‘ I EXPECT BOOS’
Bundy nervous about his return to Cattery
FORMER Cat Allen “Bundy” Christensen freely admits to feeling jittery about his return to Geelong on Saturday.
It will be the Brisbane Lions midfielder’s first visit to Simonds Stadium since he asked for a trade out of Geelong at the end of last year.
The Cats reluctantly let Christensen go, believing he was worth more than the No.21 draft pick they received for the 2011 premiership player.
They released him on compassionate grounds yet Christensen is expecting concern for his welfare will end as he exits the playing race in his new colours.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was nervous,” said Christensen, who played 65 of his 81 games for Geelong.
“I don’t think it will be too friendly.”
The 24-year-old said there had already been some banter between former teammates ahead of the Round 18 clash.
“I’ll leave that for out on the ground,” he said. “I don’t think the crowd will be too nice.
“I was a mad supporter when I was growing up and it’s always the same when someone leaves your club.
“I expect a few boos ... that’s up to them and it doesn’t faze me.”
While accepting of the likelihood he will be taunted by fans on his return to Geelong, the proud indigenous player reckons the mob mentality has become a distasteful scourge on the AFL.
Christensen was a witness to booing of Swan Adam Goodes’s teammate Lewis Jetta at the Gabba in Round 15.
While the unsporting hollering died down during the game, it left Christensen perplexed over the targeting of certain players.
“I find it a bit disrespectful,” he said.
“I know why I’ll get booed this week, but I don’t know why (Goodes) he’s getting booed. “It’s just distasteful. “I don’t think it’s sinister, (but) I think people follow the crowd. If everyone else is doing it they’ll do it.”
Brisbane will be fighting to avoid a 10th straight defeat on Saturday.
A loss to the Cats would leave the side in the unenviable position of needing to down neighbour Gold Coast a week later to avoid equalling its worst ever losing sequence of 12.