of the AFL. Tassie deserves an AFL team, it's a crying shame they do not have one. The best thing the AFL could do is give North Melbourne the boot and replace them with the Tassie Devils.

I think those telecast Sunday arvo games from the SCG in the 80's attracted a lot of people to follow the Swans around the country (including myself). I was gobsmacked at the huge number of Swans fans at the Gabba last year and there were quite a few at Concrete Park in Adelaide the year before against Port.

It amazes me that the AFL doesnt pursue a Tassie based team ahead of the Gold Coast. It's Aussie Rules territory through and through.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

North Hobart Oval is easily good enough to host a game.

You reckon?

Australian Stadiums :: North Hobart Oval

Had a look at Bellerive on the Saturday. Heaps better ground to watch sport at than Aurora, scaffolding stands & all, I reckon. Plus if the game gets boring you can go to the beach & try some paragliding.

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/oceania/australia/tasmania/hobart_bellerive1.jpg

JF

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

It amazes me that the AFL doesnt pursue a Tassie based team ahead of the Gold Coast. It's Aussie Rules territory through and through.

The north-south rivalry is so intense that it would eat at any concept of a unified team down there. For example they pumped money into footy at York Park because Hobart got the cricket at Bellerive & the Tassie government had to be seen to not be biased towards Hobart all the time. To prove my point, there is no longer a unified Tassie footy league rather a northern & southern one.

The Tassie Devils VFL team is seen as a southern team. Hawthorn are seen as a northern team to people from the south.

Tassie is also very small financially & would only have local businesses supporting it. A VFL team is probably the best they could hope for. And they aren't supporting that horribly much either as is, so....

JF

[Bear]

As alluded to above, the Swans have the greatest support in Tassie because we had 20 years unrivalled exposure on Sunday afternoons to the apple isle.

We are the biggest team there for that reason alone.

Sometimes many forget how big we are as a brand across Australia. We are the number 1 football club in terms of supporters (in any code) in Australia. Only the Socceroos (a national team) have a greater following.

Although Collingwood likes to say they are a national brand an the biggest AFL club, this is just Eddie's fantasy/spin. We are the Man U of Australia, we just need to understand it and promote it.

[Bear]

... and the sooner we get a 'Man City' in Western Sydney, the quicker we will grow as a club and as a game in Sydney.

[goswannie14]

The north-south rivalry is so intense that it would eat at any concept of a unified team down there. For example they pumped money into footy at York Park because Hobart got the cricket at Bellerive & the Tassie government had to be seen to not be biased towards Hobart all the time. To prove my point, there is no longer a unified Tassie footy league rather a northern & southern one.

IIRC the "unified" Tassie league only lasted a few years. There were traditionally 3 Leagues in the state, which is far from unusual given the size of the state and the travel times needed for a statewide league.

[floppinab]

IIRC the "unified" Tassie league only lasted a few years. There were traditionally 3 Leagues in the state, which is far from unusual given the size of the state and the travel times needed for a statewide league.

Yup, a peek at the history of Tassie footy here

Tasmania