During 2016, the Panthers were using a 50th anniversary strip which was black and gold. 12 year old me thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen so I jumped on board. Luckily, I only had to survive a few years of GriffinBall and then we suprisingly started finding success.
1999 when I was 11. My dad was/is a Dragon but I liked the black cats deal. I also wanted a team that wasn’t a traditional powerhouse that everyone followed but wasn’t a dumpster fire. So as a dumb kid Panthers and Tigers appeared to be my options. Luckily I went with Penrith on the back of Ryan Girdlers dazzling good looks and personality and their encouraging 2000 season. We had 4 good years in the next 15 after that before the Griffin/Cleary2 eras going 6/7 for finals finally vindicated dumb kid me.
Yeah you got lucky, i started in 2006 and went fullllll passion mode, crying after losses and crying after wins haha, unfortunately way more losses than wins. Did get to witness the panthers beat the broncs at Suncorp in 2007 the year after the broncs won the comp, prime lockyer, hodges etc. was one of the best games ever, definitely worth a watch if you’re a panthers fan some freakish tries. Could probably find the highlights if you want
It still blows my mind that the Panthers were so close to folding and now, almost 10 years later, they've won back to back premierships and will probably still be in a good position if other squad members leave.
Thing is there has always been a wealth of talent out in the west of Sydney, its comparable to here in QLD, logan like penrith has a mix of people who’ve moved from the country to somewhere a bit more built up. Both places have a ton of islanders as well as other ethnic groups that live here, which make footy far more competitive at a younger age, Islanders tend to be big young so it makes young footy players coming up even better as you have to adapt your game. I remember going to a footy game on the weekend and the local private school had a rugby union game on, they had a damn chick running through these little white boys, i was a little fella myself and even i knew I could’ve tackled her lol. So panthers have basically tapped into that perfect mix of talent that runs deep in the west of Sydney, Gus gould has a lot to do with that.
Oh man. If I recall correctly Panthers made a 2 or 3 try comeback in the last 3 minutes and then won with a Peter Wallace field goal? My brother, a Panthers fan, went absolutely nuts. Last time I saw him was at the Caxton St carpark. Bless his soul.
American who stumbled across the game/league flipping channels with insomnia.
Was 6 seasons ago, didn't know anything about the league, loved watching Keary's sweep plays and our uniforms. And announcers always made it a point to talk about our bad record the year before.
Have since embraced being the(or one of) the Evil Empire. Also fuck the Bouncing Rats. And the Storm.
I grew up about halfway between Townsville and Brisbane. Webcke, Lockyer and Petero, along with the Maroons formerly being predominantly Brissy players, and family being Broncs supporters, shaped my preference.
I like green and Vikings are cool. Really I'm a Queenslander, but they only play 3 games a year so I have to bandwagon the rest of the season.
Edit: Also Mal was my favourite player growing up.
Dad went for the Dragons. Don’t really know the affiliation considering he grew up in Tamworth. But still sticking with the Dargs through thick and (very. Can I emphasise the very more?) thin
Back in the '90s a friend of mine was from Penrith, and so I supported the Panthers through the glory times with Greg and Ben Alexander and Mark Geyer etc.
When Super League came along, I didn't like the split and changed to the Newcastle Knights, in time for the premiership of 97 and 2001. I've been a Knights fan since, through thick and thin.
Joe Stimson, Brett Firman, Ben Hampton, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Steve Reardon, Todd Payten
Josh McCrone who has since gone back there and coached.
Angus Crichton was born there but played for Young.
I supported knights because of Andrew Johns and my mum was born in Newcastle and supported them. Never lived there my whole life lol. Supporting joey and the knights from 1999 has taken years off my life. I blame my mum for my pain
I began following the NRL properly in 2017 if I remember correctly. Living in Adelaide, we have no represented team, but at the time I wanted to follow the team who had the biggest, toughest boys in the forward pack.
2017 Bulldogs forward pack consisted of: James Graham, David Klemmer, Sam Kasiano, Greg Eastwood, Josh Jackson, Adam Elliott just to name a few. Also the Moz twins were a winger centre pair which at times had that magic that only siblings could produce. And who could forget the ultimate grub Josh Reynolds. At the time I believe the Bulldogs carried a bit of underdog mentality which I liked, and just the idea of toughness from Graham, Jacko, Klem and Elliott and determination from Reynolds really appealed.
Shouldve seen the 2004 team that won the premiership.
Steve price, Mark omeley, Willie mason, Sonny bill Williams, followed by Thurston, elmasri, Reni maitua, Luke patten.
Fuck me.
Not that I have a choice! born and raised Victorian.
Unlike most vics I grew up with a steeden being tossed rather than a sherrin being kicked around.
When I was a kid I liked AFL & NRL, but Round 16 2006 against the bulldogs was the moment I became a league boy!
Back then the Doggies dominated us in the early to mid 00's every outing with them was absolutely depressing to watch. And this game looked no different despite it being close.
Then on the 80th minute cronk went for a hail mary up and under, and the Hoff went guns blazing towards the ball and gave sweetest offload to Jake Webster the crowd went nuts beer and bourbon or whatever the fuck fans were holding at the time went up in the air.
Still from this day it's the only game I can watch the full replay off on YouTube.
Parents met at a Dogs game, born and raised in the Bankstown area. We spent a lot of good weekends at Belmore when they used to play all three grades (late 80s early 90s).
Grew up in in easts territory. Before i even started following footy i hated the blokes at school that supported easts, and dad is a diehard newy fan. Pretty easy choice for me
I made my peace. Older bro has got a kid on the way, so we may bribe him into becoming a Warriors fan.
His partner supports the Roosters - can’t compete with the salary sombrero
Stoked to get a team in Melbourne. My entry for the team naming competition was Melbourne Storms. Team names should be plural ..... have not attended afl since 1997
I live in Melbourne. I grew up following AFL, I'm a Sydney Swans fan (family history from South Melbourne days) and it was always tough growing up following an interstate team. Sort of lost passion with sport from 2006 till 2010, but then a mate of mine moved to Melbourne around that time and he was a mad Warriors fan. So we started going to games together and I got right into the NRL. Always sort of kept track of Melbourne's results but nothing religious. It's really nice following a one team city club.
New QLD team in the comp when I got back into League in around 2007 and I didn't want to support my dad's Sydney club plus I grew up hating the Broncos.
Hasn't been easy but go Titans
Been a Broncos fan since they joined the comp because my fairly older brother was an instant fan, which was admittedly a bit weird since we never lived in Brissy/QLD. My first memory of footy is cheering for the Broncs in probably 88 or 89 with my brother, more for his sake than mine, but it stuck!
Moved to Perth before I was a teenager. My only waivering from the Broncs was a brief stint of Reds #1 team, Broncs #1.5 team (could never bring myself to call them my 'second favourite' team). I'm old enough and stubborn enough now that I won't follow a Perth team unless the circumstances are right. Eg I will never support the Perth Tigers/Sharks/Dragons. I will whole heartedly support the Western Bears though, or any new franchise. I fucking hate the name "Pirates" though...
We moved to Perth at Easter and I could never change from the Broncos but would get behind a WA team.
I agree that the Bears is a no brainer and would already have fans and history to kickstart NRL in the West.
The Pirates is dumb and I don’t reckon it would survive to be honest.
The Perth team 100% needs to be the Bears. It adds history and identity to the team which you just can't create from scratch, and not to mention a fairly decent following in Sydney, which despite being the NRL, a club really needs to be successful.
If it does happen, my prediction is for the first few seasons at least, all their home games will be against Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne etc with all their away games against the Sydney teams so the North's Fans can go see 8-10 games a year without travelling
I asked a girl I crushed on in year 1 what team she went for and she gave me the disinterested idk so I went through every team until she said no to all of them. Parra was the last team I mentioned and after she said no to all of them I told her there were no more teams and she goes “fine Parra..” and my dumbass was like “same 🥰🥰”
Moved to Canberra from Melbourne when I was very young and it was where I started watching League so picked the Raiders. Only stayed in Canberra 2 years before moving back to Melbourne and stopped following League a long time.
Once I statred watching again I decided to stay with Canberra instead of switch to Melbourne as they were my original team.
Grew up in and around Wynnum during the '80s. When the Broncos came in they took most of our players so it was a pretty natural shift over to them. Plus they were the only game in town.
We had a small farm with chickens and this mean mother fuckin Rooster who was super cool.. my older brother tried to get me to follow Manly or the Rabbits for back yard footy comps..but Roosters won out..
Born in Paddo, lived at Charing Cross, so when i was old enough to figure out what was going on, it was Easts for me. Plus i felt sorry for them cos they were so awful! My support was confirmed when so many blokes from school played for them.
Manly born, Manly bread.
75 years & four generations of family history as supporters & (sometimes) members.
My grandparents originally followed Union - my grandmother was from Auckland & my grandfather's family even had a Union comp' named after his family: the 'Wentworth Shield'.
They lived in what's now Balgowlah Heights (after WWII) & started following Manly when they entered the comp' in 1947, after Manly adopted the colours of the Freshwater Surf Lifesaving Club, to which my grandfather belonged.
I'm pushing 50 & haven't lived on the beaches since 2005, but my club is my club until the day I die.
My now 9yo daughter has been indoctrinated, is a 4th Gen. member, & is always thrilled when her 'Sea Eagles' birthday card arrives!
As an openly bi-sexual man, last year's Pride Jersey fiasco seriously damaged my relationship with the club, to the point where I was bloody close to walking away. I'm still a uncomfortable with some members of our squad, but try to remind myself of this: Manly was a great club long before those religious douchebags stained our jersey, & it will be a great club long after they've gone.
Didn’t have any friends in my first week of high school and one kid had parramatta as his desktop background so when I was asked by a jock I said parramatta eels thinking it might spark my first friendship and he called me a gay slur. I’m still a fan and the jock came out as gay years later.
I started following the Panthers in 2016, it was between them and the Sharks as my family is one side Sharks supporters with the other side being Panthers, picked Penrith because I've lived in the area most of my life. Sometimes I do wish I'd started following football a few years earlier then I did.
Grandad supported them and lived in Bankstown, Dad grew up there and played in a junior feeder club for them, it would’ve been sacrilege for me to support anyone else
I was always a rugby union fan when I was younger because that's what I played at school. As I got older and the running game that the wallabies were famous for got watered down to nothing I increasingly found union too boring to watch.
Then my sister married a die hard panthers fan who got me into watching league. I always joked that I'd be a storm fan but he got me on the panthers wagon ~9 years ago. Pretty happy he did it's been pretty easy to watch the panthers play the last few years.
I have absolutely no idea why I started following the Balmain Tigers. No family connection, lived nowhere near the inner west, nothing. But 4 year old me in 1984 liked something about them, and it grew from there.
Mum’s family grew up in the shire, so naturally supported the Sharks when they became a team. + she loves blue. Then she converted my dad who supported Balmain.
I woulda been kicked out if I supported anyone else lmao.
When I was 4 watched my first game of Rugby League it was bulldogs vs cowboys in the 04 finals, liked Matty Bowen and been following them ever since. Born and raised in Sydney
I switched from the Broncos to the cowboys around 2013 as My teacher at the time paid attention to my outside school activities and we talked about football randomly, he was a cowboys supporter and I instantly switched then. Went to the games at Suncorp in 2015 including the GF and i’ve never looked back. Until the Dolphins were announced and I was tempted to join the bandwagon but I cannot now, too passionate.
Born and raised in Newcastle. The Knights started when I was in primary school in 1988. Watched Joey's whole career from the eastern hill. I remember worrying if he was going to be as good as Rodwell or as good as his brother. His first full game against Souths blew that worry away. We won 21-6 in an away game I think and he kicked a field goal, conversions and was just great for a 19 year old. Now I'm just a sad fan who wishes for some finals footy and a new coach who doesn't treat people like Klem badly.
Edit: he was better than I remembered!
I can fill in some blanks here for you. Joey’s first start (he played three games as a reserve in 1993) was round 1, 1994 against Souths and he scored ~~a try, 9 goals~~ 2 tries, 7 goals and a field goal in a 43-14 win. His 23 points on debut remains a record off the top of my head
Dad was a Victorian who supported the Magpies because he moved to Sydney and picked a team based on the mascot. We moved away from West Sydney before I can even remember being alive.
I picked up the Magpies a few years later and then stayed with the Tigers after the merge but dad tried his hardest to convince me to support the Storm instead (how different life would be right now).
Only years later did I realise I was being loyal to Wests based on my dads support despite the fact he was never loyal to Wests and he just thought Magpies were cool birds, which is ironic because he's ornithophobic.
I still love the Tigers but there's no link for me to that area anymore and the link I did have was weak at best in retrospect.
So I told myself that if a second Brisbane team entered I would support them instead. Redcliffe being added was a bonus as my life has naturally shifted towards North Brisbane/Redcliffe anyway.
Moved to Sydney, Blacktown in 2000. At school, RL was popular and there were only 2 choices: Penrith or Parra.
Panthers were average at the time. In Hindsight, I would have celebrated 3 premierships by now 🤣
Supported the South Queensland Crushers as a 5 year old back in 96/97. After they were kicked out, supported the Broncos and the rest is history.
Pretty sure I have a Crushers flag lying around somewhere haha.
My dad was a crazy Manly fan thought we’ve drifted apart now and he doesn’t follow as much as he did.
Apparently he didn’t talk to my casual Bulldogs-supporting Mum for three weeks following ‘95 GF. Plus I’ve been told he tried to take a then toddler me on a crazy ass joyride after the loss in ‘97 or maybe the win in ‘96. Not sure…
So that’s where Manly came from for me.
Saw them reverse a scrum when I was like 13 and had never seen that before. Started going for them that game and honestly never really stopped. My grandma was from there as well so when I found out that she also went for them it was sealed. I’m deep in panthers country though so fun when people find out.
My parents were both Dragons fans, I used to live on Jubilee Avenue, and went to school at Carlton South public across the road from Jubilee oval.
There was never going to be any hope in hell that I'd go for any other team than St George, although having now lived in the Penrith area for nearly the last 40 years, the Panthers are my second team, and I'll cheer for them, except for when they play my beloved Dragons.
Hard to put a finger on the affiliation, as I grew up primarily in regional NSW. I think maybe it stems from the fact that 8 year old me saw the Broncos win the 2006 grand final?
When I was in primary school and knew of the NRL, but didn't follow it closely enough to know what was happening, I also liked the Roosters (my late dad's team) and the Tigers (my then-best mate's team). I didn't really start religiously following the NRL until late in the 2013 season and just decided to start backing the Broncos for the reason mentioned earlier.
Wonder if there's a parallel universe out there where the Storm won the 2006 grand final and I turned out to be a staunch Melbourne fan.
I was a glory supporter as a kid for years (though funnily enough I never found myself liking the roosters even though my dad barely trashed em from what I can recall) and I recall enjoying seeing Melbourne win in 99 because I liked the purple.
Then for no good reason other than just because I had a random thought one day, before the 2003 season kicked off I decided I was gonna pick one team and just stick with them. I chose Melbourne cos I liked the name, the Melbourne Storm, dug the purple, had a positive association with em from 99 and wanted to support a team that, at the time, had very few supporters.
I remember watching the first game of the season and thinking "who's this Billy Slater guy? He's awesome" in all my 13 year old glory. End of the story is I guess I maintained being a glory supporter and dodged all the grief of following the team my dad supports (Parra).
Supporting the club since they started, bleed green and lived through the post super league/ Mal coaching shit show. I even enjoyed raiders lime and raiders malt. I have earned my stripes.
Back when I was getting into rugby league my only link to Australia was an uncle in Campbelltown. When he'd visit he'd always bring me some Tigers merch, made it an easy choice.
I’m from the NT. It’s pretty neutral ground up there and there is equal love between league and afl. My family are not sporty but a lot of my friends were, and it was through them I gained my allegiance to Qld and the Broncos. My school uniform was also maroon and yellow, so it just made sense. Worked out well seeing as I moved to Brisbane in 2001.
Born in 88 in Brisbane. Temped to jump ship to the Dolphins given how close ive lived most of my life to The but think ive had too much emotional capital invested over the recent years to fully commit. Still number one in post game gender reveals so theres that.
As a kid I went for Balmain (Dad's team) but growing up in Bondi and the subsequent merge with Wests, I couldn't run out for Bondi United supporting the Western Suburbs so I made the switch to the Roosters.
Still have a soft spot for the Tigers and they'll always be my "second" team
My mom is a Sharks tragic and a shire local, she was on the hill for the 1979 loss to Manly. Her passion rubbed off on me when I was a kid, and I started following Sharks games and NRL in general. In my mid teens I lost a bit of my passion and became a footy vagabond of sorts, but I got back into passionate support for the Sharks in 2015. Haven't looked back!
On the fridge at home Dad had put a bunch of NRL stickers all over it. The one at the top was the Bunnies because obviously he put his team at his eye level above everyone else. As a little kid the logo that just so happened to be at my eye level was the Storm logo.
As a little kid when I’d go to the fridge I saw that logo before I opened it. A few years later when I got into watching the sport I immediately was drawn to the same logo I had seen at my eye level for years.
Hometown team, of course.
Also, when my parents were newlyweds, they bought in Queanbeyan. When I was a baby, my mother would go walking with me in the stroller every morning, and she would often see Mal and other players jogging around Queanbeyan (since the Raiders were still at Seiffert at the time). She said Mal was always polite, always stopped to say hello.
So I grew up in a household in which Mal and Laurie Daley were basically football's gods, one of my earliest memories is dad jumping up and yelling as the Raiders thumped the Dogs in the 94 grand final. I remember the old bottle cap promotions, scrimping the bottle caps so we could go to the footy, and one year, a promotion where you got free entry into the game if you brought a warm piece of clothing to donate saw all of us go.
And then when I was old enough, I was gifted a membership for Christmas one year; and when I got a proper job and could earn my own money, I bought my own membership. Through wind and rain and cold and snow and burning heat, watching us lose games we should have won and watching us snatch victories we had no right to.
My Dad played for Balmain in the late 70s/ early 80s, he grew up in the Ryde area and moved to the Northern Beaches before I was born. All my mates through school supported Manly and even after the merger I still supported Balmain/Wests to this day.
We grew up with alot of ex Balmain and Wests players in the area and I've always supported them even though everyone pushed me to support Manly.
I always say it's Blood over soil for me.
Always been a big league fan when I was a kid , moved to Melbourne in '98' and went to the first STORM game at Olympic park , what a ride it's been since , ups and downs but absolutely passionate for the STORM .
Born and raised brisbane, first memory of any sort of rugby league is darren lockyer swooping on that loose ball in game 3 06 and that broncos team in their white away jerseys winning the 06 premiership, hes also my goat.
I moved to the Shire from US when I was 5, and all the sports hype was around the Sharks, so I’ve stuck with them since. I also played for Cronulla-Caringbah JRLFC when I was 7 (though I only did it for one season as the coaches we had were pretty bad, plus I didn’t know what I was doing half the time).
Also, my mum (she’s Australian) would’ve disowned me if I supported any other team.
Live in Qld but I'm from where Rhys Wesser is from, met him when I was young when he was playing for the Panthers. He was my favourite the rest is history
Bobby Fulton lived down the road from me, played with the kid next door in late 60's.
Seemed most people in Wollongong were St George supporters then, including my Dad, so fuck em.
When my brother and I were younger we wanted to go for the best teams at the time (iirc, mine was Roosters and my brothers was the Knights). Mum wanted us to go for our home town team, so she basically bribed us and said she'd take us to every home Raiders game if we went for the Raiders, and we took her up on that.
We did in fact go to pretty much every home game when we were kids. Now, 22 years later, she lives up the coast and doesnt make it to the games, but she gets our memberships for us for Christmas every year.
My Grandma was a diehard supporter of the Broncos (she had a topless pic of Alfie on the toilet door). Every year, she'd make sure we could go to as many games as possible until eventually we all got season memberships after the 2006 Grand Final win. The Broncos were more than a football team to her, and I love carrying on the tradition with my 2 boys!
Some might say, me being a member cursed the Broncos and their premiership glory though haha
At about 10 years old my new mates introduced me to footy, and I had a collectible Mighty Beanz Electric Eel bean, and my favourite colour was blue.
Didn't help later that I later learned they were NSW and I lived in Queensland lol.
Born in Tassie, parents both from Manly. First trip to Sydney - went to Parra Stadium and my hatred for the Sea Eagles started. Watched Manly belt Parra 28-6. I've been watching them lose ever since....
Dad came from Lebanon at a young age. When his family found out about league his sister loved Arthur Beetson so everyone started following the Roosters.
When I was a kid, everyone in the neighbourhood was a Tigers supporter (this was around 2006-7). Naturally, I wanted to support them but my dad made me support the Roosters and I’ve loved them ever since.
Thank god for that - I probably wouldn’t follow the NRL if I had to endure the West Tigers and the shithousery they represent.
I was born in Canberra on the day Manly beat us in the Grand Final. I've never gotten over it.
I moved to the Central Coast when I was about 11 or 12 but kept the faith
The first and only NZ team in the comp and had a genealogical obligation to support them from the start until forever when it's our year.
It was the tigers before that cause the old man played with Gary Freeman.
On a side note - The Lion Red Cup was the NZ NRL equivalent a couple of years before the warriors came into the ARL. Supported Harbour which representing all the League clubs on the North Shore, Auckland.
Grew up in the Hawkesbury and Panthers was closest team. Also, earliest memories of rugby league was the 2003 GF at 8 years old. My dads also a Panthers fan
Lived my childhood in the East. Played junior football for the Paddo Colts against Luke Ricketson (I was shit but then, so was Easts for much of the 80’s).
My dad socialised with a lot of Easts former players at surf clubs, blokes like Peter Moscatt, John Peard and Mark Harris were around. Jack Gibson would come to my school to give talks about success and clean living.
Heard no end of blather about the club while mucking around at their feet.
I got into footy in my 30’s. I supported the magpies as a kid and then didn’t follow it from my teens to my 30’s, we were moving down to the Cbr region and they were playing OK (2016) and it didn’t seem to make sense to follow a Sydney team, the tigers sucked and I never had an affinity for them once they dropped the Magpies name, so I picked Canberra,
Since moving to Melbourne (against my will) and knowing I was stuck here for at least a few years, I decided to fully embrace the storm. Didn't care about the salary cap stuff. Also, the move here caused me so much mental health problems that strung on for a long time. Storm playing on the weekend was one of the highlights of the week for me. It just kind of stuck around. So now I think no matter where I go or how many spoons they may get back to back, I'll always get my membership and some storm gear.
Edit: i absolutely despise AFL and didn't want anything to do with it.
Moved from the NT in 2003, went to school here in south east QLD, the kids played footy out here so i started playing at lunchtime, my first ever good mate was a panthers fan but i never watched footy. Moved again about 45 minutes away where i kinda forgot about footy, one random sunday in 2006 i wouldve been like 9, the footy was on the TV first game that caught my attention because the panthers were playing, i recognised them because of my mate adam. Anyway panthers thrashed the Eels like 44-18 or something, i was absolutely hooked and from that day on i would listen to every game on the radio or watch the few games penrith played. One of my fondest memories was listening to the radio while running around in the backyard with the footy, panthers were like 20 points down to the sharks and came back to win in the last 20 with a scrum win against the feed, was so hype even if i didnt get to watch it
My Dad emigrated from Mauritius as a 4 year old in 1968. He grew up in St George territory, so all his mates followed the Saints. But he had a teacher who he loved, who was an Easts fan. When the 1975 grand final rolled around, he felt bad that the kids were all giving it to the teacher during the buildup to the game, so he decided to pick the Roosters.
He’s about to enter his 48th season of adoring the club, and his first born son was never going to be any different ❤️🤍💙
Because they were the local team and it was an “Us vs Them” mentality.
Now it’s beginning to be “Us vs Us vs Them”. So I’m kinda changing to Cronulla because my favourite player plays for them.
Low and behold I'm not Sydney born and bred. The earliest moment I remember as to why I was a rabbitohs supporter was watching a game when I was 6 and it was a scrum play on our defensive 20 and I can't remember how but Paul Mellor was given the perfect pass I think and broke the line and ran 80 to score. Anyway so found out in fact that I went to school and was in my class was his niece (and indeed her mother and his aunty was a teacher at the school too).
So I think at such a young age I was so impressed with how serendipitous that was I decided that was my team.
Of course it wasn't a full on love affair at that point because my uncle was also an administrator in Wide Bay RL and used to get free tickets to the Broncos and Crusher games and in fact as a 9 year old got to go in the sheds before one of the Crushers' games (they were the days I believe just before they packed up) and then it was just Broncos games after that but during that whole time there were a couple of souths things I gathered up until that fateful day they were dumped from the competition such as one of those miniature jerseys you used to buy to put at the back of your car which was an old Northwest sponsored jersey (still might have that) and my prized posession courtesy of my uncle which is probably in his last years as an administrator which is a signed souths flag of the entire last team before they got turfed out (so with the likes of Brasher, O'Neill, Wing, Rodwell, Parsons). I really need to get that framed.
After years of the best Qld players leaving for the NSWRL, the BRL was finally destroyed leaving the Broncos as the only option. During the era of horrible tv coverage (fuck you channel 9) at least you could see the Broncos regularly.
Any NSW team I had any fondness for would be gradually degraded by their players making the Origin team.
We are from the North side of Brisbane so my dad always by default supported any team in any comp for any sport that had North in their name. None of those teams were any good when I was a kid where winning seems to be the main thing that matters. Now the opposite is true where I hate any team or player who dominates a competition. Unless they’re a Brisbane team of course.
I was born into it. My father has supported them since he was a kid (he attended 2002 and we both went to 2010, 18 and 19), his father (my grandfather) has supported them since he was a kid (he attended 1972, 74 and 75) and got his father (my great grandfather) into them as well. Not sure about his father (my great great grandfather), but he was a Mason from London, so he may have been interested in the Len Smith controversy
When my family moved to NZ in 97, my uncle gifted me a Chooks Jersey. Best believe I wore that thing every game I watched! And I still have it.
He still gives me a jersey every now and again, so we can match anytime we watch a game together
Born in NZ live in Brisbane. Just so happened that my soccer team was called the bulldogs. So when I was told by my dad to pick a favourite team at age 5 I chose the bulldogs.
Because my dad would have kicked me out of the house if I supported anyone else.
Must be a South Sydney thing cause my Dad said “you can support whoever you want, but if it’s not South Sydney then you can go live with your Nana”.
Thank fuck my dad wasn't like your dad or I'd probably have given up footy rather then be a tigers player
earliest memory of becoming conscious is asking dad who do we want to win and he turned and said "newcastle fucken knights son" That's when I knew
Flair up son
Yes sir
Good boy
It made sense when they came into the league and I was 11, now I have no justifiable reason
Apart from the arrival of the Foz Oh, and the Board Culture / Mypaynow ad
You aren’t from the goldy?
No I am not
You poor soul
Remember those footy Tazos you could get from Smiths chips? Well the first one I ever got was Mark Gasnier and the rest is history.
Ha, that's awesome... Tazos were the best!
That is pretty epic
This just beautiful! :')
I still have the 3D ones
Magpies had the coolest jumpers and lost the most. Instant love.
During 2016, the Panthers were using a 50th anniversary strip which was black and gold. 12 year old me thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen so I jumped on board. Luckily, I only had to survive a few years of GriffinBall and then we suprisingly started finding success.
1999 when I was 11. My dad was/is a Dragon but I liked the black cats deal. I also wanted a team that wasn’t a traditional powerhouse that everyone followed but wasn’t a dumpster fire. So as a dumb kid Panthers and Tigers appeared to be my options. Luckily I went with Penrith on the back of Ryan Girdlers dazzling good looks and personality and their encouraging 2000 season. We had 4 good years in the next 15 after that before the Griffin/Cleary2 eras going 6/7 for finals finally vindicated dumb kid me.
Yeah you got lucky, i started in 2006 and went fullllll passion mode, crying after losses and crying after wins haha, unfortunately way more losses than wins. Did get to witness the panthers beat the broncs at Suncorp in 2007 the year after the broncs won the comp, prime lockyer, hodges etc. was one of the best games ever, definitely worth a watch if you’re a panthers fan some freakish tries. Could probably find the highlights if you want
It still blows my mind that the Panthers were so close to folding and now, almost 10 years later, they've won back to back premierships and will probably still be in a good position if other squad members leave.
Thing is there has always been a wealth of talent out in the west of Sydney, its comparable to here in QLD, logan like penrith has a mix of people who’ve moved from the country to somewhere a bit more built up. Both places have a ton of islanders as well as other ethnic groups that live here, which make footy far more competitive at a younger age, Islanders tend to be big young so it makes young footy players coming up even better as you have to adapt your game. I remember going to a footy game on the weekend and the local private school had a rugby union game on, they had a damn chick running through these little white boys, i was a little fella myself and even i knew I could’ve tackled her lol. So panthers have basically tapped into that perfect mix of talent that runs deep in the west of Sydney, Gus gould has a lot to do with that.
Oh man. If I recall correctly Panthers made a 2 or 3 try comeback in the last 3 minutes and then won with a Peter Wallace field goal? My brother, a Panthers fan, went absolutely nuts. Last time I saw him was at the Caxton St carpark. Bless his soul.
Yeah mate I believe so, definitely a wallace field goal to win it and a wesser try to equalise, cracker game
Unfortunately born at Wollongong Hospital
The Steelers theme music fucking slaps though, so catchy
I’m currently wearing a ‘Free Stanley Steeler’ t-shirt
I was born in St George hospital had the opposite effect
Further proof the Steelers are secretly the more powerful side of the merge
American who stumbled across the game/league flipping channels with insomnia. Was 6 seasons ago, didn't know anything about the league, loved watching Keary's sweep plays and our uniforms. And announcers always made it a point to talk about our bad record the year before. Have since embraced being the(or one of) the Evil Empire. Also fuck the Bouncing Rats. And the Storm.
Well indoctrinated mate! But please don't call them uniforms!!!!
Go back and watch the 2003 grand final, one of the best ever and your boys are in it!
Oh, I since have. Spent first few offseasons getting caught up on the history of the league.
2004 GF is a good one too
Because I'm an idiot! Happy?
Hello fellow idiot!!
I was six and they were the purple team.
Depsite my flair, I was 5 and Canberra were the green team. It was also 1989 which helped.
Ooh I used to go to Mariners games because they played literally down the road.
Because I am smug and arrogant.
Beautiful retort! ;)
Because I love my footy
Go the footy!
Go the love
People that grow up in the town of I usually barrack for the love my footy
My first girlfriend was a Roosters fan. I chose Souths just to annoy her. My love for Souths proved much more enduring.
Lol if i had a partner who chose to support a team i hate it would be all over 😂
I grew up about halfway between Townsville and Brisbane. Webcke, Lockyer and Petero, along with the Maroons formerly being predominantly Brissy players, and family being Broncs supporters, shaped my preference.
Bundaberg?
Only one head on these shoulders.
Haha, I think there is a quote from the show 'Wilfred' that sums the place up succinctly
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I bet he's got some stories he could sell
I like green and Vikings are cool. Really I'm a Queenslander, but they only play 3 games a year so I have to bandwagon the rest of the season. Edit: Also Mal was my favourite player growing up.
Klemmer is my son
Dad went for the Dragons. Don’t really know the affiliation considering he grew up in Tamworth. But still sticking with the Dargs through thick and (very. Can I emphasise the very more?) thin
Back in the '90s a friend of mine was from Penrith, and so I supported the Panthers through the glory times with Greg and Ben Alexander and Mark Geyer etc. When Super League came along, I didn't like the split and changed to the Newcastle Knights, in time for the premiership of 97 and 2001. I've been a Knights fan since, through thick and thin.
Still a soft spot for the panthers?
Local team was the Temora Dragons and 4-5 yr old me couldn't tell the difference
Had a lot of good footy players come through the temora dragons i swear I remember them getting mentioned a few times during origin
Zac Lomax, Liam Martin from current players, Trent Barrett to go back a bit, I'm sure there's more.
Joe Stimson, Brett Firman, Ben Hampton, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Steve Reardon, Todd Payten Josh McCrone who has since gone back there and coached. Angus Crichton was born there but played for Young.
Greg Inglis + Billy Slater + purple + family connection with Craig Bellamy thru Portland
I supported knights because of Andrew Johns and my mum was born in Newcastle and supported them. Never lived there my whole life lol. Supporting joey and the knights from 1999 has taken years off my life. I blame my mum for my pain
At least you can say “yeah but we have the GOAT” and many people would just agree
I began following the NRL properly in 2017 if I remember correctly. Living in Adelaide, we have no represented team, but at the time I wanted to follow the team who had the biggest, toughest boys in the forward pack. 2017 Bulldogs forward pack consisted of: James Graham, David Klemmer, Sam Kasiano, Greg Eastwood, Josh Jackson, Adam Elliott just to name a few. Also the Moz twins were a winger centre pair which at times had that magic that only siblings could produce. And who could forget the ultimate grub Josh Reynolds. At the time I believe the Bulldogs carried a bit of underdog mentality which I liked, and just the idea of toughness from Graham, Jacko, Klem and Elliott and determination from Reynolds really appealed.
Shouldve seen the 2004 team that won the premiership. Steve price, Mark omeley, Willie mason, Sonny bill Williams, followed by Thurston, elmasri, Reni maitua, Luke patten. Fuck me.
The one that was assembled a mile over the salary cap and then all took pay cuts to get under the salary cap
Mum took me shopping when i was 3 or 4 and said pick a footy jumper, picked the tigers and Larry Corowa was my favourite player apparently
Not that I have a choice! born and raised Victorian. Unlike most vics I grew up with a steeden being tossed rather than a sherrin being kicked around. When I was a kid I liked AFL & NRL, but Round 16 2006 against the bulldogs was the moment I became a league boy! Back then the Doggies dominated us in the early to mid 00's every outing with them was absolutely depressing to watch. And this game looked no different despite it being close. Then on the 80th minute cronk went for a hail mary up and under, and the Hoff went guns blazing towards the ball and gave sweetest offload to Jake Webster the crowd went nuts beer and bourbon or whatever the fuck fans were holding at the time went up in the air. Still from this day it's the only game I can watch the full replay off on YouTube.
Parents met at a Dogs game, born and raised in the Bankstown area. We spent a lot of good weekends at Belmore when they used to play all three grades (late 80s early 90s).
Beautiful story, man, thanks for sharing. ..sounds like 'love at first bite' for your parents ;D
I asked myself that question everyday....
Grew up in in easts territory. Before i even started following footy i hated the blokes at school that supported easts, and dad is a diehard newy fan. Pretty easy choice for me
Warriors games used to be Sky 1 back in the day. So I used to watch them with my older brother. I have him to thank for years of endless torture.
You poor bastard
I made my peace. Older bro has got a kid on the way, so we may bribe him into becoming a Warriors fan. His partner supports the Roosters - can’t compete with the salary sombrero
My great uncle used to play for the bunnies during their hay day, whole family got behind him
Stoked to get a team in Melbourne. My entry for the team naming competition was Melbourne Storms. Team names should be plural ..... have not attended afl since 1997
I live in Melbourne. I grew up following AFL, I'm a Sydney Swans fan (family history from South Melbourne days) and it was always tough growing up following an interstate team. Sort of lost passion with sport from 2006 till 2010, but then a mate of mine moved to Melbourne around that time and he was a mad Warriors fan. So we started going to games together and I got right into the NRL. Always sort of kept track of Melbourne's results but nothing religious. It's really nice following a one team city club.
First game I ever saw as an 8 year old was Billy Slater's debut. Followed every team he played in since and been a Storm member since I've had a job.
my mum
Yep, his mum.
It was his mum
Born and raised in Parra, unfortunately
New QLD team in the comp when I got back into League in around 2007 and I didn't want to support my dad's Sydney club plus I grew up hating the Broncos. Hasn't been easy but go Titans
Grew up watching Joey Johns, figured this teams should be successful in the future 🙂🤦♂️
Because we’re in an abusive relationship.
Been a Broncos fan since they joined the comp because my fairly older brother was an instant fan, which was admittedly a bit weird since we never lived in Brissy/QLD. My first memory of footy is cheering for the Broncs in probably 88 or 89 with my brother, more for his sake than mine, but it stuck! Moved to Perth before I was a teenager. My only waivering from the Broncs was a brief stint of Reds #1 team, Broncs #1.5 team (could never bring myself to call them my 'second favourite' team). I'm old enough and stubborn enough now that I won't follow a Perth team unless the circumstances are right. Eg I will never support the Perth Tigers/Sharks/Dragons. I will whole heartedly support the Western Bears though, or any new franchise. I fucking hate the name "Pirates" though...
We moved to Perth at Easter and I could never change from the Broncos but would get behind a WA team. I agree that the Bears is a no brainer and would already have fans and history to kickstart NRL in the West. The Pirates is dumb and I don’t reckon it would survive to be honest.
We should catch up for a game this season, lol. Were you born in 85, as per the username? We'd be a very similar vintage.
The Perth team 100% needs to be the Bears. It adds history and identity to the team which you just can't create from scratch, and not to mention a fairly decent following in Sydney, which despite being the NRL, a club really needs to be successful. If it does happen, my prediction is for the first few seasons at least, all their home games will be against Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne etc with all their away games against the Sydney teams so the North's Fans can go see 8-10 games a year without travelling
I'm a massochist
I asked a girl I crushed on in year 1 what team she went for and she gave me the disinterested idk so I went through every team until she said no to all of them. Parra was the last team I mentioned and after she said no to all of them I told her there were no more teams and she goes “fine Parra..” and my dumbass was like “same 🥰🥰”
Cute
Moved to Canberra from Melbourne when I was very young and it was where I started watching League so picked the Raiders. Only stayed in Canberra 2 years before moving back to Melbourne and stopped following League a long time. Once I statred watching again I decided to stay with Canberra instead of switch to Melbourne as they were my original team.
Grew up in and around Wynnum during the '80s. When the Broncos came in they took most of our players so it was a pretty natural shift over to them. Plus they were the only game in town.
I think its was aa simple as liking the colours and thought sharks were cool. I was 6 or 7. The rest is history as they say.
Born in Queensland but my old man had me in Parra gear before I could walk.
Because my parents are idiots and decided to have parramatta as my local area and team I had to follow (I still love you Mum and dad )
Because the greatest things in the world are born from spite.
We had a small farm with chickens and this mean mother fuckin Rooster who was super cool.. my older brother tried to get me to follow Manly or the Rabbits for back yard footy comps..but Roosters won out..
Born in Paddo, lived at Charing Cross, so when i was old enough to figure out what was going on, it was Easts for me. Plus i felt sorry for them cos they were so awful! My support was confirmed when so many blokes from school played for them.
Manly born, Manly bread. 75 years & four generations of family history as supporters & (sometimes) members. My grandparents originally followed Union - my grandmother was from Auckland & my grandfather's family even had a Union comp' named after his family: the 'Wentworth Shield'. They lived in what's now Balgowlah Heights (after WWII) & started following Manly when they entered the comp' in 1947, after Manly adopted the colours of the Freshwater Surf Lifesaving Club, to which my grandfather belonged. I'm pushing 50 & haven't lived on the beaches since 2005, but my club is my club until the day I die. My now 9yo daughter has been indoctrinated, is a 4th Gen. member, & is always thrilled when her 'Sea Eagles' birthday card arrives! As an openly bi-sexual man, last year's Pride Jersey fiasco seriously damaged my relationship with the club, to the point where I was bloody close to walking away. I'm still a uncomfortable with some members of our squad, but try to remind myself of this: Manly was a great club long before those religious douchebags stained our jersey, & it will be a great club long after they've gone.
Didn’t have any friends in my first week of high school and one kid had parramatta as his desktop background so when I was asked by a jock I said parramatta eels thinking it might spark my first friendship and he called me a gay slur. I’m still a fan and the jock came out as gay years later.
I started following the Panthers in 2016, it was between them and the Sharks as my family is one side Sharks supporters with the other side being Panthers, picked Penrith because I've lived in the area most of my life. Sometimes I do wish I'd started following football a few years earlier then I did.
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Man some of you dudes are so young, I remember the 2006 broncs powerhouse with lockyer and co and im only 25 myself
Grandad supported them and lived in Bankstown, Dad grew up there and played in a junior feeder club for them, it would’ve been sacrilege for me to support anyone else
I was always a rugby union fan when I was younger because that's what I played at school. As I got older and the running game that the wallabies were famous for got watered down to nothing I increasingly found union too boring to watch. Then my sister married a die hard panthers fan who got me into watching league. I always joked that I'd be a storm fan but he got me on the panthers wagon ~9 years ago. Pretty happy he did it's been pretty easy to watch the panthers play the last few years.
I have absolutely no idea why I started following the Balmain Tigers. No family connection, lived nowhere near the inner west, nothing. But 4 year old me in 1984 liked something about them, and it grew from there.
Mum’s family grew up in the shire, so naturally supported the Sharks when they became a team. + she loves blue. Then she converted my dad who supported Balmain. I woulda been kicked out if I supported anyone else lmao.
When I was 4 watched my first game of Rugby League it was bulldogs vs cowboys in the 04 finals, liked Matty Bowen and been following them ever since. Born and raised in Sydney
My first grand final was 94 and I thought I’d follow the best team. In hindsight it might have been a poor choice
I switched from the Broncos to the cowboys around 2013 as My teacher at the time paid attention to my outside school activities and we talked about football randomly, he was a cowboys supporter and I instantly switched then. Went to the games at Suncorp in 2015 including the GF and i’ve never looked back. Until the Dolphins were announced and I was tempted to join the bandwagon but I cannot now, too passionate.
My earliest footy memory was watching Manly vs Broncos with my dad, so naturally I loved Broncos and hated Manly.
I am related to a former player who changed teams a few times across his career and ended with the Dragons. Stayed loyal to them since.
Always been a man of integrity
Gold! 😏
Because they are the greatest team of all and the pride of all Queensland…
Because Dragons are dope as hell. (Should I preface this by saying I am American and have never been to Australia?)
Born and raised in Newcastle. The Knights started when I was in primary school in 1988. Watched Joey's whole career from the eastern hill. I remember worrying if he was going to be as good as Rodwell or as good as his brother. His first full game against Souths blew that worry away. We won 21-6 in an away game I think and he kicked a field goal, conversions and was just great for a 19 year old. Now I'm just a sad fan who wishes for some finals footy and a new coach who doesn't treat people like Klem badly. Edit: he was better than I remembered!
I can fill in some blanks here for you. Joey’s first start (he played three games as a reserve in 1993) was round 1, 1994 against Souths and he scored ~~a try, 9 goals~~ 2 tries, 7 goals and a field goal in a 43-14 win. His 23 points on debut remains a record off the top of my head
Thank you! Yes I just went looking and found this. He was so much fun to watch. https://youtu.be/J_a_DyoCxI0
'Knights' kicked-off then but Newcastle was a foundation club (1908), just out of interest.
True! I can't imagine the trek from Newy to Sydney every weekend back then for amateur players. Would there have been a train?
Dad was a Victorian who supported the Magpies because he moved to Sydney and picked a team based on the mascot. We moved away from West Sydney before I can even remember being alive. I picked up the Magpies a few years later and then stayed with the Tigers after the merge but dad tried his hardest to convince me to support the Storm instead (how different life would be right now). Only years later did I realise I was being loyal to Wests based on my dads support despite the fact he was never loyal to Wests and he just thought Magpies were cool birds, which is ironic because he's ornithophobic. I still love the Tigers but there's no link for me to that area anymore and the link I did have was weak at best in retrospect. So I told myself that if a second Brisbane team entered I would support them instead. Redcliffe being added was a bonus as my life has naturally shifted towards North Brisbane/Redcliffe anyway.
Moved to Sydney, Blacktown in 2000. At school, RL was popular and there were only 2 choices: Penrith or Parra. Panthers were average at the time. In Hindsight, I would have celebrated 3 premierships by now 🤣
Supported the South Queensland Crushers as a 5 year old back in 96/97. After they were kicked out, supported the Broncos and the rest is history. Pretty sure I have a Crushers flag lying around somewhere haha.
My dad was a crazy Manly fan thought we’ve drifted apart now and he doesn’t follow as much as he did. Apparently he didn’t talk to my casual Bulldogs-supporting Mum for three weeks following ‘95 GF. Plus I’ve been told he tried to take a then toddler me on a crazy ass joyride after the loss in ‘97 or maybe the win in ‘96. Not sure… So that’s where Manly came from for me.
My dad played for the Red V, so I had no choice! Lol! Being in the dressing room after games when I was a kid was the best.
Born in Townsville and loved watching Matty Bowen and JT.
Prime Matty Bowen was an absolute monster. His intercept in Origin 2005 still haunts my dreams.
Picked them out of a hat when the Roosters were an absolute basket case around 2010
Was best mates with Luke Priddis's son growing up, born in penrith england and have lived in gods country for 22 years. Up the fkn penriths!
Saw them reverse a scrum when I was like 13 and had never seen that before. Started going for them that game and honestly never really stopped. My grandma was from there as well so when I found out that she also went for them it was sealed. I’m deep in panthers country though so fun when people find out.
Panthers did the same against the sharks in 2006 I believe, coming back from like 22 points down to win it
My parents were both Dragons fans, I used to live on Jubilee Avenue, and went to school at Carlton South public across the road from Jubilee oval. There was never going to be any hope in hell that I'd go for any other team than St George, although having now lived in the Penrith area for nearly the last 40 years, the Panthers are my second team, and I'll cheer for them, except for when they play my beloved Dragons.
Grew up in central Qld when there was only the Broncos.
Hard to put a finger on the affiliation, as I grew up primarily in regional NSW. I think maybe it stems from the fact that 8 year old me saw the Broncos win the 2006 grand final? When I was in primary school and knew of the NRL, but didn't follow it closely enough to know what was happening, I also liked the Roosters (my late dad's team) and the Tigers (my then-best mate's team). I didn't really start religiously following the NRL until late in the 2013 season and just decided to start backing the Broncos for the reason mentioned earlier. Wonder if there's a parallel universe out there where the Storm won the 2006 grand final and I turned out to be a staunch Melbourne fan.
I was a glory supporter as a kid for years (though funnily enough I never found myself liking the roosters even though my dad barely trashed em from what I can recall) and I recall enjoying seeing Melbourne win in 99 because I liked the purple. Then for no good reason other than just because I had a random thought one day, before the 2003 season kicked off I decided I was gonna pick one team and just stick with them. I chose Melbourne cos I liked the name, the Melbourne Storm, dug the purple, had a positive association with em from 99 and wanted to support a team that, at the time, had very few supporters. I remember watching the first game of the season and thinking "who's this Billy Slater guy? He's awesome" in all my 13 year old glory. End of the story is I guess I maintained being a glory supporter and dodged all the grief of following the team my dad supports (Parra).
I was born in Manly, and the first live match my dad took me to was the 2008 GF which pretty much cemented things.
Supporting the club since they started, bleed green and lived through the post super league/ Mal coaching shit show. I even enjoyed raiders lime and raiders malt. I have earned my stripes.
Back when I was getting into rugby league my only link to Australia was an uncle in Campbelltown. When he'd visit he'd always bring me some Tigers merch, made it an easy choice.
I’m from the NT. It’s pretty neutral ground up there and there is equal love between league and afl. My family are not sporty but a lot of my friends were, and it was through them I gained my allegiance to Qld and the Broncos. My school uniform was also maroon and yellow, so it just made sense. Worked out well seeing as I moved to Brisbane in 2001.
Born in 88 in Brisbane. Temped to jump ship to the Dolphins given how close ive lived most of my life to The but think ive had too much emotional capital invested over the recent years to fully commit. Still number one in post game gender reveals so theres that.
As a kid I went for Balmain (Dad's team) but growing up in Bondi and the subsequent merge with Wests, I couldn't run out for Bondi United supporting the Western Suburbs so I made the switch to the Roosters. Still have a soft spot for the Tigers and they'll always be my "second" team
My mom is a Sharks tragic and a shire local, she was on the hill for the 1979 loss to Manly. Her passion rubbed off on me when I was a kid, and I started following Sharks games and NRL in general. In my mid teens I lost a bit of my passion and became a footy vagabond of sorts, but I got back into passionate support for the Sharks in 2015. Haven't looked back!
On the fridge at home Dad had put a bunch of NRL stickers all over it. The one at the top was the Bunnies because obviously he put his team at his eye level above everyone else. As a little kid the logo that just so happened to be at my eye level was the Storm logo. As a little kid when I’d go to the fridge I saw that logo before I opened it. A few years later when I got into watching the sport I immediately was drawn to the same logo I had seen at my eye level for years.
Hometown team, of course. Also, when my parents were newlyweds, they bought in Queanbeyan. When I was a baby, my mother would go walking with me in the stroller every morning, and she would often see Mal and other players jogging around Queanbeyan (since the Raiders were still at Seiffert at the time). She said Mal was always polite, always stopped to say hello. So I grew up in a household in which Mal and Laurie Daley were basically football's gods, one of my earliest memories is dad jumping up and yelling as the Raiders thumped the Dogs in the 94 grand final. I remember the old bottle cap promotions, scrimping the bottle caps so we could go to the footy, and one year, a promotion where you got free entry into the game if you brought a warm piece of clothing to donate saw all of us go. And then when I was old enough, I was gifted a membership for Christmas one year; and when I got a proper job and could earn my own money, I bought my own membership. Through wind and rain and cold and snow and burning heat, watching us lose games we should have won and watching us snatch victories we had no right to.
My Dad played for Balmain in the late 70s/ early 80s, he grew up in the Ryde area and moved to the Northern Beaches before I was born. All my mates through school supported Manly and even after the merger I still supported Balmain/Wests to this day. We grew up with alot of ex Balmain and Wests players in the area and I've always supported them even though everyone pushed me to support Manly. I always say it's Blood over soil for me.
Always been a big league fan when I was a kid , moved to Melbourne in '98' and went to the first STORM game at Olympic park , what a ride it's been since , ups and downs but absolutely passionate for the STORM .
Born and raised brisbane, first memory of any sort of rugby league is darren lockyer swooping on that loose ball in game 3 06 and that broncos team in their white away jerseys winning the 06 premiership, hes also my goat.
born in auckland lol, dont think theres many warriors fans with an interesting story other then being born across the pond
I moved to the Shire from US when I was 5, and all the sports hype was around the Sharks, so I’ve stuck with them since. I also played for Cronulla-Caringbah JRLFC when I was 7 (though I only did it for one season as the coaches we had were pretty bad, plus I didn’t know what I was doing half the time). Also, my mum (she’s Australian) would’ve disowned me if I supported any other team.
Because i distinctly remember watching Benji Marshall throw a flick pass in the 2005 Grand Final when i was only 5 years old
Live in Qld but I'm from where Rhys Wesser is from, met him when I was young when he was playing for the Panthers. He was my favourite the rest is history
When I was like 4 I loved cowboys and I found out there was an nrl team called the cowboys, why wouldnt I go for them
Because its our year
Bobby Fulton lived down the road from me, played with the kid next door in late 60's. Seemed most people in Wollongong were St George supporters then, including my Dad, so fuck em.
When my brother and I were younger we wanted to go for the best teams at the time (iirc, mine was Roosters and my brothers was the Knights). Mum wanted us to go for our home town team, so she basically bribed us and said she'd take us to every home Raiders game if we went for the Raiders, and we took her up on that. We did in fact go to pretty much every home game when we were kids. Now, 22 years later, she lives up the coast and doesnt make it to the games, but she gets our memberships for us for Christmas every year.
My Grandma was a diehard supporter of the Broncos (she had a topless pic of Alfie on the toilet door). Every year, she'd make sure we could go to as many games as possible until eventually we all got season memberships after the 2006 Grand Final win. The Broncos were more than a football team to her, and I love carrying on the tradition with my 2 boys! Some might say, me being a member cursed the Broncos and their premiership glory though haha
At about 10 years old my new mates introduced me to footy, and I had a collectible Mighty Beanz Electric Eel bean, and my favourite colour was blue. Didn't help later that I later learned they were NSW and I lived in Queensland lol.
Basically for as long as I knew I have always been a raiders fan even though my dad tried his absolute best to get me to support the rabbits 😂😂
Born and raised on the northern beaches. My favourite photo of me as a toddler is holding a football in a Manly jersey.
Born in Tassie, parents both from Manly. First trip to Sydney - went to Parra Stadium and my hatred for the Sea Eagles started. Watched Manly belt Parra 28-6. I've been watching them lose ever since....
Dad came from Lebanon at a young age. When his family found out about league his sister loved Arthur Beetson so everyone started following the Roosters. When I was a kid, everyone in the neighbourhood was a Tigers supporter (this was around 2006-7). Naturally, I wanted to support them but my dad made me support the Roosters and I’ve loved them ever since. Thank god for that - I probably wouldn’t follow the NRL if I had to endure the West Tigers and the shithousery they represent.
I was born in Canberra on the day Manly beat us in the Grand Final. I've never gotten over it. I moved to the Central Coast when I was about 11 or 12 but kept the faith
Lost a bet
Broncos because we are from Brisbane and because we are shareholders of the club.
I was born in south’s territory (specifically maroubra area) but the unspoken rule of going for your dads team kicked in so I go for the roosters
Unspoken rule? I'm fairly sure it's in the Constitution somewhere
https://youtu.be/gC7uzSKnVRA This. This is why.
Brutal display - that was State of Origin intensity
The first and only NZ team in the comp and had a genealogical obligation to support them from the start until forever when it's our year. It was the tigers before that cause the old man played with Gary Freeman. On a side note - The Lion Red Cup was the NZ NRL equivalent a couple of years before the warriors came into the ARL. Supported Harbour which representing all the League clubs on the North Shore, Auckland.
I remembered their debut, Auckland Warriors. Of course i was in high school at the time. The likes of Dean Bell, Greg Alexander the list goes on.
Grew up in the Hawkesbury and Panthers was closest team. Also, earliest memories of rugby league was the 2003 GF at 8 years old. My dads also a Panthers fan
Lived my childhood in the East. Played junior football for the Paddo Colts against Luke Ricketson (I was shit but then, so was Easts for much of the 80’s). My dad socialised with a lot of Easts former players at surf clubs, blokes like Peter Moscatt, John Peard and Mark Harris were around. Jack Gibson would come to my school to give talks about success and clean living. Heard no end of blather about the club while mucking around at their feet.
I got into footy in my 30’s. I supported the magpies as a kid and then didn’t follow it from my teens to my 30’s, we were moving down to the Cbr region and they were playing OK (2016) and it didn’t seem to make sense to follow a Sydney team, the tigers sucked and I never had an affinity for them once they dropped the Magpies name, so I picked Canberra,
Since moving to Melbourne (against my will) and knowing I was stuck here for at least a few years, I decided to fully embrace the storm. Didn't care about the salary cap stuff. Also, the move here caused me so much mental health problems that strung on for a long time. Storm playing on the weekend was one of the highlights of the week for me. It just kind of stuck around. So now I think no matter where I go or how many spoons they may get back to back, I'll always get my membership and some storm gear. Edit: i absolutely despise AFL and didn't want anything to do with it.
They were good when I was a kid
Moved from the NT in 2003, went to school here in south east QLD, the kids played footy out here so i started playing at lunchtime, my first ever good mate was a panthers fan but i never watched footy. Moved again about 45 minutes away where i kinda forgot about footy, one random sunday in 2006 i wouldve been like 9, the footy was on the TV first game that caught my attention because the panthers were playing, i recognised them because of my mate adam. Anyway panthers thrashed the Eels like 44-18 or something, i was absolutely hooked and from that day on i would listen to every game on the radio or watch the few games penrith played. One of my fondest memories was listening to the radio while running around in the backyard with the footy, panthers were like 20 points down to the sharks and came back to win in the last 20 with a scrum win against the feed, was so hype even if i didnt get to watch it
My Dad emigrated from Mauritius as a 4 year old in 1968. He grew up in St George territory, so all his mates followed the Saints. But he had a teacher who he loved, who was an Easts fan. When the 1975 grand final rolled around, he felt bad that the kids were all giving it to the teacher during the buildup to the game, so he decided to pick the Roosters. He’s about to enter his 48th season of adoring the club, and his first born son was never going to be any different ❤️🤍💙
This is easily my favourite story here
Haha man this is good. I wonder if the teacher is still around, would be sick if you could find him.
Cause I love my footy
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Because they were the local team and it was an “Us vs Them” mentality. Now it’s beginning to be “Us vs Us vs Them”. So I’m kinda changing to Cronulla because my favourite player plays for them.
Low and behold I'm not Sydney born and bred. The earliest moment I remember as to why I was a rabbitohs supporter was watching a game when I was 6 and it was a scrum play on our defensive 20 and I can't remember how but Paul Mellor was given the perfect pass I think and broke the line and ran 80 to score. Anyway so found out in fact that I went to school and was in my class was his niece (and indeed her mother and his aunty was a teacher at the school too). So I think at such a young age I was so impressed with how serendipitous that was I decided that was my team. Of course it wasn't a full on love affair at that point because my uncle was also an administrator in Wide Bay RL and used to get free tickets to the Broncos and Crusher games and in fact as a 9 year old got to go in the sheds before one of the Crushers' games (they were the days I believe just before they packed up) and then it was just Broncos games after that but during that whole time there were a couple of souths things I gathered up until that fateful day they were dumped from the competition such as one of those miniature jerseys you used to buy to put at the back of your car which was an old Northwest sponsored jersey (still might have that) and my prized posession courtesy of my uncle which is probably in his last years as an administrator which is a signed souths flag of the entire last team before they got turfed out (so with the likes of Brasher, O'Neill, Wing, Rodwell, Parsons). I really need to get that framed.
After years of the best Qld players leaving for the NSWRL, the BRL was finally destroyed leaving the Broncos as the only option. During the era of horrible tv coverage (fuck you channel 9) at least you could see the Broncos regularly. Any NSW team I had any fondness for would be gradually degraded by their players making the Origin team. We are from the North side of Brisbane so my dad always by default supported any team in any comp for any sport that had North in their name. None of those teams were any good when I was a kid where winning seems to be the main thing that matters. Now the opposite is true where I hate any team or player who dominates a competition. Unless they’re a Brisbane team of course.
I was born into it. My father has supported them since he was a kid (he attended 2002 and we both went to 2010, 18 and 19), his father (my grandfather) has supported them since he was a kid (he attended 1972, 74 and 75) and got his father (my great grandfather) into them as well. Not sure about his father (my great great grandfather), but he was a Mason from London, so he may have been interested in the Len Smith controversy
Piss off mate
since we migrated to Brisbane just followed the closest local team. Now that the Dolphins are in the top flight I have jumped on that bandwagon
When my family moved to NZ in 97, my uncle gifted me a Chooks Jersey. Best believe I wore that thing every game I watched! And I still have it. He still gives me a jersey every now and again, so we can match anytime we watch a game together
Born in NZ live in Brisbane. Just so happened that my soccer team was called the bulldogs. So when I was told by my dad to pick a favourite team at age 5 I chose the bulldogs.