The atmosphere at pommy matches has always impressed me (on telly), however, I was a volunteer during the Olympics and I got to see a fair bit of the boxing. There were some pommy supporters in their one day, singing all of their songs, and the rest of the crowd were getting peeved with them. They had to be asked to keep it down. It would have been good if they weren't so relentless. Probably a bit different in a big stadium though.
Of course the crowds didn't like it. People in this country seem to think that paying your $20 is more than good enough. I am Australian however I am constantly disappointed with the lack of crowd participation in this country. People seem to be embarassed to show passion for their side and either resort to the boring Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi or try to pick fights with other fans who are trying to show passion. I guarentee the best atmosphere you get in this country is when the ashes is on and the English show us how it should be done or Australia has a soccer qualifier for the world cup. Besides that, it is all pretty pathetic. 20 000 poms will make twice the noise 100 000 aussies will. The first part of Supporter is 'support'. By sitting in your seat like a plastic army man, what exactly are they doing to 'support' their team?
Yeah I hate it when you only have a few people trying to do it, or those loser australian fanatics people trying to sing the songs, they're just embarrassing. But I've heard atmosphere at any English sports ground is amazing.
You are right, it is out of this world. It brings tears to your eyes to see proper passion. Why are the fanatics embarassing? I have never sat with them but they seem to be trying to generate atmosphere. They sounded fantastic for Lleyton Hewitt at the Aus open. These type of guys are the pioneers of proper support in this country and should be praised. Go to the cricket for the Ashes. While England fans are singing songs like 'we own you' and 'god save your queen' and various other convict songs, these handfull are at least standing their ground and giving some back. I have been singing at Raiders games all over the country for about a decade. Sometimes I have 50 blokes with me, other times there might be 5 but I will still try and give my all for my side. Why? Because I want to do something to make the experience better than sitting in my lounge room at home watching tele, I want to urge my lads on. People often look at me like a freak but it doesn't concern me. I am confident enough to do what I want, the people watching wish they had to guts to do something like that or are too afraid to ruin their 'cool' image.
I could go on forever on this topic. For the record, League has a few groups however most aren't unorganised and not much chop. AFL fans are heaps more passionate than our game's, and that is coming from someone who will watch Souths vs West Tigers before a top AFL match.
