Sunday, April 13, 2008

it's time

for another poll.

remember the last poll? about the bedtime-attire pecadilloes of bloggers, with particular focus on the under-pant wearing aspect thereof?

it was incredibly successful, with initial posts, follow-ups and a dissemination of results.

* * *


so here be the current question.

you know how everybody hates collingwood? and everybody hates their supporters?

if you disagree, then you are a collingwood supporter. but even you know that everybody else hates collingwood.

now i know this, and you know this, but a certain someone i live with does not seem to accept this. it was very hard tonight when he came home from the game against carlton, the most hated of rivals, to not smile and rub it in. i ended up doing so after really trying hard not to. there were crushed children's hearts involved as well. i waited until they were out of the room before i let my grin emerge. so what is it about collingwood losing that so thrills me? is it just me?

i don't believe so. people in the media perpetuate the hatred of collingwood, the bagging of the team and the supporters. even my dad, mild-mannered'ish and secure in the cats current domination can't help himself - he sneaks in a dig (to me, on the quiet) about collingwood being thugs. so i'm curious to know how widespread this really is. not that a blog-poll is anything but a small, and perhaps fairly skewed sample. but let's try, shall we?

please advise in the comments section the following:

1. which team do you support in afl. even if you don't give a rat's arse about football, there is a team, even deep within your psyche, which you are partial to. you know it's true.

actually, if it's NOT true, please advise. i may have to do some follow-up questioning.

2. having stated your team, if it's NOT collingwood, then please advise another team that you have a soft spot for. ie if your team has no chance to win the premiership, who would you like to win. we all have a fondness for other teams, and without biasing the study, i would suggest st. kilda is one of those teams.

3. if you would like to state outright that you hate collingwood and/or the supporters, please state why. there must be reasons. i want to try to tease out themes, ie is it generational perchance? are there personal reasons for this antipathy, were you sworn at by a toothless collingwood supporter when you were 6?

i think that's all. i may tweak as we go.

24 comments:

Melba said...

i should state that i'm married to a fantatical collingwood man whose blogger name is clokes.

need i say more?

there are no holds barred here. all in the name of research.

Unknown said...

all right!! I have loathed collingwood, for near on 30 years. it's the fucking sense of entitlement the club has despite being chronically unable to win ANYTHING. it's that eddie maguire smugness that gets in my craw. and today i hate them even more than usual because against my better judgement i bet on them and, as usual, they folded like a wet paper bag. BASTARDS!

Unknown said...

Oh, I forgot. My favourite team is the Brisbane Lions, with Essendon a close second.

Anonymous said...

1. Geelong, and I'm not one of those people who jumped on the bandwagon when they won th GF, been with them since 1991 :)

2. St. Kilda, (preferably without Fraser Gehrig.)

3. My mother supports them, and funny you should mention the whole sworn at by a toothless Collingwood supporter....this particular supporter actually had one tooth, and I was 11.

Anonymous said...

OK:
1. Melbourne - I'm one of the many 'not giving a rat's arse' supporters who are causing the D's to go down the drain.
2. Carlton - through significant other family pressures: her family are free to barrack for anyone other than the Blues, but they must find somewhere else to live!
3. Collingwood - mild distaste, probably culturally osmosed as I've never met a Collingwood player and the supporters seem OK. I do hate Eddie, though.

Anonymous said...

Tigers/Cats

Jeez that's a pattern. I do hate the lions though (just not as much as Essendon).

Mex said...

1. essendon (but thinking about moving loyalties elsewhere now that Sheeds is gone. sob)

2. Sydney, Barry Hall and all.

3. my boyfriend (carlton supporter) has a very very big hatred of Collingwood. i thought everyone hated them. and im pretty sure that it has to do with that Eddie character.

sublime-ation said...

Oh dear. Last night wasn't good for them.
We have a family split. My dad and brothers are Pies, my sisters and I Carlton, for some convoluted reason involving my older sister and a boy she liked in Grade 4, a Carlton supporter. My other sister and I, being younger, did everything she did, and it stuck.
But I am the worst disappointment to them all, not even liking footy at all.
So for your poll, that is
1. Carlton
2. Bears, cause of Fitzroy, where I grew up.
3. I don't like Collingwood merely to annoy my Dad, and for the aforementioned being a Carlton supporter reasons (sorry Clokes!). It's tradition. That is all. I do (just quietly) like their 'working class' origins though.

I'm not Craig said...

Collingwood.

That's right, there's always one (other than clokes, obvs) in every crowd.

I actually get why people hate Collingwood supporters. Many years back, I went to see the pies lose to St Kilda at the G. There was a Collingwood supporter a few rows in front who was so obnoxious for the first two and a half quarters that even I wanted to hit him. Perhaps the highlight was the part where someone was taken away by security and this guy attempted to start a chant of "You're going home in the back of a divvy van" and FORGOT THE WORDS.

Then St Kilda pulled off a massive comeback in the third quarter and he went strangely quiet. St Kildas string of goals continued into the fourth quarter, at which point this idiot punched a stranger who happened to be wearing a St Kilda scarf and, yes, went home in the back of a divvy van.

Fitzroy used to be my second team. Brisbane is utterly not.

Anonymous said...

1. Cats. Since 1964 (aged 8)
Hate, hate, hate, Collingwood. They still believe they are the best side on the planet and have only won one (1) flag in last 50 years! Hahahaaahahaaaaaaa.

2. Soft spot for Swans. Dad played for them. (Yes, I turned on him in 1964)

3. Was punched up by a couple of them in the 70's after a game @ Vic Park. (Have forgiven, but never forgot.)

phoenixmummy said...

I can't stand collingwood because of the fans - whenever you meet one (and I haven't met clokes yet) and footy comes up, all they talk about is how great c'wood is - and they're NOT! And I can't stand eddie maguire, he's so full of himself.

For the record, Essendon is my favourite because they had a dutch player when I was 15 and I like Geelong because I studied there and I like the town. My support has nothing to do with sporting ability or greatness. I don't even follow the football.

PiesFan90 said...

1. Collingwood (obvs).

2. Soft spot for Footscray, St Kilda and Fitzroy.

3. I love Collingwood. I do have an order of hatred though and here it is in order of least Favourite to least hated.
a. Carlton & Essendon. The most arrogant and ugliest supporters, whose standard line is "oh yeah, how many flags have you won?" also going to Windy Hill in the 80's was a frightening experience. Also, they've broken so many salary caps they should have been thrown out of the competition altogether. Let's not mention the tanking and the price fixing.
b. Hawthorn. Suffering through the 80's watching Brereton and co making and winning grand finals.
c. Melbourne. The silver spoons are the arch enemy of the working mans club.
d. Brisbane Lions. just coz you win 3 flags in a row, doesn't mean you can hold it against us. Michael Voss's arrogance is just unbelievable. He needs to pull his head in.
e. Richmond. Never forget the 1980 grand final and the arrogance that followed, also, their supporters only know one line of the team song (pathetic!).
f. All other interstate teams. While the interstate clubs have helped keep Victorian clubs on the map (bar Fitzroy), they have been given an arm chair ride for a long time, too many concessions at the expense of the Victorian clubs.
g. Geelong, North Melbourne.
h. St Kilda.
i. Bulldogs.


4. My observation. Not everyone hates Collingwood. If not for the tribalism of football supporting, we may as well be watching golf (polite clapping only). Football is about being passionate and therefore you will get robust discussions. You will get one-upmanship. You will get outlandish statements, it's all part of the fun.

anne altman said...

I FRIGGIN' HATE COLLINGWOOD

why?
(DON'T ASK)

love
anne

PS WHAT THE F IS COLLINGWOOD?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I go for Essendon firstly, and I am secondly partial to geelong (not due to their current domination, my dad's been a supporter for years so I've felt obliged to go for them). My deep seated hatred of Collingwood stems from several things. ANZAC day matches, whereby we seem to lose a lot of, but yet beat Collingwood later in the year when it doesn't matter. Also, it appears that Collingwood supporters are all deliberatly ignorant to the fact that everyone else hates them! There's this arrogance and unwillingness to accept the fact that no one likes them!

Watershedd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Watershedd said...

1. Collingwood. I'm one of the heathens who never reads the scores, rarely watches more than 5 minutes of a match on TV ... make that 2 minutes ... and only knows who Eddie Maguire is because of his game shows.

2. I know you said to answer this only if I wasn't a Collingwood supporter, but I don't care. Second comes the Western Bulldogs.

3. Given I don't hate Collingwood, I'll tell you why I support them. As a kid, I always liked the jersey. Simple as that. Bulldogs is definitely tribal - I'm from that side of the tracks and they were the only team in the western suburbs. Geelong is not even Melbourne (although I was very glad to see them win the premiership). I'm an underdog supporter. Collingwood and the Bulldogs never let it get them down.

Perseus said...

1. Richmond. GO TIGES! EAT 'EM ALIVE. Oh, they break my heart. I love them, I hate them. I love them.

2. Essendon, because Dad barracks for them and I think maybe because their jumper is the same design as ours. Probably also because Sheeds, a Tiger legend, was there for so long. I think you'll find most Tiger supporters are soft of the Bombers.

3. I was brought up to hate Collingwood. I've known no other reality. I suspect it's because in the early 20th century they were funded by corrupt Catholics, and most of Protestant Australia hated Catholics more than they hated any other group. This just came down through the bloodlines and the generations. If I have kids, I will teach them to hate Collingwood as well.

Kate said...

swannies fan right here

magical_m said...

Oh my goodness, how did I not see this post until now? Many apologies. However I see bevis has not added his two cents worth either... so I hope I'm not totally in the bad books.

OK. (oh and hi, how are you?)

1. Hawthorn supporter since age 5. Dad was a Hawks supporter, his dad was a Hawks supporter. That's good enough for me, even without the genius that was Jason Dunstall and is Lance Franklin.

2. St Kilda. I don't mind them. They're probably the least offensive team of all the rest. Also Essendon. Probably cos my mum has been a supporter for over 60 years. (The 80s in our household were tough come September).

3. I LOATHE Collingwood. LOATHE. I will never tip them in a tipping comp purely out of loathing for them. Even if they're top and they're playing the bottom team. Incidentally, having spent a good part of my youth in SA, I also loathe Port Adelaide (who play in the Collingwood colours in the SANFL). So maybe its something to do with the colours. Although I think it has more to do with being bred into me by both my parents who (being the slight snobs they were) always said Collingwood supporters were scum. Actually I don't think they used the word scum (they were too gentrified for that) but something along those lines. I also loathe Eddie McGuire.

However, I do know of some perfectly lovely men who do barrack for Collingwood so I don't think they're all toothless thugs. I don't know any female Collingwood supporters though. I find most women I know tend to go for the teams with good looking players (I think this is why so many women in Sydney support the Swans but that's a whole other research topic).

I think that's enough.

xo m_m

magical_m said...

goodness. i didn't quite realise what a lengthy and comprehensive response that was.

sorry.

x

Melba said...

thank you pollsters all.

the poll is still open however, so please, leave your comment. i will report back once i've got a few more.


and m_m - nothing wrong with a long comment, you know that. my comments are usually terribly long.

mskp said...

i support collingwood [and am constantly mystified and disturbed by the intensity of the hatred - really? HATE them? loathe them? all scum?].

i resent brisbane for breaking fitzroy, sydney for playing barry hall, and west coast for allowing such a pack of arseholes to represent them.

i reckon my biggest soft spot is for the dogs.

am i too late to play?

Melba said...

not too late to play, mskp. this thread remains open until i get a few more. i really want about 50 so we are about halfway there. i may have to go out soliciting responses around the traps.

PiesFan90 said...

MSKP - Well played!
What is it with all that hatred?