It was good to hear the Adelaide Crows fans making plenty of noise as their team overcame Collingwood in a feisty AFL encounter at the Adelaide Oval. The fervour made for a great televised spectacle as I watched on from my neutral position on the couch in Norwood. The first evening kick-off at the revamped venue certainly seemed to galvanise the Crows’ hordes in a crowd that topped 50,000. So far this season, the fans have been under fire for not giving their team sufficient vocal backing in comparison to the Port Adelaide followers, who have turned the same ground into the recently dubbed “Portress” as the Power have surged away at the top of the ladder. Certainly the Crows seemed to feed off the tumult as they upended the more fancied Magpies. I had originally been ready to back the Crows in my tips in the Alma and the Stag but changed my mind at the last minute. Oh me of little faith. I’m not too upset. I have no great love for Collingwood. As an AFL outsider, the competition appears unfair to start with, as all the teams don’t even play each other twice. But Collingwood seem to gain an unwarranted advantage by the fact that they rarely have to travel from Melbourne, except when it seems to be a nice little away trip for their fans to Sydney to tackle the Swans. The club also has the arrogance to feel that they don’t need an away strip and that it would be sacrilege if they ever had to change from their treasured black and white stripes. Even for one game. What tosh… I was once on a Melbourne trip which involved a trip to the MCG to watch Collingwood and Geelong meet up. I found it hard to follow a blur of black and white stripes and hoops running around like a cluster of liquorice allsorts. Anybody with a modicum of commonsense must recognise that an away shirt is a must for such a clash of lookalike colours. And can’t Eddie McGuire and his backroom cohorts see that a second strip for the Magpies would be a nice little earner for club coffers as their slavish followers would gladly splash out cash to buy, let’s say, an all-red strip. The other night Collingwood were seen off in no small way by the overdue raucous efforts of the Crows’ so-called “19th man.’. It brings home what an effect a revved-up crowd can have on games. The phenomenon is more common in football, which has a different tempo for spectators than Aussie Rules. And back home in England, in the old days of standing terraces, there were grounds where the atmosphere was always intimidating for visiting teams and fans alike. Even now, relatively smaller stadiums like those of Norwich City or Birmingham City can still emit an aura of malevolent claustrophobia with the fans so close to the action. I spent my student days in Birmingham and in the rare event of not being able to make my way to a Blackburn Rovers game – home or away via hitching along the M6 – I would check out what was happening on one of the local West Midlands grounds. Aston Villa, West Brom and Wolves all had their own unique atmospheres but I always found the stirring rumblings from the old Spion Kop along one side of the pitch at St Andrews quite an event. I think it was Nick Hornby in his book Fever Pitch, who noted that teams who rarely tasted success could have the most rabid and loyal fans. Certainly Birmingham City fans were almost world-weary in their continual attempts to drag their team to heights that were rarely scaled. The beauty of being a student in the UK was that you and your school mates were dispersed to various seats of learning away from your home town. So weekend link-ups in selected urban centres to imbibe and catch up were always on the cards. Early December in 1975 saw various mates from the ex-Clitheroe contingent descend on my pad in Birmingham for the University Christmas party. Waking bleary after madcap Friday night beers in the build-up to another Yuletide, what better road to recovery than a fry-up brecky in the legendary Mick’s Café in Selly Oak, followed by whatever was on the footballing horizon in the afternoon. For the visiting crew which included Mick Eddleston and Johnie Young, then based at Manchester University, plus Adrian “Flec” Fletcher, domiciled at Lancaster Uni, as well as Gary Thompson, of Liverpool Polytechnic, it meant a stroll to St Andrews for the Blues taking on Derby County. Just how different and distant those times were can be gauged by the fact that Derby were 1974-75 champions. And they had a team of champion performers, every one virtually a household name, either home-grown or a big-money signing. Step forward the likes of Colin Todd, David Nish, Archie Gemmill, Bruce Rioch, Francis Lee, Charlie George, Kevin Hector and ex-Claret Leighton James. That lot strutted out onto St Andrews as a solid away banker. We positioned ourselves towards the back of the Spion Kop near the halfway line and the early grumbles of the dour, hardcore Brummie following were brought to the fore as George put the Rams ahead. It was all going to the predicted script but then something strange happened. As one, it was as if the whole ground had suddenly decided “We’re not gonna take this anymore.” The Brummie groans became growls of passion. The mass murmurs of 30,000 gelled into a non-stop crescendo. “Up the Blues, Up the Blues…” It was infectious. Even we, a throng of in absentia Rovers and Burnley supporters were swept along by it all. Unbelievably, the Blues’ kick and rush, unsophisticated but relentless charge yielded an equaliser from Kenny Burns. The place went mad. Including us. We were supposed to be neutral but it was hard not to get wrapped up in the frenzy. The pandemonium continued when Malcolm Page did an encore. 2-1 to the Blues. And that’s how it stayed. If anyone deserved credit for the unlikely turnaround, it was the Brummie crowd. I have seen Rovers roared along by our own diehards and in a reverse scenario been on away grounds where the noise has inflicted severe panic attacks on me as we wilted. But I have never been as embroiled in proceedings as a mere interested onlooker as that day in Birmingham. I’ve returned to St Andrews on various occasions with Rovers after it had been transformed into an all-seater venue and plenty of that dogged crowd resolve remains. I remember a second leg League Cup tie in our title-winning season of 1994-95. Rovers were seemingly safely 2-0 up from the first leg at Ewood. But as we approached the ground, which is not exactly in a salubrious part of the city, I warned my good mate Ivan Hickmott: “We don’t wanna let this mob score first, otherwise the crowd will lift ‘em’ Birmingham duly went 1-0 up and it was a bit worrying until Chris Sutton knocked in an equaliser. The vocal Brummies were instantly deflated and we were safely through. There are cricket grounds which exude similar intensity. And oddly Birmingham’s Edgbaston is one. The England Test players always reckon that the Warwickshire venue, with its Hollies Stand, is always one of the most parochial – especially when Australia are in the country for an Ashes series. Old Trafford also used to be abuzz during Lancashire’s all-conquering one-day Cup campaigns of the Seventies and then again in the Nineties. So there is plenty to be said for fans getting behind their team as it can make a real difference. If a fervent crowd can make an impression on me, as such events did as an armchair viewer when the Crows loyalists raised the roof against the Magpies, then it must lift the players. After earlier low-key home performances, the Crows’ crowd now have to keep up the decibel count. It’s one thing putting the fear of God into Collingwood, a team everybody loves to hate. Now let’s see if they can do it again for the next home game against the Gold Coast Suns on June 1. They can learn a lesson from the manic Brummies which could propel their side into overdrive as an intriguing season evolves.
thedaverosecolumn 