Why your SANFL Team?

[Aerie]

On Dad's side, my Nanna's immediate family were all West Torrens, settling in Hindmarsh/Torrensville from the early days. Nanna would look after me at their Flinders Park home before I was old enough for school and the clothes line was blue and gold pegs only. My Poppa's side, his parents came over from Hawthorn to work for the Gasworks in Brompton when he was a baby in 1921 and immediately became involved with West Torrens. He was taken as a 3 year old to the first WT premiership in 1924 and attended 1933, 1945, 1953, 1993 and 2006. We have a treasured photo of him with the TS Hill Trophy on his lap at the West End Brewery in 2006. I've been to 1993, 2006, 2011, 2020 and 2021, so between us we've seen them all.

I love the memories of Dad taking me to see West Torrens as a young kid in the 80's. Watching some of the Nissan Cup Reserves on TV before heading to watch the Eagles in the afternoon from our home in Henley. I remember the State of Origin games too.

The merger was a sad time. Poppa voted against, but was quickly on board once the decision was made and was an avid supporter from the first game. Dad took years to get over it, the 1993 premiership meant nothing much for him, but things like Andrew Payze's 300th, towards the end of the decade got him back and while it's still not the same for him, he is still an Eagle.

Mum was from Sydney, so had no previous allegiances. It was all South Sydney/Cronulla/St George Rugby League. She was happy to be an Eagle, but doesn't really care about the footy. My wife doesn't really care, so was happy enough to say she's an Eagles supporter to please me. Her Dad played juniors for Norwood and Grandpa played juniors for North and league for South Adelaide, but both were more country footballers than anything and that is where their allegiances lay.

So it's Eagles for me, and the next generation (3 daughters) are Eagles too. We live in Sturt's zone now, so who knows what the future holds. I think the SANFL is a good place to take the younger kids to watch footy. To have an opportunity to kick the footy or run around on the hill or on the ground during the breaks. Whether that gives them enough connection to the club to support in the future, who knows. I know, at least while I'm alive, I'll make it a thing to try and get us together to attend a Grand Final if the Eagles are in.

[Dutchy]

Im sure Ive told this story before but here is a quick summary -

Dad was a mad Norwood man and we grew up in Gladstone in the mid north from when I was 5-10 years of age, about 6-7 times per year we would jump in the Kingswood and come down to watch a SANFL game, he used to smuggle in a small wooden fold up chair for me to stand on so I could see, back in the late 70's the grounds were generally packed, I clearly remember games at Norwood and Unley. Roger Woodcock was my favourite player.

In 1981 we moved back to the city and ended up living about 600m east of Glenelg Oval and I attended Glenelg Primary, within a month I realised the only way for me to fit in was to become a Glenelg fan the rest is history. Great memories from there of attending every Glenelg home game behind the Southern fence, being walking distance to the ground was perfect, I was 50m away from the Holst hit on Giles in '83, going to 85 & 86 GF's, 2019 was still my first Glenelg flag as an adult, its been a journey, feels surreal that we could witness 3 flags this weekend in such a short period.

[cracka]

My parents first immigrated from NZ to NSW in 1966 then in 1968 moved to Belair. Sturt were on their 3rd of 5 flags so dad chose to follow them not knowing anything about Aussie rules. I was born in 1971 & we moved to Fiji from mid 1971 to late 1975 before coming back to the same house in Belair. Went to Belair primary school in the Sturt zone so followed them too. Don't remember the 76 GF but I remember the 78 & 83 losses. Was mates with Bruce Lennon until we moved to Woodside in 1980 (Brenton Adcock was the real estate agent). Luckily Onkas were in the Sturt zone too.

[woodublieve12]

My nanna wouldn't let us into her house if we didnt follow the bays

[locky801]

Family were mad Port supporters

First game i went to in the early 60's was at alberton, Port were top and North down the bottom, North beat Port and as we were leaving i found a 10 pound note or similar on the ground. Barracked for North ever since that day which did not sit well

[Thiele]

My dad side were all Port supporters. He wanted to be different that is why he went for West and have I bled Red & Black since I been born, The Thiele family has one Port Life member and one West Life Member

[Spargo]

Because of yesterday.

[Footy Chick]

Simliar to Locky but in reverse

Mad rooster supporter uncle takes me to first game of footy at 5 years of age, North v Port, assuming I would follow in his footsteps.

queue one Mr Tim Evans

and his dreams of having another North supporter in the family were dashed before they began

[Panther Pack]

Wanted to support a club that constantly wins flags, plays finals and brings me so much happiness.

Instead I went for South.

[nwdfanparade]

Wanted to support a club that constantly wins flags, plays finals and brings me so much happiness.

Instead I went for South.

Could have had worse choice, could have picked Woodville.

[FlyingHigh]

Those who haven't been through a merger obviously can't understand the experiences and emotions.

Would have I preferred to see Woodville win a flag in their own right? Definitely.

But even as an early-teenager in 1990, I was pragmatic and knew it probably had to happen, given the WAFL experience when WCE entered the VFL a few years earlier, and even though Woodville might have been financially-okayish at the time, with our small supporter base there was a fair chance that could easily change. Also, I didn't live in the western suburbs and so didn't feel any animosity between the two teams. I was ambivalent towards Torrens, and if anything they meant two games a year we were a reasonable chance of winning.

My favourite games:
1st Woodville v Port 1986 First Semi
Eagles v Centrals 2011 GF
Eagles v Centrals 2006 GF
Eagles v Port 1993 2nd Semi (this was the game we proved we could mix it, especially as they'd beaten us by 5 goals a few weeks before)
Eagles v Norwood 1993 GF (bit of an anti-climax after the first quarter and a half)
Woodville v Port 1986 @ Woodville oval

[Psyber]

My father played wing in the red and blue for Moonta.
He took my older sister to Norwood matches - loyal to red and blue.
Later when he was ill my sister 15 years older than me took me to Norwood matches and eventually converted me from being a Torrens supporter to Norwood. (I was at school in the Torrens area with Russel Virgo who later played for Torrens.)

[goddy11]

My father played wing in the red and blue for Moonta.
He took my older sister to Norwood matches - loyal to red and blue.
Later when he was ill my sister 15 years older than me took me to Norwood matches and eventually converted me from being a Torrens supporter to Norwood. (I was at school in the Torrens area with Russel Virgo who later played for Torrens.)

OMG Russel Virgo. A name from the past. He was a part time drafting lecturer at Marleston College in the '80s. I was at Holdens at the time and one of his students. He worked full time at Mitsubishi. Although he played for Torrens, he was a mad Glenelg supporter. Nice guy.


Is he still with us?

[Benchwarmer]

I lived in Melbourne as a child and barracked for Carlton.

I chose Sturt as my SANFL club because I loved watching Peter Motley play (if I couldn't wear number 14 playing footy my second choice was number 2) and also because blue is my favourite colour.

[Bluedemon]

My Grandfather picked Sturt in the late 40's after staying in Adelaide after a posting here from Mildura during WWII.

He was a regular attendant at games and a later a long time club sponsor through his business.

My Dad was a regular attendee with him as a kid and later became an assistant coach of the u19's in 1980. Dad coached through the early to mid 80's and later did some work through to the mid 90's as one of the junior coordinators and recruiters. Being a bit of a history buff, he later joined the historians group (at Sturt and a couple of other clubs too) and was a selector of the inaugural Sturt Hall of Fame (and SANFL Hall of Fame).

As a kid, I followed Dad to home and away games every week with the u17's and U19's, doing the scoreboard with a group of other kids at Unley home games for over a decade and running through the opposition changerooms at every other ground for years kicking the footy and getting in the way.

A lot of my strongest memories are of spending time at the club as a kid - having Rick Davies stop me as I was walking into the changerooms with a footy under my arm after training in 1983 (aged 7) and asking me if I wanted to 'have a kick'. He proceeded to then clear the middle of the changerooms and kick drop kicks with me for 10 minutes, encouraging other players to join in too as they sat and watched.

Through circumstances over the years I've spent time away from the Club but keep being drawn back.

Dad passed away earlier this week, so it's a nice time to add other people's personal reflections on what an SANFL Club means to them as well as reflecting on my own.

Go the blues.

They were some good years doing the scorebaord in the early 80s

[Bluedemon]

I started following the Double Blues from birth. My Dad was a passionate supporter of Sturt and would go most weeks and saw the Golden Years of the 60s and 70s.

Both my parents worked in the old Sturt Club; I use to get babysat from the late Doug Klar on some Saturday nights when both parents were working.

My Dad then helped out in the 80s as the Under 19's Team Manager. There used to be a small group of us kids that would be there on Saturdays helping on the scoreboard at Unley Oval, getting the drinks for the umpires and for the Sturt team.

Some Saturdays I went to watch the League team play at Unley Oval with my Aunty and Grandma.

I was lucky enough to help out for a few years as part of the medical team and then in later years, helped with the Under 16s, 18s and Women's teams as Team Manger or bench coach.

I am trying to get my son and daughter out soon to watch some of the games.

[tipper]

reckon i would have been disowned if i didnt follow North. and that would have been the best case scenario, lol.

dads family had always been Roosters. lived in and around the area and Dad had an uncle that played league for them back in the day. mums family never really followed footy, so no split allegiances

Nan and Pops pool room had memorabilia on the walls, i still remember the newspaper photo of A Jarman up on the wall (i didnt understand at the time why he would want to go to Norwood instead of "us" )

Dad was involved in fundraising for the club for decades. prospectors group, presidents group, running chook raffles and stuff. used to take us to prospect for games when we were little, sit us with the cheer squad where we got to learn some new words, lol. no idea where he went to stand (maybe over the tunnel?), but the older guys in the cheer squad kept an eye on the three of us apparently, gave us flags to wave. he was made a life member a few years ago, which i think he was pretty chuffed with.

He used to worship the ground Barrie walks on. and personally, an absolute highlight to me was when he contacted us earlier in the year and asked if he could attend Dads memorial when he heard the old man had passed. Dad would have been pissed he missed an event that Barrie attended just shows the connections people make at clubs like that.

sadly, ive broken that connection a bit. between the reserves sides, and just being busy with my own kids, i dont really attend any more. still read up on things here, and go to the odd game. and my kids are both roosters supporters if you ask them (the boy suggested only once he was interested in Port. he soon realised the error of his ways) they have had roosters gear from before they were born.

we live in Centrals zone now, so if either of them get any good at footy ill have to buy some doggies gear, but ill never fully change my club.