Nothing black and white about following the blue and gold

by VIN MASKELL

SOME of my best friends are Collingwood fans but I can't say I'm unhappy about the end of the seven-year Williamstown-Collingwood alignment in the VFL.

If you want to create a culture of half-hearted supporters, create a competition of half-baked teams.

For seven years I've felt my passion for the Seagulls waning. For seven years I've gone down to the Morris Street ground and begrudgingly shared the sea-breeze and the bay views with, of all people, Collingwood fans. For seven years I've watched strangers running around in yellow and gold jumpers but playing for black and white reasons.

Common sense, a useless commodity when following footy, will tell me that Williamstown would have struggled, as a club and as a team, without the Magpie merger. It will tell me that the 2003 flag might never have happened without Mike Richardson, Jarrod Malloy and Andrew Williams.

It will tell me that I wouldn't have caught a glimpse of Martin Clarke's Gaelic magic one wet and windy day this season.

And common sense will tell me that the real Williamstown players probably learnt a lot from being so close to Nathan Buckley and Mick Malthouse.

But Collingwood got too close for my liking, especially when the Seagull's theme song was changed to 'Good old Williamstown forever', a near carbon-copy of the Magpies' song.

And then, the final straw. For years the local papers have quite rightly quoted the club coach or its manager for the post-match reviews. After round 18 this year, though, one of the papers published the wisdom of one Jeff 'Joffa' Corfe, as he spoke about Williamstown's capitulation to another half-baked team, the Bendigo Bombers.

Now, Joffa's probably a very nice bloke and he wore his Seagulls cap proudly at Morris St but does his position as Collingwood community development officer qualify him to speak on behalf of the Seagulls?

What about Clive and Bill and Frank, who have watched from the foot of the Floyd Pavilion for decades? What about their mate, the 200 gamer from the 1960s, full back Tommy Russell? What about Roundy (known to his mother as Barry),the Norm Goss medallistand premiership captain-coach from 1990?

No, the local paper chose to quote Joffa. Imagine it the other way around - a Seagulls supporter, say the hoarse bloke who sells the raffle tickets, speaking on behalf of Eddie McGuire.

So, I'm not unhappy the marriage is over. There's talk of the Seagulls linking up with the Western Bulldogs, a club also in Melbourne's west.Williamstown might still struggle, on and off the field, but more of the players and supporters will now have blue and gold in their veins, not black and white.

22 September 2007

australianrules.com.au

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The Seagulls are no longer hanging around with the Magpies.

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