Swans Supporters in Tasmania

[Bloody Hell]

Just watching the Rd 3 match vs Roos in Tassie (the third quarter anyway) and can't believe the amount of red and white in the crowd. I also remember our shellacking of Hawthorn in Tassie last year, and it seemed the R&W outnumbered the "home" supporters in that game also.

I know from this site that the Swans are well represented in Tassie and was wondering if anyone could speculate on why this is?

My only guess is that since South Melbourne is a port suburb and obviously there would have been a lot of connectivity between Tassie and Melbourne via boat back in the day that may have translated as support for the Swans, with people taking in a game while waiting for their boat to arrive/depart.

Can any more knowledgeable Tasmanian Swans supporters confirm or deny this theory???

[BillyRayCypress]

I think that most just flew in for the day.

Good theory though.

[Bloody Hell]

I think that most just flew in for the day.

Considering the hullabaloo they made about 4500 Swans AND Saints supporters making the trip to Wellington, I'd expect most to be local...though I do stand to be corrected.

[annew]

I think that some of the support goes back to when the swans were the only team that played on a Sunday so were on TV every week

[ScottH]

I think that some of the support goes back to when the swans were the only team that played on a Sunday so were on TV every week

This.

I know of a fair few interstaters who follow the swans for this reason.

[Mountain Man]

I went down for the weekend with my 3 sons

In fact between us we have been at 5 games this year!

[Dosser]

I lived for two years in Hobart and couldnt get over the number of Swans supporters down there. I was there for the 2005 gf and we hung red and white all over our house along the Channel Highway and had MANY cars tooting their horns. Just down the road in Sandy Bay was the Mykonos milk bar and it was completely decked out as well. Good times...

[rojo]

Yes, that. It is remarkable to think that showing live games regularly on TV in those years could have such an impact. Of course Tony Locket joining the Swans in the nineties kept armchair fans interested and enthusiastic - me anyway!

Going to the Hawks/Swans game at Launceston last year I had expected to be one of a handful of Swans supporters there and was astonished to find that we seemed to out number the Hawks supporters. With the Swans needing to play as many games as possible in Melbourne no one really expected that we would ever see them come to Tassie for a 'real' game. So I think every Swan supporter in Tasmania turned up - thinking it might never happen again. Then, lo and behold, here they were again this year in Hobart. Again, a great turn out. The Swans being the current premiers no doubt brought a few extra along this year.

It is all the more surprising, when traditionally, there has always been strong support in Tasmania for St. Kilda, especially in the north, stemming from Darrel Baldock's glorious exploits! Also support for Hawthorn and Richmond because of the connection with Tassie players playing in those teams in past decades - Peter Hudson, Matthew Richardson etc. Now we have the Hawks and Roos building their fan bases here but it looks like this inexplicable body of Swans fans not only exists but will likely to grow if somehow we can get to see them at least once each year. That these two games have been two wins doesn't hurt either.