So...What's Your Excuse?

[SharkLabelSociety]

I'm the opposite. Born and bred in St George area, parents and Alot of my friends go for the goons. Why did I pick the sharkies? Couple of reasons...cool mascot and colours which is important for a kid, loved watching pres cup team with the golden generation romp home in the GF, remember seeing an awesome backline move from a scrum in a semi against Canberra, loved the general laid back nature of the club and preferred supporting the underdog over the arrogant goons and their overbearing fans...

Two of the reasons I became black, white and blue as well.

 

[amamo]

Oh and they were the next 'local team'. Grew up in Riverwood/Peakhurst which is only 5-10 min drive to Menai and didn't want to go for the next 'local' team the bulldogs

I was heartbroken to see them win. I was born in 83 and they hadn't won a comp in mine or my friends lifetimes as St George or St George Illawarra. I held onto that whenever a goons fan bagged me. I don't have that to fall on anymore

 

[stormshark]

i am one of those who has absolutley no ties to the shire or its surrounds. never actually set foot in the shire to be honest with ya. But am sharks through and through and always have been.

Stems back to when i was four and my old man took me and my older bro to buy Essendon jerseys as he was a bombers fan. My old girl cut up rough as she is a filthy pies supporter and said we should be allowed to choose whatever jersey we wanted. My bro picked the bombers, i picked a sharks jersey.

Thats a ripping yarn!

1977 and the '78 drawn grand final,went for the underdog and couldn't go for Manly who i watched every week nrst where i lived, plus Y the logo and colours as a kid, were a magnet!

 

[CrazyMatt]

Born in Cronulla, raised in Sydney's North West. Lucky my old man was a Sharks man, otherwise I could of been following Penrith or *shudders* Parramatta. Makes me sick thinking about it......If anyone needs the theropist's lounge right now, its me....

 

[oozy]

oh boy

Was pushed , no! thrown down my throat by a mr. david waite. former sharks and oz player, and i i am led to believe credible coach.
was my P.E teacher through high school. his sneaky trick at the time was to run a old
8mm film of the sharks loss of the 73 gf through the projector on rainy days.
and there were plenty of them, alas, no matter how many times we seen it. the result was
always the same. kinda like a bad groundhog day rerun.

i became mildly intrigued at this point, (why was he doing this to us?) my best guess
at this stage was, "this guy must be a sadist" and we were more than likely his willing captives.
anyways liked the effort the guys shown.
hated everything about our vanquishers. for one, till this day i will not wear anything remotely resembling maroon.

fast forward 3 years, he decides to don the western suburbs jersey!
visibly distraught, and i was. i front the turncoat after a game at lidcombe.
"hey mr waite what are you doing playing for these jerks?"
reply: you have 2 seconds to get the phuck outta here, and you have just lost one of them. shaken but not deterred i fronted him on the monday morning at the door of the commons room

'i just wanted to know how your doing,'' that's a pretty nice shiner your sporting'"
haha, are your okay mate(said sarcastically) , i'm fine . the principal has asked that i take a few days off, as to not upset/scare the kids.. okay, mr waite, i just wanna ask one ?. yeah what.. why do you play for the magpies? i mean aren't you a cronulla supporter?.............
hence my legacy.

 

[Deleted member 3365]

born and raised in st.george....
mum always took me to tarenpoint maccas and miranda when i was little, always went to wanda beach with the family...

i remember when i was very lil i had a dragons hat signed by nathan brown , lost the hat.
i used to love sharks (animals) and i love the colours of the sharks (team) and david peachey was the first player i ever remembered and knew when i was little...so i decided to leave the dragons and bulldogs family to join the mighty sharks and for nearly 18 years.

dad has always been a dragons fan but since 07 hes been quietly supporting us and ive got him to wear my many sharks jerseys. he told me he went for the sharks in their grandfinals and he had a soft spot for them, i always think that soft spot had grown into me haha

 

[SharkBoy]

Born and raised in QLD, I never liked the Broncos. The local team where I grew up was the Moranbah Sharks, and their strip was exactly like the Sharks in the late 80's. I was 5, and the team had guys like ET, Miller, Sparkles, Hatch, Docking, Speechley and Alan Wilson. I adored these blokes for the way they played the game, and my 1st impression growing up was 'wow these guys can play and they wear the same colours as my under 6 team!' My love for them just kept growing stronger.

Also, my grandfather liked the Sharks, my father liked the Sharks, so I knew I was on a winner. I still remember buying my 1st ever Sharks jersey, it was the only jersey in the store that appealed to me.

I will never forget that play off for 5th against the Bongos in 1989 on a Tuesday night. Probably favourite ever Sharks match. Got to rub it in all the Bongos kids at school. I actually remember telling classmates that I played for Cronulla on weekends and had the jersey, shorts, and socks to prove it.

 

[sharkafar]

I, like a few others on this thread, grew up far away from the Shire. I'm of an age where I can remember clearly the old NSWRL and the thriving comp. in Brisbane, where my chosen team was Souths (the maggies) who played out of Davies Park. They've since merged with Logan (which should really be called Bogan) and I've lost touch with it all.
But the NSWRL was where the money was and where a lot of the best QLDers ended up playing. Big Mal Meninga from my own Souths went down to Canberra taking Gary Belcher with him and others like Fatty Vautin at Wests had been long gone. I was already a Cronulla supporter and was watching them on the TV whenever I could.
As stated on another thread, I became a Shark (at eight) thanks to a pair of footy socks my Dad bought me and I wore them constantly. (Mum eventually threw them out, as they had holes all the way through them )
I never got a jersey until I was 17, but I bought it with my own money, saved up from my job on Saturdays and holidays.
I would always be a Sharks man regardless of my born and bred Gold Coast status and though it's been a rough ride at times, I have NEVER regretted the day my dad came home with some footy socks from - "some rugby league team I think". Thanks Dad. :good::good:

 

[kiwishark]

I like it. Although I'd probably be more interested in going Whangarei on the scum's arses.

SLS going Whangarei on them is a bit much, we bring it hard in the naughty north bro.

 

[deano the p]

Well support certainly is alive outside the Shire GO THE SHARKS!!!

 

[IronShark]

I sort of have to do the opposite most of the time Iron. People are asking me what my reasoning is for going for the Sharks when I was born in far north NSW etc and didn't go to Cronulla until I was like 23...

i like where your coming from here iron as i see the sharks passion in you ... however as an interstate sharks supporter - who has lived in QLD (Sunshine coast & Brisbane) for most of my life (except a few years overseas) i would be very quick to slam anyone who asked me the same question about my support and the broncos....

Along the same lines as Marky. I am from Brisbane, lived here my whole life, I have no ties with the shire. Yet, I am a Sharks supporter...

I personally probally should be a dragons or knights supporter.
Was born in Newcastle and lived near Dragons terriority just a bit further south for my whole childhood. Now Canberra is my local team and thats still 3 or so hours away...

i am one of those who has absolutley no ties to the shire or its surrounds. never actually set foot in the shire to be honest with ya. But am sharks through and through and always have been.

im same as a few other guys on here, born in QLD and go for QLD in the SOO now my family and I have relocated to the NSW north coast so we have no connection with Sydney whatsoever but i am still a Sharkie till the day I die, never in my life would I have gone for the Broncos even though the rest of my family do

I grew up in the St George area, my dad goes for Manly and mum's family are all Parra, and I became a Sharks supporter.

:good:

Haha! Now you see the brilliant simplicity of this tactic! It immediately exposes those who choose not to support their local team and has them scrambling to justify themselves! Nah, just kidding guys, of course everyone is free to choose to support whoever they want. Hence this is the correct response:

Sharks are my team just cause they are. That is a pretty lame excuse

See, that's all people really need to say but most feel the need to rationalise their choice.

It's great to have so many Sharks fans from out of the Shire but the point is, you guys would all be in the vast minority, right? Overall, most people in Brisbane support Brisbane, most people in Newcastle support Newcastle, etc, etc...and that's the way it should be. The team should be able to rely on it's hometown support. After all, that is what Rugby League, like many sports, is built on - hometown rivalries.

The problem is this, sometimes I feel that as a Sharks supporter in the Shire, I am supporting the "away" team. Whilst I am sure we have the majority of support in the Sutherland Shire, there are certainly times that it doesn't feel like it - and with the success of the Dragons this year, this is one of them.

This certainly wasn't always the case, the Shire was parochially black, white and blue when I was growing up. We have to restore this support and make those who live here and support another team know they are in Shark territory!:Yes:

 

[Mark^Bastard]

It seems like a hell of a lot of people from the shire moved to the gold coast at some point. I don't blame them, and then the recent migrants to the shire seem to be the nouveau riche bogans and they probably go for the Eels or something.

 

[FLEETY]

The main thing I can take from this thread is how much a shame it is that the Sharks 'franchise brand' has been so tarnished over the last 10 years or so.

We used to sort of be like the Wests Tigers are now. An exciting team that no one really hated (IMO). What we are now is much different. I would love for the Sharks to appeal to more casual Rugby League fans rather than trying to talk only about the shire and only having 'real' fans etc.

I think our mascot, logo, colours etc are all really good and that can go some way to attracting fans that haven't chosen a team already. The rest is being fun to watch and having a level of performance that isn't embarrassing. You don't need to win the premiership every year, just need to be competitive.

:Yes: In days gone by, I think we were a lot of league fans 2nd team. We were the underdog they all wanted to see put it to the teams they hated.

The problem is this, sometimes I feel that as a Sharks supporter in the Shire, I am supporting the "away" team. Whilst I am sure we have the majority of support in the Sutherland Shire, there are certainly times that it doesn't feel like it - and with the success of the Dragons this year, this is one of them.

This certainly wasn't always the case, the Shire was parochially black, white and blue when I was growing up. We have to restore this support and make those who live here and support another team know they are in Shark territory!:Yes:

:good: Would also like to see Shark Park become a 'fortress' again, where no-one pushes us around on our turf.

 

[peachey]

Dad and 1 of my brothers are Dragons fans and the other brother is a Tigers fan and have 13 years of your life having your god father trying to convert you into a scum fan [safe to say he has given up].

Long story short; **** the Dragons

 

[Mark^Bastard]

Dad and 1 of my brothers are Dragons fans and the other brother is a Tigers fan and have 13 years of your life having your god father trying to convert you into a scum fan [safe to say he has given up].

Long story short; **** the Dragons

It's a shame the Stains merger wasn't just them becoming the Illawarra Dragons and playing all home games down there and completely forgoing their St George territory. I reckon the game would be better for it.

 

[IronShark]

It's a shame the Stains merger wasn't just them becoming the Illawarra Dragons and playing all home games down there and completely forgoing their St George territory. I reckon the game would be better for it.

Absolutely, the Illawarra Steelers were completely shafted in this "merger" (read:takeover). There is virtually no reference to them in almost any way, all their big games are played at Kogarah and the jersey is just a St George jersey.

In effect, what the Dragons managed to do was kill of The Steelers, whilst taking control of all their juniors to bolster their own junior stocks, which are virtually gone. It really is disgraceful and has not gone un-noticed in the Illawarra. Whilst many people down there have jumped on the Dragons bandwagon, there is an increasing vocal minority who regularly appearing on "The Illawarra Mercury" website protesting about their mistreatment by the Goons.

 

[Mark^Bastard]

That sucks for them aye. It's a viable enough situation that another team can't be made in that region so they have their own proper team, but it's crap enough that they can't really feel like it's a proper solution.

If any rationalisation needs to occur you'd think making the Dragons go down there full time would be the first step, but unfortunately instead the government is giving them money for their Kogarah stadium and with a recent premiership they've bought themselves too much goodwill. Sucks.

 

[slide rule]

Absolutely, the Illawarra Steelers were completely shafted in this "merger" (read:takeover). There is virtually no reference to them in almost any way, all their big games are played at Kogarah and the jersey is just a St George jersey.

In effect, what the Dragons managed to do was kill of The Steelers, whilst taking control of all their juniors to bolster their own junior stocks, which are virtually gone. It really is disgraceful and has not gone un-noticed in the Illawarra. Whilst many people down there have jumped on the Dragons bandwagon, there is an increasing vocal minority who regularly appearing on "The Illawarra Mercury" website protesting about their mistreatment by the Goons.

At the very least, they could put a little Steeler man on their sleeve like how Wests Tigers have done it with the Magpie.

It's a disgrace really. If any area deserves their own team, it's the Illawarra.

 

[Ramzyv1]

Absolutely, the Illawarra Steelers were completely shafted in this "merger" (read:takeover). There is virtually no reference to them in almost any way, all their big games are played at Kogarah and the jersey is just a St George jersey.

In effect, what the Dragons managed to do was kill of The Steelers, whilst taking control of all their juniors to bolster their own junior stocks, which are virtually gone. It really is disgraceful and has not gone un-noticed in the Illawarra. Whilst many people down there have jumped on the Dragons bandwagon, there is an increasing vocal minority who regularly appearing on "The Illawarra Mercury" website protesting about their mistreatment by the Goons.

I completely agree with this. I mean think back to 2005 when West Tigers won. There was no mention of Balmain or Wests, it was all about the joint venture. All you heard about with this one was the history of the Dragons etc. Is ridiculous.

In terms of the thread. I get where you are coming from and it is good and it annoys me as well but the same thing will happen when we win a premiership. All the fans you never see will just come out and the whole shire will be black white and blue. It sort of even happened for the 2008 prelim. It is just the nature of the beast, people love supporting winners (especially kids) and we have been losers for a long time. What the club needs is for the new generation of kids growing up in the shire who were actually born here to have a moderately successful team. Any of the good work done towards this in 2008 was well undone the last 2 years.

 

[SharkLabelSociety]

Absolutely, the Illawarra Steelers were completely shafted in this "merger" (read:takeover). There is virtually no reference to them in almost any way, all their big games are played at Kogarah and the jersey is just a St George jersey.

In effect, what the Dragons managed to do was kill of The Steelers, whilst taking control of all their juniors to bolster their own junior stocks, which are virtually gone. It really is disgraceful and has not gone un-noticed in the Illawarra. Whilst many people down there have jumped on the Dragons bandwagon, there is an increasing vocal minority who regularly appearing on "The Illawarra Mercury" website protesting about their mistreatment by the Goons.

****loads of Steeler fans are pissed about the way that they got shafted by the Scum. At the same time, most of them have pretty much done a Faustian bargain where they became Drag Queen fans because it was really the only way they could lay any claim to a team of their own.

One of my uncles has lived in Kiama for 30 years and was a Steelers fan from day 1 - he and his mates are pretty much in this boat. They don't like themselves much for doing it but they go for the Dragons anyway, while never missing a chance to bitch about the deal they get from the media who treat them like St George's appendix. And I can't say I disagree with them.