Do you enjoy supporting the Saints?

[bangaulegend]

i imagine bulldogs fans in 2015 were having very similar feelings. even worse -will we ever see the dogs in a grand final in our lifetime?

I think that’s the ray of hope we (stupidly?) cling too!

They have recruited way smarter than us even after they have won a premiership . We could learn a thing or two from them but we probably won't

[Teflon]

They recruited a good coach

[BigDazzaB]

I have a genuine sense of being in it together with my brothers. We were on board with dad as kids (rip dad... I think 2010 may have killed him!) and we ride the few highs and many lows together. It's like it bonds us as brothers.

After every game we're on the phone so in that regard, yes I definitely enjoy it. But far out it would be nice to have some pleasant discussions more often!

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

[St Plugger]

Ii's a bond that my family has had for generations. We're in this together, for the few highs and so many lows, with our fellow brotherhood/sisterhood of Saints supporters.
There's the camaraderie as well. When you meet fellow Saints supporter there's an unstated mutual understanding of what each other has felt and experienced following the team and the mostly trauma they've had to deal with. Maybe it's a shared badge of courage!

[Ghost Like]

Saturday Afternoon Fever, once bitten it stays with you.

To be honest I've always enjoyed supporting the Saints, they make you feel alive or dead. What I'm not enjoying is the AFL, their constant rule changes, their bastardised expansion clubs & a corrupt fixture, in place for the dollars not any sense of fairness.

If the Saints, in any form, were not in the AFL I would stop watching and stop investing time and money ultimately into the AFL's coffers.

[The Fireman]

no

[Sainter_Dad]

Saturday Afternoon Fever, once bitten it stays with you.

To be honest I've always enjoyed supporting the Saints, they make you feel alive or dead.

LOL - I used to play Hockey - watching the Olympics last night in the Gold Medal match - sitting on the edge of my seat - fully invested

We lose - 5 minutes later on to another topic

St Kilda dish up last weeks game - a week later still seething

ATM - Do I enjoy it - NO!!!!!

Will I keep supporting and being a member - YES!!!!!

Will I go on a fortnight bender when a St Kilda captain (hopefully Steele) holds aloft the cup - HELL YES!!!!!

[St Plugger]

If the Saints, in any form, were not in the AFL I would stop watching and stop investing time and money ultimately into the AFL's coffers.

I'm onboard any with any form of Saints representation in the AFL/AFLW! [A relocated Tassie Saints would still have me engaged as well!]

[Bowey Boy]

I arrived in Australia in 1968 and went to EastMoor State School in 1969. All the kids asked "Who do you barrack for?". I had no idea.
That night I asked my Dad who I should follow in the footy. He said that St Kilda play just down the road so follow them. If he had just said Hawthorn my life would have been so much better.

[cwrcyn]

We may have been up and down, but we've never been boring.

[cwrcyn]

We may have been up and down, but we've never been boring.

[Yorkeys]

There are boring patches though aren't there? Like 2012 - 2018, rounds 2 - 10, 2021.

2021, rounds 21 - 23, except for bye look potentially ho hum?

Round 1 2022 does have me excited though. So hope Paddy turns up fit and clear of mind.

[skeptic]

To add to my earlier posts… one of the things that jumps out is how indifferent I am to the AFL product as a whole these days.

Yes professional sports has always been a corporate, money hungry entity… am ok with that.

But these days…
They change the rules so frequently, week to week, match to match sometimes that the broader AFL public are in a general state of either ignorance as to what some of the rules are at any given time (heard someone want a ruck pinged for bringing the ball down and being unable to dispose of it earlier this year)…
But there’s also major fundamental misunderstanding about what constitutes holding the ball, deliberate l, what’s incidental high contact, contact with the head etc

Free kicks are all over the place… 30-40 frees a match all over the place… sometimes it feels as though the umps work at keeping the contest close

Then you just have sheer boredom with the overall non-footy aspect of the product.
All the characters and character has been chased out of the game
The post match coach interviews are sanitised to the point of bland… nobody says anything interesting… who won you the match, who was disappointing, can you play finals… it’s team this and one week at a time that

The product is either not available on free air… or if it is, it’s pumped with ads
Want to go to a game… you need fork out for a reserved seat or sit in row W of level 3

But more than that… the constant trying to get the product to maximise crowds and have ‘stories’ ha gotten to the point that even a semblance of integrity isn’t available anymore.

Saints have played Port in Melbourne… what 3 times since the year 2000
Barry Hall punched a player off the ball in a prelim final and was cleared to play the following week
Collingwood play 17 games at the MCG a year whilst the Saints get every away trip + games in Tassie

AFL in one word - BLAND

[Ghost Like]

To add to my earlier posts… one of the things that jumps out is how indifferent I am to the AFL product as a whole these days.

Yes professional sports has always been a corporate, money hungry entity… am ok with that.

But these days…
They change the rules so frequently, week to week, match to match sometimes that the broader AFL public are in a general state of either ignorance as to what some of the rules are at any given time (heard someone want a ruck pinged for bringing the ball down and being unable to dispose of it earlier this year)…
But there’s also major fundamental misunderstanding about what constitutes holding the ball, deliberate l, what’s incidental high contact, contact with the head etc

Free kicks are all over the place… 30-40 frees all over the place… sometimes it feels as though the umps work at keeping the contest close

Then you just have sheer boredom with the overall bob-footy aspect of the product.
All the characters and character has been chased out of the game
The post match coach interviews are sanitised to the point of bland… nobody says anything interesting… who won you the match, who was disappointing, can you play finals… it’s team this and one week at a time that

The product is either not available on free air… or if it is, it’s pumped with ads
Want to go to a game… you need fork out for a reserved seat or sit in road w of level 3

But more than that… the constant trying to get the product to maximise crowds and have ‘stories’ ha gotten to the point that even a semblance of integrity isn’t available anymore.

Saints have played Port in Melbourne… what 3 times since the year 2000
Barry Hall punched a player off the ball in a prelim final and was cleared to play the following week
Collingwood play 17 games at the MCG a year whilst the Saints get every away trip + games in Tassie

AFL in one word - BLAND

Well put skeptic.

[BadRossco]

I’ve followed the Saints for many years after following the Demons as a kid mainly due to being bought up in the same area as Hassa Mann. The way things have panned out this year it was probably a poor decision to have switched. This said I have probably watched worse sides than the present team but we always seemed to have an exciting player or two to watch in Barker, Lockett, Big Carl, Rooey and Robbie Muir generated plenty of action although most of it got him rubbed out. The current team is kind of drab Steele a very honest player and maybe King an up and comer but not an exciting team. I’ll stay with them but can’t see much to get enthused about in the near future

[older saint]

I look at it like this following Stkilda is like running a marathon, suffering the pain as the kms get harder and harder, thinking will it ever end, imagining the joy and exhilaration that will be felt when your finish and with 500 metres left... snapping an Achilles collapsing unable to move and feeling like it was all for nothing and having to start all over again, which you illogically do.

[Sanctorum]

AFL is no different to many sports insofar as that in life itself change is a continuum and I have often thought that this is one of the paradigms of life: as we get older it is our capacity to adapt to how the world around us is changing that dictates our quality of life and ability (and desire) to cope with things like the ever increasing new technologies out there. If it gets to the point that we are unwilling to accept and adapt to modern life it is time to move on to the Great Hereafter...

People of my generation will often say that footy back in the old days was so much better than what it is today - what they fail to acknowledge is that technology today gives us far greater vision of what occurs on the field, not to mention that the pace of the game is so much faster as players have become professional and the plethora of specialist fitness coaches and allied training equipment and techniques are constantly targeted to improve players' performance.

Back in the "GODs" (good old days) "the media" meant reading about the weekend's footy in the Monday papers, often taking up 6 or 7 pages with photographs of the highlights - today there is wall-to-wall coverage and commentary on radio and TV that provides microscopic scrutiny of every minute of every game.

I personally don't mind the footy that is being played today and feel the AFL is doing quite well to implement rule changes directed to improving the game as a spectacle - and that really is what we all want to see, a fast paced game with an emphasis on attack, rapid ball movement and marking contests!

For me supporting the Mighty Saints is a proud distinction and win, lose or draw I'll always enjoy watching them play, nor will I ever divert from my fervent belief that a 2nd premiership is not far away!!

[The Recruit]

More no thanks yea
I could have picked any other Melbourne team and seen a grand final win in the 40 years if my life

Apart from the Demons.

If they win one
Well…

[St.DMC]

Right now I feel like if the club folded it would be a huge weight lifted.

I said to my wife this morning that the losses cause far greater anguish than any joy I take from the wins

I feel that the continual seasons of failure are just overwhelming

I was thinking when was the last young player that we recruited that we could follow their full careers and enjoy (yes Max could be that) but before that probably the early 2000s with all those greats . That’s a ridiculous wait for a good player.

Now of course all those emotions are on me and in reality should I expect so much from a sporting club to boost my happiness. However the investment that we put in, it can’t be good for us. But when you look forward to a game all week and then half way through the first quarter you can see the writing on the wall, it’s horrible.

Any FQF is teetering right now

I'm a long-time member (I'm 50 & was born a Saint) & feel exactly as you have expressed Terry.
Your comment "the losses cause far greater anguish than any joy I take from the wins" rings so true to me & I say the exact same thing to my wife.
Every game is filled with angst & I find I can't enjoy the (eventual) wins for fear of losing.
But every week I butter up & present for more heartache. What a loyal sucker I am (we all are).
If we ever win the damn thing I don't think I'll know how to celebrate it.

[silverhalo]

I haven't had time to read all of the posts in this thread but let me just say that I love the Saints and always will. It will be so much sweeter when we finally win the big one given everything we've had to go through over the years.

On another note, I dropped into my local supermarket yesterday and happened to bump into our illustrious leader Jack Steele. Well, what a top guy he is, he stopped to chat to me for about 5 minutes about the Saints, it felt like I was chatting to a mate. I closed off by saying that I wanted him to do me a favour; he looked inquisitively at me and said, "what would that be?". I said "I know you give 200% every game you play but can you give even a bit more in these last 3 games as I've got $1K at 15-1 on you to win the Brownlow!". He just laughed..

Third in the Brownlow last year and had another amazing year, absolute lay down misere for Trevor Barker, but don't think we've won enough games for him to bring Charlie home but who knows!

[terry smith rules]

Bump

If anything the pain from yesterday is as bad as anything previously

[Sainter_Dad]

Saturday Afternoon Fever, once bitten it stays with you.

To be honest I've always enjoyed supporting the Saints, they make you feel alive or dead.

LOL - I used to play Hockey - watching the Olympics last night in the Gold Medal match - sitting on the edge of my seat - fully invested

We lose - 5 minutes later on to another topic

St Kilda dish up last weeks game - a week later still seething

ATM - Do I enjoy it - NO!!!!!

Will I keep supporting and being a member - YES!!!!!

Will I go on a fortnight bender when a St Kilda captain (hopefully Steele) holds aloft the cup - HELL YES!!!!!

And after the Bump

Still yes - but the pain cuts deep!

Thinking of buying a hammer - and Saturday afternoon pounding my fingers and toes - that too will feel good when it stops.

[mickey]

My wife doesn't enjoy me supporting the Saints. It controls my mood for the weekend. She can tell when we lose. Today is Mothers Day so I'm trying hard to be upbeat. Following this team has now become an obsession, for 55 years I've been asking "when is it our turn ?" My best mate, my brother and I love the Saints but we don't enjoy it like other supporters do because they continue to let us down.

[The Fireman]

The good times are great
The bad times are shitful

[Nick DalSanto Claus]

Enjoy is not the quite the right word. I would say it's more akin to the dichotomies of bipolar disorder. The highs, or mania, are terrifyingly high, and the lows equally so at the opposite end of the scale.

So it seems as though it's a case of "This is finally our year," only to be let down by our overly optimistic views, or, "We're never going to win another one and we're in rebuild mode for the next decade."

And so we cycle through and between both phases, with some periods of stability in between. I believe, in some way, we've become almost "addicted" to both states.

A good friend of mine, who is a stand up comedian and sainter, once told me the two pursuits were the same. If you have success it feels great, and if you lose or suck on stage it confirms your self-image of being a loser and lacking in self esteem. Not a bad analogy.