Warm welcome for Cats in the west
GEELONG is in enemy territory in the West Australian hub, but it will have a loyal group of supporters ready to get behind it.
Perth Cats are ready to welcome the club to the West Coast and Fremantle heartland.
The passionate supporter group has about 900 members, who will be among the first Geelong fans to attend a game this year.
But there will be no interaction between the club and its fans. Players and coaches will be in strict quarantine if they’re not at training or playing a game.
Ordinarily, Geelong only travels to WA once or twice a year but Cats fans in Perth will be spoiled with at least three games from July 16.
“It looks like, with Victoria getting out of hand, they may extend the period over here and send more clubs over here to the safe territory so that they can play out more of the season,” Perth Cats president Peter Proposch said. “We’re looking forward to that.”
Perth Cats was established in 1991 by a group of enthusiastic Cats supporters and will next year celebrate their 30th anniversary.
Their functions are well attended and as many as 3000 onlookers turn out for Geelong pre-game training sessions when the team travels across the Nullabor, Proposch said.
“Geelong was the first AFL club to have a dedicated supporter group here in WA,” he said.
“Every week we’re adding names to our mailing list of people who have never heard of us, didn’t realise we existed.”
While thousands of kilometres apart, Western Australia and Geelong have a strong football link.
Football royalty Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer joined the Cats from East Perth and many on the current list were recruited out of WA.
“There’s a lot of people here associated with the club because of the number of players that have come from WA,” Proposch said.
“You’ve got the players involved in the team at the moment with Mitch Duncan, Sam Menegola, Jordan Clark, we had Tim Kelly until the Eagles realised the value of him … Harry Taylor. We’ve had a lot of players. The greatest player of all time, ‘Polly’ Farmer. How could you go past ‘Polly’?
“You’ve got (Quinton) Narkle as well, he’s another one. A lot of stars that have come from here and hopefully it will continue.
“Hopefully the likes of Jordan Clark and the others that have come from here will be like Harry Taylor, Mitch Duncan and Sam and stay around and be lifelong members.”