The stereotypical football fan is born into supporting a club, thrust into its colours before they can walk to begin a lifelong association with a team, a team the family may have already supported for generations.
That’s not all football fans though, with chance and luck starting Alex Irwin’s journey with North Melbourne back in 2019.
An Irishman living in Melbourne at the time, Irwin says a fluke decision to attend the Round 19 clash with Hawthorn would begin his union with North, a union that continues to grow from strength to strength.
“I had a job with Metro Trains at the time and I was working at Southern Cross. I knew I was going back to Ireland a week or two later and realised I hadn’t been to an AFL game,” Irwin told North Media.
“I saw a bunch of people heading towards Marvel. I decided to go to whatever game was on that night, so I dropped my bag home and decided on the way into the game that I’d support whoever the home team was.
“At that first game just the people around me who I was talking to helped explain the game to me, they were so happy to help whenever I had a question about rules or umpiring as the game went on.
“I never thought I’d buy into it as much as I did and I fell in love with the club pretty much there and then.”
Irwin’s initial exposure to football in 2019 coincided with the addition of the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos to the AFLW, and he has since become an avid supporter of both the men’s and women’s programs at the club.
With the AFLW increasing in quality every year and bona fide superstars making more and more headlines as the seasons go by, there’s never been a better time to jump on board.
He says the improvement of not just women’s football, but women’s sport worldwide in recent years is cause for celebration.
“For years women’s sport was almost looked down upon as being amateur and it didn’t get the credit it deserved,” he said.
“There are some fantastic athletes playing women’s sport and it’s finally getting some great recognition.
“I became friends with Aileen [Gilroy] by going to North games and realising there was an Irish player playing for the women’s team.
“I went to pretty much all the AFLW games that I could this season.”
While North’s AFL side is rebuilding, the AFLW side will once again be hoping to compete at the top of the ladder for this upcoming season, with the likes of Emma Kearney, Jas Garner and Tahlia Randall looking to lead the team to finals once more.
Irwin says there’s joy to be had in watching both teams compete.
“The girls went very close to winning it last year but obviously a couple of things didn’t go our way. Next season I believe they could take that final step and reach the grand final. I do think they have the skills, the players and the coaches to get them that far,” he said.
“For the men, you can see David Noble is getting the players to buy into his strategy and the way he wants to play. You can see it’s improving over the season, each game just shows his ideas are working.
“I love watching the likes of Sophie [Abbatangelo] and Aileen because they’re really driven and they give absolutely everything right until the final siren, they’ll just keep going.
“If you want to flip to the men’s side of it the obvious one is Ben Cunnington because he’s just an absolute animal.
“Obviously every club would love immediate success but the club is happy to build and improve week on week … I think it’s brilliant.”
