Small Poppy Syndrome

You have to endure many things as a St Kilda supporter. In many respects, it is a calling, or to take the half-glass-empty approach, an ordeal.

Just in my nearly 29 years, I have had to put up with:

• Not beating Essendon until I was in High School
• Losing that final to Geelong in 1991 because Gary Ablett was always more like the Old Testament "Vengeful" God than the New Testament compassionate god (see N Burke)
• Seeing Nicky Winmar almost walk out on the club in 1993, mere weeks after his (and Gilbert McAdam's) heroics at Victoria Park
• Seeing Ken Sheldon and Stan Alves dumped as coach before their time
• Seeing Tim Watson coach at all
• Seeing Malcolm Blight get lured by money
• Seeing Rod Butterss go completely b@tshit insane
• Nicky Winmar and Stewart Loewe's 1997 Grand Final Week
• Darren Jarman
• For that matter, pre-2008 Adam Schneider
• Barry Hall cheating his way to a Premiership (he dropped his opponent, took an uncontested mark and kicked a goal, and the punch was officially ruled illegal, so he cheated)
• Trent Knobel, and Cain Ackland post 2005
• Seeing Brent Guerra in a Hawthorn jumper (with hair)

How long do you have, I could keep going on and on and on .....

But you know what I hate the most?

The people who hate St Kilda.

And do you know why this rankles with me the most?

Because they have no good reason to.

Many people hate Collingwood. They are many good reasons. In the period 1960-1981 they made the Grand Final eight times, so they were pretty good through that period. And the Collingwood Army does self-promotion better than most.

Essendon dominated the competition in the 1980s, and St Kilda particularly. Kevin Sheedy coached Essendon to victories in his first 20 encounters with St Kilda, finishing his long coaching career with 33 wins and only 8 losses. And Essendon supporters let everyone know about it. This is why I hate Essendon.

But why would anyone hate St Kilda? I just don't get it.At the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, "Eric the Eel" got quite a bit of media for his unflattering performance in the 100m freestyle, taking only slightly less time to swim the distance than Susie Moroney would take to swim the English Channel. But he participated, wasn't hurting anyone, exemplified the Olympic value of taking part, and was sort of cute.

On the other hand, American swimmer Gary Hall Jr predicted the Americans would play the Aussie swimmers like a guitar in the 4X100m freestyle relay, an event they had never lost before those Olympics. The Aussies, behind a world record from Michael Klim and an amazing anchor leg from Ian Thorpe, took the gold medal.

Now, by reckoning, hating St Kilda is like hating Eric the Eel. He's embarrassing, he's making a mockery of the competition, he should be confined to anonymity where he belongs.

The AFL's efforts to make the competition more even have been advantageous to a club like St Kilda. But that is making up for years of neglect and worse by the league, including removing the Peninsula from our recruting zone in the mid 1960s, robbing us of Leigh Matthews and Dermott Brereton.

Hating St Kilda is hating the little guy. Hating the unemployed. Hating the refugee. Hating the famine stricken.

I'll be happy for the hecklers to hate us when we are winning premierships, which I hope (but do not expect to) starts this year.

We have a lot to put up with as St Kilda supporters, so much so that at times I have seen little kids trudging out of another St Kilda loss and felt compelled to grab them and yell, "Stop barracking for St Kilda, before you get emotionally attached and it's too late!" But we don't need to put up with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon supporters, whose history is far from blot-less, telling us we have no right to be in the league, or dredging up old, murky incidents. Just let us barrack in peace.