Have you been to a Weagles home game at Subiaco? It's a different planet to a game at Etihad. The WCE fans are the most parochial one eyed lot I've ever known.Saints43 wrote:So why don't we get the same result when we play interstate teams at Docklands? It must be something more than that...st.byron wrote:Interesting to read in the Richo on 360 thread that he reckons it's not the frees that are paid paid, it's the ones that aren't paid against the Weagles because of the crowd influence.
He calls it the "noise of affirmation" and thinks it influences the upmires directly. No doubt in my mind. The free kick count at Subiaco has been ludicrous for years.
http://www.saints.com.au/news/2017-04-0 ... ffirmation
They have been brainwashed with a daily diet of the "Eastern States vs us" since they were kids. The local rag "The West" is the primary cheerleader and the local media play along. Even the ABC.
There are, I would make a guess, practically zero neutral fans at their games. The whole crowd is almost always in a one eyed frenzy for them.. And the ground is practically always full.. That's a different beast to the Saints playing Brissy at Etihad with half the ground or more empty and a percentage of neutral fans there. There's something much more intimidating and powerful about a full arena, particularly when the crowd is almost unanimously barracking for one team. The Weagles are the beneficiaries of that every second week. When the opposition team scores a goal there is pretty much silence. Zip.
I despise the Weagles, primarily because of their blind parochialism. I lived there for ten years and plenty of times at work over lunch in the staff room I'd hear things from their fans that would just make you shake your head. Ridiculous stuff that they actually genuinely believed. It's brainwashed into them and they, especially those who've lived there their whole lives, don't know any different. That brainwashing is reflected in the way their crowd behaves. There are 9 teams in Melbourne and that diversity exposes fans to the fans of other teams. Consider this........most West Coast fans, who live in Perth year in year out and go the footy every second week - they only know the experience of going to a game with a packed house almost entirely in their favour. They have no experience of going to a game with an equal amount of fans supporting the opposition, like say Saints vs Duggies at Etihad where even if it's a home game for us, half the crows will be Druggies' fans. They only know being part of a loud, uber parochial, unanimously on their side crowd of Eastern States haters.