Is it ever OK to change your AFL team? According to an AFL 2017 survey, whilst some supporters felt it was acceptable for school aged children to switch teams, almost 70% of supporters surveyed said it was plainly unacceptable to ever swap teams, regardless of age or reason.
I grew up amongst an extended family of serious Western Bulldog supporters. In addition to attending all games together, my dad sponsored a player, my cousin vowed her children would be Bulldog supporters at her wedding and when my grandma passed away we all wore Bulldog scarves to the funeral and the procession music was, of course, the Bulldog’s club theme song.
My passion for the Bulldogs started to change when I began my role as a physiotherapist at the Richmond Football Club in 2008. No-one forced to change teams, and to be honest during my first year at Tigers I still watched and cheered the Bulldogs games with interest, but as I began to know the players and staff at Richmond I soon switched allegiances and stopped following the Bulldogs altogether. While I do know some AFL staff who manage to support two teams –- both the team they work for and the team they grew up supporting – I found that wasn’t for me, I am simply a one team person. So as a result, the Tigers weren’t just my employer for the past decade, they were my team.
But back to answering the original question – is it ever OK to change teams? In general, I’d agree that loyalty to a club is paramount. I believe that in order to truly celebrate the highs of success, you need to suffer the lows. I had one family member who changed teams regularly based on who he thought would be successful in the coming year – but I’d argue he will never experience the feeling of true elation of finally winning a grand final after a drought, for example, like the Tigers supporters did in 2017. But as an AFL physiotherapist, I have to qualify this answer with the fact that that there has to be an exception to this rule when your career is directly related to the AFL. It is impossible once you are fully immersed and know all the staff and players to ignore that connection and still follow your old team.
The reason I’ve raised this question is because I recently changed teams and started full-time as a physiotherapist at the North Melbourne Football Club. The Kangaroos are not only my new employer but they are now also my new team. Even after a few months there I have already started to refer to the club as ‘we’ and as I get to know the players and staff in more depth my passion for my new team will only grow.
The Tigers will always be special to me and working at the winning 2017 Grand Final will certainly be a career highlight that will be hard to beat. I am extremely grateful for the decade of experience and memories I gained working at the Richmond Football Club, but now look forward to the next stage in my career journey and experiencing the highs and lows of my new team – the Kangaroos.
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Darren McMillan is an AFL and Sports Physiotherapist who provides private consultations in Brighton East at aPhysio around his commitments at the North Melbourne Football Club, including evenings, weekends and other times on request. For more information and online bookings visit www.aphysio.com.au.
Note that as a result of his recent appointment at North Melbourne Football Club, Darren will no longer have the capacity to continue providing consultations at Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre.