I'm a Sports Hooligan... How about you?

Hey there people. Welcome back to my blog. My sports infested, dripping with sweat and "odour eaters" scent, blog...

Okay - this time I'm going to tell you about my favourite teams. And why...

Firstly, my favourite team of all time is...

Yes, I'm a Manchester United supporter. I'm a Red Devil. I'm the red half of Manchester, a Manc. I've been a Manchester United supporter since I was a kid. I was influenced by Sir Alex Ferguson, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo. In my opinion, Sir Alex is THE best manager in the world, and will always will be, but is closely followed by their current manager, Jose Mourinho. I was watching the treble when it happened in '99. I was screaming at the tv, late at night, with my mates, at one of mates' house. His dad was a big Manchester United fan too. When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer put his foot out to win the Champions League, I remember going absolutely mental.

Well, let's get closer to home. In Australia, we have AFL - that's Australian Rules Football. If you haven't seen of heard of it before, go and check out this site

http://www.afl.com.au/ - and then you'll understand what all the fuss is about!

My favourite team in AFL is the mighty Fremantle Dockers!

The "Dockers" as they are affectionately called, are from my home town Fremantle, on the coast of Western Australia, Australia. They have been around for just over 15 years, and they have appeared in a Grand Final once, losing to the mighty Hawthorn Hawks by a large margin. We have won the minor premiership, but not the major - meaning - we won the regular season and not the finals. With AFL, you come first on the ladder at the end of the season, means you win the minor premiership. The top eight teams then go into the "Finals", to find out who is the team that has won the big major premiership. This game is the biggest game of any sort in Australia, usually played on the final Sunday in September, with over 100,000 fans and visitors coming to watch the match. AFL has a recruitment system a lot like the NFL draft, and the top players usually going to the lowest team of the previous year. Favourite players in my team are Matthew Pavlich (captain), Nat Fyfe (Player of the year 2014 and best and fairest of the league). Other players... well we won't get into that right now!

Now Australia (or Oz as I call it!) has it's own football league - or soccer as we call it. It's called the A-League. It's made up of ten teams spread across the country. And we have had our superstars play over in Europe too, just to let you know we can become the best, and play with the best.

Perth Glory FC started in 1996. And was THE team to beat in the early years of professional soccer in Australia, which had a league called the NSL (National Soccer League). We won the premiership a few times under East German national coach Bernd Stange. We first lost the Grand Final through penalties to a packed Subiaco Oval crowd of over 43,000 fans, to the Wollongong Wolves in 2000, but came back the next year, and lost again in the final to Sydney Olympic. But in 2003, we took the cup, in front of another packed house, and did it again the next year, in 2004, basing ourselves as the soccer powerhouse of Oz. That game was to be the last in the NSL, but in eight seasons Perth featured in the finals six times, played in four grand finals and won two championships, and was crowned premiers (top of the table after the regular season) three times. In the new A-League, Perth has been to one Grand Final since, only to have our hearts broken in the dying minutes of the game to Brisbane Roar. And we've had our fair share of superstars play for us, including the man they used to call "God" - Robbie Fowler.

One of my favourite sports of all time is motor racing, and F1 being the top of that, I support the Red Bull F1 Racing Team

I've been following motor racing, especially F1, since I was a little tacker. I used to stay up till the ungodly hours with my grandfather, Jim, who got me into watching this fantastic sport. My love of the sport started with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, when they used to drive for McLaren. Each one won the championship, and almost alternatively for years. Then, one of our own sons, Mark Webber, started driving for the Minardi Racing Team, and then he was transferred to the Red Bull Racing Team. On his maiden drive, he came fifth in Melbourne, the opener of the year in the F1 circuit. Now Mark has had some wins, and had some amazing crashes too (the flips being the ones I can't stop remembering, as well as the exact same thing he did in Le Mans). Now the batten has been passed to a local lad, who comes from Perth, Western Australia, Daniel Ricciardo. "Trippin' Balls" is a famous West Oz saying, and he said that on his maiden win in the Red Bull, and I bet all of his mates, as well as most of the West Aussie community knew exactly what he meant, and we love him for it. Go Daniel!

Another sport... hmmm... What's next?

Well... How could you not mention cricket? I'm Australian and the Australian Cricket Team are LEGENDS!

Every kid in Australia watches cricket at some stage of their life. And I used to love Alan Border. My dad had an uncanny resemblance to him as well. So I grew up on him (who now has the player of the year medal named after - the Alan Border Medal), and other big names like Bruce Reid, David Jones, Dennis Lillee, Rodney Marsh, Greg, Terry and Trevor Chappell, and later on Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Steve and Mark Waugh, and even more lately, Steve Smith and David Warner. 

Going to the grounds (in W.A. it is the WACA) and seeing these guys slog it out against the international greats of the game - Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, the little master Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Michael Holding, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards - was the day of days! We would make a total day of it, taking picnics, floppy hats, sunscreen, and sit up on the hill, waiting for our chance to grab the ball if it was sent for a six. Awesome. But one of the best things in Australia is the crowd - we're mad!

Basketball. Now this sport is pretty big in Australia and the U.S.A., and in both countries there are Australians. My team in the U.S.A. is the Chicago Bulls, plain and simply because of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Aussie Luc Longley.

I watched the "three-peat", and I still follow the Bulls when I can. Luc Longley is a superstar in Australia, and he comes from my hometown Fremantle. I used to go to school up the road from our great rivals John Curtin Senior High School, and I knew Luc's younger brother, Griff. But watching the Bulls take it to L.A. and Seattle over the years (especially with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton), it was breathtaking. And watching the dunk contests and jams... well... honestly. It was amazing

In Perth, we have the NBL, National Basketball League, and our own Perth Wildcats are the frontrunners of each season

The Wildcats have won 7 championships, including this years. And we have a very very strong roster and a great amount of servants over the years, including Matthew Knight, Nathan Jawal, James Ennis, Michael Ellis (who took us to a championship as a coach and a player) Andrew Vlahov, James "Alabama Slammer" Crawford, Ricky Grace and "the Black Pearl" Cal Bruton. We have even been called "the world's greatest sporting team", being in 29 consecutive finals appearances, with the 1990 Championship being our first one. Beat that!

Ok. That's about all I have time for today. My next blog will continue with my other fave teams, and I will interview others about their fave's too.

Until then - Catchya!

I'm a sports hooligan... How about you?

Hi, my name is Warren and I'm a sports hooligan.

Not in the REAL meaning of sports hooligan. I mean I don't go to sports activities and take the mickey out of the opposition. I don't go running around looking for the opposition just to beat them up, I don't go and troll or repeatedly spike people over and over just to get a reaction. No. I'm one of those scream at the referee whilst watching the tv with a tinnie in his hand hooligan. One of those "I could do better than that" types that hasn't picked up a ball or a club or a stick or a racquet in 5 or six years one. One of those hooligan types that yells provocative sayings and wears very flamboyant anti-opposition t-shirt ones. Y'know the ones! The ones that just love sport.

And here are my favourite sports:

Football - as in soccer/european football 

Footy - as in Aussie Rules Football (AFL) and that's because I'm Australian

F1 - yes as boring as it is to some, it's still the most expensive and glamorous sport out there

Skateboarding - Tony Hawk's fault

BMX - Nicole Kidman's fault, but before that, I loved getting "air" on my bmx (which wasn't even a true BMX, it was an MX), and who DIDN'T love doing that in their back yard or on their street

NFL - yes, I like NFL - which is called gridiron regularly by Aussies

V8 Supercars - big tanked up V8 cylinder monsters flying around a track

NASCAR - yep - as boring as it is sometimes

Cricket - I'm half Aussie half Anglo Indian - go figure

Hockey - I used to play when I was in school (and a bit after school) and I was damned good at it (nearly went national!)

And there are ones that I watch when there's a good rivalry or killer game on (like a derby):

Basketball - Thanks to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Luc Longley

Athletics - usually when the Olympics are on

Rugby Union - don't watch league, but Union - yes

Ice Hockey - for the fights

Cycling - when the Tour de France is on

Wrestling - you know the WWE (or is it the WWF?)

and there are a few weird ones...:

Basque Pelota - any sport that can kill people and still be called a sport is ok in my book (F1 for example)

Extreme Ironing - go and check this shit out...

The Wife Carrying Competition - this is another you should check out

Bossaball - only just got into this - it's going to be a cracking sport - watch out for this

Roller Derby - it's Rollerball - have you seen this movie? 

Cheerleading - ummm... yeah - for the amazing... flexibility?

Base Jumping - I keep dreaming about this one

and The Running of the Bulls

and Tomatina..

Well there you go. I probably have forgotten some of them. But this makes me an absolute sports nut in my own book. I mean, I'm even fascinated by the team colours and jerseys! I have a few Football ones, I have an AFL one, I have a few other ones (like some cricket and hockey ones) and I always wear them when I can. Ever heard of the guy that was asked to wear his best shirt to an event and he turned up with his favourite team jersey on? Yeah - well I'd do that.

I've stayed up all night just to see my favourite team in the world lose. I've been halfway across the world to see two teams that I don't support go to battle. I've bought a team t-shirt of a country's sport that I've never ever watched, and I've paid some reasonable money to go to a final of a sport that I didn't even like that much.

Y'see... growing up in Australia ('Straya for all youse Aussies out there!), it's like you're baptized in the almost tribal like aggregation. Be it the first time mum and dad or the grandparents take you to a game live. Even if you won't even remember it. I was taken to my first football game when I was 2, I think? It was an AFL game in Fremantle, Western Australia, where I'm from. I couldn't give a toss who was playing (but the ref did), but I had a ball with the local kids just running around for hours, only to fall asleep in the car on the way home (which was about 50 metres down the road if I remember)

I remember being taken to the Speedway by my dad (R.I.P. - I miss you dad) and watching the bikes and the cars go round and round and round. Just HOPING to God that there would be a crash or two... just like now. I pray that there's a whopping big crash - and not hoping that the driver are dismembered or have any harm to them - no - it's for the carnage. 

Ever been to a Demolition Derby?

NOW THAT'S A SPORT!

18 guys who are either stuntmen, training to be stuntmen or who are just plain crazy, drive around in bombs which have been juiced up (or souped up) going crazy-oh-bonkers in every which way, just to smash the absolute crap out of anyone else's car, just to be the last car driving, and hence the winner. That there is real survival of the fittest.

And I get the rage when I see something go the wrong way too. Especially against one of my favourite teams, and especially in a final or grand final. OMG! Don't get me started on this one!

Then there is the injuries and setbacks. Like when a player get's knocked out, but he's playing football or even cricket (it's happened!). And the injuries that marr a player's whole season at the wrong moment, like when he's the star player and the team are going to the finals (ala Wayne Rooney). It's the feeling you get. The feeling of "oh crap! He's down!" or "oh man! He's not going to be fit for the derby!" or even "fuckin' idiot shouldn't have gone on a safari two days before the big game - now he's out for the season...". Or the feeling you get when the OPPOSITION has that happen to them, and you almost get butterflies at the prospect of not facing that player in the next match, or for the title...

It's THAT feeling, that people get. And it's that feeling that makes me watch. I just can't help it. I suppose for the ladies, who DON'T watch sport, it's like finding that pair of shoes...

But this blog is for that. The sport of sport watching. I'll be on here whenever there's a great game or just after it, telling you what's going on, and what I am feeling. And I know there are hundreds, if not, thousand of people out there that feel the same way. And this blog is for you.

Next Post:

My favourite Teams