Southern Mel
Daily Mercury, October 6 2010

Lengths sports fans will go to

“MAYBE you could call work and say I’m in hospital and tell them I have some kind of injury, say from a car crash?”

The prospect of flying back to Mackay, after 10 days and two great games of AFL in Melbourne, and missing the Grand Final replay was more than I could take.

But my mum just shot me a look which said “nice try you idiot”.

I actually seriously considered faking some kind of ailment so I could stay in Melbourne for just one more week to see my beloved Pies have another shot at premiership glory.

But the guilt got the better of me and I, reluctantly, got on my early morning flight back to Mackay. Part of me still regrets that choice.

However, we have all seen those television advertisements where poor Johnny is caught out in a television crowd shot at the cricket, which, unluckily, is viewed by his boss.

Ok, so scamming an extra week’s stay in Melbourne probably wasn’t a good idea.

But some sports fans do go to extreme lengths to show their support for their team.

Take Collingwood tragic Bob Ward who, at finals time, cruises around Melbourne in a van decorated with photos of Magpies players and speakers on the roof which pump out the club theme song.

And who could forget that South African fan at the World Cup who dressed in canary yellow Lycra and tortured crowds with a vuvuzela horn which made a horrific noise?

Closer to home, Wests Tigers fan Geraldine Wolfe loved her team so much that she named her five sons after five of the club’s greats. And for good measure, her two daughters have middle names of Eels greats to mark the family’s split allegiance between the two teams.

One fanatic worth a mention is Collingwood supporter Justin Witcombe who tattooed a magpie and the number 35 on his “manly parts” because he “ran out of room”.

That reminds me, I am one of those crazy sports fans.

Better make that date with the ink man for that premiership tattoo.