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!