Saints on SA soil

To replay  that old 1960's Kinks song , " he's a dedicated follower of fashion ", he's a dedicated follower of Football .

Interstate flights , a Hotel Room , and tickets to the AFL Game were purchased , and the football jumper , jersey , guernsey , was lovingly packed for its trip .

With the club song in his heart , and joyful anticipation at the prospect of watching a good nights footy , the journey began .

The adventure began to go pear shaped when upon arrival on SA soil , rain bucketed down for 3 hours , and the local $2 shop had sold out of emergency ponchos . Further anguish ensued upon arrival at the ground, when it was discovered the pre-booked seats for the match, were in the  middle of the Opposition Team Members Area .

A teenage daughters mate texted  , " what a dead set legend  '', probably for both attending the game , and sitting amongst the  toughest group of fans , on this  most parochial of grounds  !A hard night at the office followed,  for this loyal  fan , a staunch  supporter of arguably the most success starved ,  of AFL clubs .

The well travelled , football jumper , jersey , guernsey will arrive home , colours lowered on the night , but hopefully not too severely scarred , ready to battle on . Now if only I can get the stains out . Hopefully , they are beer stains  , and are not the byproduct of too much beer consumption , which is said to be sprayed on opposition  fans , at this Ground , if you can believe Eddie Mc Guire's Missus .

Ironic , that those left behind , spent Saturday afternoon shopping, and came home with a football jumper , jersey , guernsey , in the vanquished team's colours.

Collingwood Magpies play St Kilda Saints on Friday night at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.

It should be a very good game that promises a close result given the form of both teams in recent matches.

Collingwood always wear the black and white colours in their jumper, jersey , guernsey. They don't have a clash or away strip that is largely white unlike many other afl clubs .

St Kilda who wear red black and white do play in a white clash strip of their jumper , jersey , guernsey.Will they unveil a new one for season 2010?

Do the Saints play in their traditional Home Strip as it is their Home Game ?
If they do will it cause confusion
for players, fans and commentators between the red , black and white and the black and white .

It poses the question will the Saints lower their colours to the Magpies ?

Wait to see at tomorrow night's clash.

SYDNEY's new AFL team, GWS, proposes to base itself at a redeveloped Sydney Showground with plans to double the venue's spectator capacity to 25,000.
It is believed that Blacktown Olympic Park would not be big enough to house the new teams fans.
The stadium built in western Sydney in partnership between the NSW AFL and Cricket NSW, attracted a capacity crowd of 10,000 fans at the Sydney Swans and Carlton game last month.

Hoping to draw crowds of at least 25,000 to be successful it needs a bigger facility than Blacktown and would probably play even bigger sell out matches at ANZ Stadium.
Decisions must also be made on the teams name and strip .
Both difficult decisions as choices are limited because most popular animals and colours are already in use by other AFL clubs.
It will be interesting to see what the teams name , colour and mascot of their jumper , jersey , guernsey will be.
The AFL has appealed to the public to offer suggestions for team names.

The jumper , jersey , guernsey will also need to be distinctive and original in design so as to avoid colour and mascot clash with other long established afl clubs .