A few weeks ago when we played the Gold Coast Suns, whenever I was near the ball someone in one section of the ground would yell out “Go Bombers!”
When I was growing up I have fond memories of giving the Eagles’ Peter Sumich “feedback” on what I thought of his haircut, his boot selection and how there might have been chewie on one of those boots.
As a 10 year old in the crowd, I was just trying to place a seed of doubt in his mind to help out my team … Even though it never really worked, and Sumich would kick yet another bag of goals against my team, I still did it every time.
Now I’m on the other side of the fence I generally ignore such comments or forget them straight away.
However, the comment “Go Bombers” which I heard a few weeks ago stuck in my mind. I expected “Go Swans” or even “Go Suns” as we were playing them, but “Go Bombers”… not so much.
I’m not quite sure what the person’s intention was:
a) Was it a statement to the rest of the crowd that even though this person supports a team that was not playing that night, this person still feels obliged to support their team?
b) Was it a statement that this person still hasn’t forgiven me for moving clubs, and was letting me know of their disapproval?
c) Or was it an attempt to get me off my game and confuse me into thinking I had gone back in time six years and was in fact playing football for Essendon? (and subsequently further confuse me as I would have no one to kick to)
d) This person was listening to an Essendon game on their radio and was cheering loudly (because when you’ve got headphones in you always talk loudly: eg Nick Smith pre-game with his headphones - but that’s another story for another time)
e) Or a combination of all of the above?
There have been some other strange comments from behind the fence over the years. One of the weirdest I recall was a few years ago when someone called out to me, “What’s the utensil of the week?’ But that’s also another story for another time …
Last week I played on my former Swans team-mate Barry Hall for part of the match. It certainly would have made my job much easier if he was confused about which team he was playing for, but that was never going to happen.
I certainly won’t be confused this week even though we’re playing against my old team Essendon.
As I’ve now been at the Swans for six years I’ve played against Essendon many times before. It’s going to be a big game down in Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night and we’re all looking forward to it.
Most likely there’ll be some Essendon fans there (just as there clearly was on the Gold Coast), but hopefully they’ll be drowned out by the noise from all the Swans fans!
Ted Richards
@richards_report
