Support Base Spreadsheet - Where do the 18 AFL clubs sit

[Hawkk]

I'm not good with averages but it would be interesting to see them flipped

1. Collingwood - 18 (1.28 average)
2. Essendon - 53 (3.78 average)
2. Carlton - 53 (3.78 average)
4. Richmond - 67 (4.78 average)
5. Hawthorn - 79 (5.64 average)
6. West Coast - 88 (6.28 average)
7. Geelong - 96 (6.85 average)
8. Sydney Swans - 101 (7.21 average)
9. Adelaide - 107 (7.64 average)
10. Brisbane 143 (10.21 average)
11. St Kilda 148 (10.57 average)
12. Melbourne 152 (10.82 average)
13. Port Adelaide 163 (11.5 average)
14. Fremantle 166 (11.71 average)
15. W Bulldogs 173 (12.35 average)
16. North 176 (12.57 average)
17. GWS Giants 210 (15 average)
18. Gold Coast 230 (16.42 average)

The gap between West Coast and Fremantle is far larger than Adelaide and Port Adelaide which I thought was interesting - I wonder if the VFL was swallowed into the WAFL or SANFL and we ended up with Melbourne (11 VFL clubs) and Collingwood, if the split would be the same (approx 65/35)

 

[qlderlions]

Great Analysis Hawkk - Makes sense. However, I suggest removing the crowd attendance metric from the analysis as the size of the ground and the fact there are so many clubs in Victoria with many of the big club fans attending away games inflates the attendance figures of the small Victorian teams and skews the overall numbers. I think membership is a good proxy for size of fan base.

 

[What else we can do]

Great Analysis Hawkk - Makes sense. However, I suggest removing the crowd attendance metric from the analysis as the size of the ground and the fact there are so many clubs in Victoria with many of the big club fans attending away games inflates the attendance figures of the small Victorian teams and skews the overall numbers. I think membership is a good proxy for size of fan base.

Crowds are one of the most if not the most important metric the AFL uses it's not perfect though.

 

[What else we can do]

1. Collingwood - 18 (1.28 average)
2. Essendon - 53 (3.78 average)
2. Carlton - 53 (3.78 average)
4. Richmond - 67 (4.78 average)
5. Hawthorn - 79 (5.64 average)
6. West Coast - 88 (6.28 average)
7. Geelong - 96 (6.85 average)
8. Sydney Swans - 101 (7.21 average)
9. Adelaide - 107 (7.64 average)
10. Brisbane 143 (10.21 average)
11. St Kilda 148 (10.57 average)
12. Melbourne 152 (10.82 average)
13. Port Adelaide 163 (11.5 average)
14. Fremantle 166 (11.71 average)
15. W Bulldogs 173 (12.35 average)
16. North 176 (12.57 average)
17. GWS Giants 210 (15 average)
18. Gold Coast 230 (16.42 average)

The gap between West Coast and Fremantle is far larger than Adelaide and Port Adelaide which I thought was interesting - I wonder if the VFL was swallowed into the WAFL or SANFL and we ended up with Melbourne (11 VFL clubs) and Collingwood, if the split would be the same (approx 65/35)

As per crowds I can provide record home and away for each club to add to the overall.

 

[dave10]

1. Collingwood - 18 (1.28 average)
2. Essendon - 53 (3.78 average)
2. Carlton - 53 (3.78 average)
4. Richmond - 67 (4.78 average)
5. Hawthorn - 79 (5.64 average)
6. West Coast - 88 (6.28 average)
7. Geelong - 96 (6.85 average)
8. Sydney Swans - 101 (7.21 average)
9. Adelaide - 107 (7.64 average)
10. Brisbane 143 (10.21 average)
11. St Kilda 148 (10.57 average)
12. Melbourne 152 (10.82 average)
13. Port Adelaide 163 (11.5 average)
14. Fremantle 166 (11.71 average)
15. W Bulldogs 173 (12.35 average)
16. North 176 (12.57 average)
17. GWS Giants 210 (15 average)
18. Gold Coast 230 (16.42 average)

The gap between West Coast and Fremantle is far larger than Adelaide and Port Adelaide which I thought was interesting - I wonder if the VFL was swallowed into the WAFL or SANFL and we ended up with Melbourne (11 VFL clubs) and Collingwood, if the split would be the same (approx 65/35)

Excellent summary Hawkk! As usual, you’ve nailed it.

The limitation with some of these metrics are that they’re to varying degrees influenced by on field success, the more recent the success the more highly influenced in most instances.. Therefore, to me ‘averages’ are probably more accurate than ‘records’ in evening out some of these spikes over time. Socials platforms are also highly elastic to on field fortunes. Facebook / Twitter around longest so possibly more realistic than the more recent platforms.

Other interesting thing to me is Melbourne FC didn’t really capitalise on their premiership in converting success into popularity in some of these spikes metrics, a missed opportunity perhaps influenced by Covid?
There’s no perfect answer however. This is as comprehensive a database as we’ve had! Great job

 

[What else we can do]

Record home crowd in a season
1. Collingwood
2. Richmond
3. Carlton
4. Essendon
5. West Coast
6. Fremantle
7. Adelaide
8. Melbourne
9. Port Adelaide
10.Hawthorn
11.Geelong
12.Sydney
13.St Kilda
14.North Melbourne
15.Western Bulldogs
16. Brisbane Lions
17. SUNS
18. GWS

Record Away in a season
1. Carlton
2. Collingwood
3. Essendon
4. Geelong
5. Melbourne
6. Hawthorn
7. Richmond
8. St Kilda
9. Sydney
10.Western Bulldogs
11.Brisbane Lions
12.North Melbourne
13.Adelaide
14.West Coast
15.Port Adelaide
16.Fremantle
17. GWS
18. Suns

 

[What else we can do]

Excellent summary Hawkk! As usual, you’ve nailed it.

The limitation with some of these metrics are that they’re to varying degrees influenced by on field success, the more recent the success the more highly influenced in most instances.. Therefore, to me ‘averages’ are probably more accurate than ‘records’ in evening out some of these spikes over time. Socials platforms are also highly elastic to on field fortunes. Facebook / Twitter around longest so possibly more realistic than the more recent platforms.

Other interesting thing to me is Melbourne FC didn’t really capitalise on their premiership in converting success into popularity in some of these spikes metrics, a missed opportunity perhaps influenced by Covid?
There’s no perfect answer however. This is as comprehensive a database as we’ve had! Great job

It just shows how big our clubs are considering we are living through the worst period of Carlton/Essendon history.

 

[What else we can do]

Overall Average home crowd
1.Adelaide
2. WCE
3. Collingwood
4. Fremantle
5. Port Adelaide
6. Richmond
7. Carlton
8. Essendon
9. Melbourne
10.Brisbane Lions
11.St Kilda
12.Geelong
13.Hawthorn
14.Sydney
15.Western Bulldogs
16.North Melbourne
17. SUNS
18. GWS

Overall Average away crowd
1. Collingwood
2. Carlton
3. Essendon
4. Brisbane Lions
5. Adelaide
6. Richmond
7. WCE
8. Port Adelaide
9. Fremantle
10.Geelong
11.GWS
12.Hawthorn
13.Suns
14.Western Bulldogs
15.St Kilda
16.Melbourne
17.Sydney
18.North Melbourne

 

[Hawkk]

Overall Average home crowd
1.Adelaide
2. WCE
3. Collingwood
4. Fremantle
5. Port Adelaide
6. Richmond
7. Carlton
8. Essendon
9. Melbourne
10.Brisbane Lions
11.St Kilda
12.Geelong
13.Hawthorn
14.Sydney
15.Western Bulldogs
16.North Melbourne
17. SUNS
18. GWS

Overall Average away crowd
1. Collingwood
2. Carlton
3. Essendon
4. Brisbane Lions
5. Adelaide
6. Richmond
7. WCE
8. Port Adelaide
9. Fremantle
10.Geelong
11.GWS
12.Hawthorn
13.Suns
14.Western Bulldogs
15.St Kilda
16.Melbourne
17.Sydney
18.North Melbourne

To be honest I think that attendances dating back to the 1920s are a bit pointless. There are way too many variables - Melbourne playing at the MCG for 70 years before anyone else, Richmond 20-30 years before the other Melbourne clubs and half the VFL teams played at sardine can venues. Almost half the teams didn’t play in the VFL until the late 1980s.

That said, the attendances since 1997 are (somewhat) relevant:


You could use this instead of the five year average. (Home and Away only)

1. Collingwood 51,112
2. Essendon 46,493
3. Richmond 42,051
4. Carlton 41,369
5. Hawthorn 36,216
6. Adelaide 34,712
7. Geelong 34,678
8. West Coast 33,349
9. St Kilda 32,280
10. Melbourne 32,243
11. Sydney 31,767
12. W Bulldogs 29,891
13. Fremantle 29,886
14. Port Adelaide 28,784
15. Nth Melbourne 28,242
16. Brisbane Lions 26,682
17. Gold Coast 18,620
18. GWS 18,026

I can’t be bothered splitting this up into home and away but the home and away numbers, at least for the Melbourne clubs are all basically the same (the Hawks and Cats limited a bit by stadium constraints - but as much as you would think - and the Marvel clubs by the lack of MCG games)

Interestingly the gap between West Coast / Adelaide and Fremantle / Port Adelaide is almost identical in every metric.

 

[dave10]

It just shows how big our clubs are considering we are living through the worst period of Carlton/Essendon history.

That’s true

Even some success translates to material changes in these metrics though. For example, prior to the Blues winning finals three years ago, it had less insta followers than Essendon. Now it has roared past them following those couple of years of finals victories and winning seasons.

Further, Hawthorn has as many Tok Tok fans as Collingwood, and the Hawks have in the last 12 months also roared past the Bombers on many of these socials platforms including Instagram.

Point being, having strong years on field, even just winning finals translate big variations and some anomalies in the rankings.

That’s why I’m still in favour of my boring old SuperCoach. The rankings have largely been consistent for 20 years (I’m pretty sure) and hence it seems to be better than most metrics at extracting the big rises that come with having decent years on field.

 

[dave10]

To be honest I think that attendances dating back to the 1920s are pointless and irrelevant to this list. There are way too many variables - Melbourne playing at the MCG for 70 years before anyone else, Richmond 20-30 years before the other Melbourne clubs and half the VFL teams played at sardine can venues. Almost half the teams didn’t play in the VFL until the late 1980s.

That said, the attendances since 1997 are (somewhat) relevant:

View attachment 2276512
You could use this instead of the five year average. What I’m more interested in is the gaps between the clubs.

Attendances and membership are a waste of time. If the Hawks didn’t play 4 games in Tassie they’d have seasons challenging the biggest clubs on this metric.

 

[Hawkk]

That’s true

Even some success translates to material changes in these metrics though. For example, prior to the Blues winning finals three years ago, it had less insta followers than Essendon. Now it has roared past them following those couple of years of finals victories and winning seasons.

Further, Hawthorn has as many Tok Tok fans as Collingwood, and the Hawks have in the last 12 months also roared past the Bombers on many of these socials platforms including Instagram.

Point being, having strong years on field, even just winning finals translate big variations and some anomalies in the rankings.

That’s why I’m still in favour of my boring old SuperCoach. The rankings have largely been consistent for 20 years (I’m pretty sure) and hence it seems to be better than most metrics at extracting the big rises that come with having decent years on field.

I’m pretty sure the number of SuperCoach users hasn’t changed in 20 years either.

 

[What else we can do]

To be honest I think that attendances dating back to the 1920s are a bit pointless. There are way too many variables - Melbourne playing at the MCG for 70 years before anyone else, Richmond 20-30 years before the other Melbourne clubs and half the VFL teams played at sardine can venues. Almost half the teams didn’t play in the VFL until the late 1980s.

That said, the attendances since 1997 are (somewhat) relevant:

View attachment 2276512
You could use this instead of the five year average. (Home and Away only)

1. Collingwood 51,112
2. Essendon 46,493
3. Richmond 42,051
4. Carlton 41,369
5. Hawthorn 36,216
6. Adelaide 34,712
7. Geelong 34,678
8. West Coast 33,349
9. St Kilda 32,280
10. Melbourne 32,243
11. Sydney 31,767
12. W Bulldogs 29,891
13. Fremantle 29,886
14. Port Adelaide 28,784
15. Nth Melbourne 28,242
16. Brisbane Lions 26,682
17. Gold Coast 18,620
18. GWS 18,026

I can’t be bothered splitting this up into home and away but the home and away numbers, at least for the Melbourne clubs are all basically the same (the Hawks and Cats limited a bit by stadium constraints - but as much as you would think - and the Marvel clubs by the lack of MCG games)

Interestingly the gap between West Coast / Adelaide and Fremantle / Port Adelaide is almost identical in every metric.

Thought it would be fair to the non Vic clubs as they have the best home averages and including away average crowds shows another angle. But I see you have included record crowds per club in a season that's fair as only having 5 year average or since 1997 can be impacted by performance on the field eg Carlton worst period in our history but look at peak Carlton in the modern period 2022 to 2025.

 

[What else we can do]

Attendances and membership are a waste of time. If the Hawks didn’t play 4 games in Tassie they’d have seasons challenging the biggest clubs on this metric.

Attendance and membership are hugely important the AFL promote their brand on these metrics (not perfect though) plus TV/streaming and social media engagment (clicks comments) generate the most money as opposed to just followers on social media. I don't have all the figures for the latter but I know which clubs are 1 and 2.

 

[What else we can do]

1. Collingwood - 18 (1.28 average)
2. Essendon - 53 (3.78 average)
2. Carlton - 53 (3.78 average)
4. Richmond - 67 (4.78 average)
5. Hawthorn - 79 (5.64 average)
6. West Coast - 88 (6.28 average)
7. Geelong - 96 (6.85 average)
8. Sydney Swans - 101 (7.21 average)
9. Adelaide - 107 (7.64 average)
10. Brisbane 143 (10.21 average)
11. St Kilda 148 (10.57 average)
12. Melbourne 152 (10.82 average)
13. Port Adelaide 163 (11.5 average)
14. Fremantle 166 (11.71 average)
15. W Bulldogs 173 (12.35 average)
16. North 176 (12.57 average)
17. GWS Giants 210 (15 average)
18. Gold Coast 230 (16.42 average)

The gap between West Coast and Fremantle is far larger than Adelaide and Port Adelaide which I thought was interesting - I wonder if the VFL was swallowed into the WAFL or SANFL and we ended up with Melbourne (11 VFL clubs) and Collingwood, if the split would be the same (approx 65/35)

I find West Coast, Adelaide and Melbourne interesting huge crowds and membership but not big on social media. I think it has a lot to do with demographics eg Melbourne older more affluent West Coast and Adelaide maybe their fans cannot be bothered with social media I bet they have the most fans on Facebook who are not followers.

 

[Walshawk]

Home crowds v out of state teams is a great metric. Over the last 5 - 10 years would be something like:
WC 50k
Pies 45k
Adel 45k
Freo 40k
Port 37k
Tigers 35k
Sydney 32k
Bombers 32k
Blues 30k
Lions 25k
Hawks 25k
Cats 25k
Dees 25k
Saints 20k
Dogs 18k
Nth 18k
GC 13k
GWS 10k

Hawks, Dogs, Dees, Nth figures are skewed by selling home games.

Best metric might be - in an average year, what does a club draw v GWS/GC where there are negligible away fans?

 

[Hawkk]

Home crowds v out of state teams is a great metric. Over the last 5 - 10 years would be something like:
WC 50k
Pies 45k
Adel 45k
Freo 40k
Port 37k
Tigers 35k
Sydney 32k
Bombers 32k
Blues 30k
Lions 25k
Hawks 25k
Cats 25k
Dees 25k
Saints 20k
Dogs 18k
Nth 18k
GC 13k
GWS 10k

Hawks, Dogs, Dees, Nth figures are skewed by selling home games.

Best metric might be - in an average year, what does a club draw v GWS/GC where there are negligible away fans?

Since 1997


Collingwood 41,389
Adelaide 40,343
West Coast 36,314
Essendon 34,983
Fremantle 32,216
Richmond 31,613
Sydney 31,408
Port Adelaide 30,368
Carlton 28,750
Hawthorn 26,394
Brisbane 24,777
St Kilda 23,811
Geelong 22,895
Melbourne 20,354
W Bulldogs 19,712
North Melbourne 18,727
Gold Coast 13,816
GWS Giants 11,216

There are heaps of variables though…

Victorian clubs taking games against interstate teams to smaller grounds…

• Hawthorn - 58 games (57 at York Park, 1 at Carrara)
• North Melbourne - 45 games (25 in Hobart, 11 at Manuka, 6 at the SCG, 3 at Carrara and 1 at Carlton)
• W Bulldogs - 37 games (13 games at Ballarat, 8 in Carlton, 5 at Manuka, 5 at Marrara, 5 at the SCG, 4 games in Cairns)
• Melbourne - 31 games (10 games in Alice, 10 games at Marrara, 7 games at the Gabba, 3 games at Manuka and 1 at Carlton)
• Carlton - 29 games (28 in Carlton, 1 at Carrara)
• St Kilda - 11 games (7 games at York Park, 3 games in Wellington, 1 in Carlton)
• Collingwood - 7 games (Victoria Park)
• Richmond - 5 games (3 games in Cairns, 1 game at Carrara and 1 in Carlton)
• Essendon - 1 game (at Carlton)

* Have excluded Geelong because they play every game at Kardina Park against non Victorian opposition

The other, is Football Park and Subiaco which limited the SA and WA clubs before 2014 and 2018…

Interestingly the Victorian clubs draw much larger crowds to WA, SA, NSW and Qld home games than the post 1987 expansion teams - obviously the traditional clubs have much more national followings

 

[dave10]

Home crowds v out of state teams is a great metric. Over the last 5 - 10 years would be something like:
WC 50k
Pies 45k
Adel 45k
Freo 40k
Port 37k
Tigers 35k
Sydney 32k
Bombers 32k
Blues 30k
Lions 25k
Hawks 25k
Cats 25k
Dees 25k
Saints 20k
Dogs 18k
Nth 18k
GC 13k
GWS 10k

Hawks, Dogs, Dees, Nth figures are skewed by selling home games.

Best metric might be - in an average year, what does a club draw v GWS/GC where there are negligible away fans?

It’s not really. Some clubs play the interstate teams at capacity constrained venues like Marvel (Carlton / Essendon) and the Hawks (Launceston). Also, as Hawkk mentioned, clubs selling games distorts things. Crowds broadly speaking are misleading and geared to on field fortunes.

 

[What else we can do]

Anyone know the most popular clubs on BigFooty?
Here's Reddit
1.Collingwood 18,600
2.Sydney Swans 13,900
3.Carlton 13,100
4.Essendon 13,000
5.Richmond 9,500
6.WCE 8,900
7.Adelaide 8,500
8.Fremantle 8,500
9.Brisbane Lions 8,300
10.Geelong 5,500
11.Melbourne 4,500
12.Western Bulldogs 3,900
13.Hawthorn 3,800
14.North Melbourne 3,400
15.St Kilda 3,100
16.Port Adelaide 3,100
17.GWS 2,200
18. SUNS 1,400

 

[Bjo187]

Anyone know the most popular clubs on BigFooty?
Here's Reddit
1.Collingwood 18,600
2.Sydney Swans 13,900
3.Carlton 13,100
4.Essendon 13,000
5.Richmond 9,500
6.WCE 8,900
7.Adelaide 8,500
8.Fremantle 8,500
9.Brisbane Lions 8,300
10.Geelong 5,500
11.Melbourne 4,500
12.Western Bulldogs 3,900
13.Hawthorn 3,800
14.North Melbourne 3,400
15.St Kilda 3,100
16.Port Adelaide 3,100
17.GWS 2,200
18. SUNS 1,400

Every statistic you dig up has the clear agenda of advocating for Carlton to be seen as the second biggest club in Victoria .

 

[What else we can do]

Every statistic you dig up has the clear agenda of advocating for Carlton to be seen as the second biggest club in Victoria .

I can't help it they are In defence I did provide some crowd averages that didn't and request for Roy Morgan and supercoach.

 

[Hawkk]

Anyone know the most popular clubs on BigFooty?
Here's Reddit
1.Collingwood 18,600
2.Sydney Swans 13,900
3.Carlton 13,100
4.Essendon 13,000
5.Richmond 9,500
6.WCE 8,900
7.Adelaide 8,500
8.Fremantle 8,500
9.Brisbane Lions 8,300
10.Geelong 5,500
11.Melbourne 4,500
12.Western Bulldogs 3,900
13.Hawthorn 3,800
14.North Melbourne 3,400
15.St Kilda 3,100
16.Port Adelaide 3,100
17.GWS 2,200
18. SUNS 1,400

If the Roy Morgan numbers are inconsistent, this is much worse. Talk about a crap shoot.

Some of those reddit sub groups are a lot more organised than others.

 

[Hawkk]

Now this is very, very interesting.

From an ABC article a few years back - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-23/what-membership-means-to-afl-clubs/102513546

This quote is very interesting:

In the suburban era, the VFL set a price for memberships — like the five shillings mentioned above in 1908. Until 1967, a membership got you into both home and away games of your club.


That was one of the main reasons that Melbourne introduced memberships in 1909 — to help their dire away crowds, hesitant to leave the cosy confines of the MCG.

These days clubs love to brag, as does the league, and member numbers are a popular topic.

At one point or another at least half the 18 clubs in the AFL have held claim to having had the most members, be it the Crows in the 90s, the Bulldogs in the 50s, or Geelong in the 20s. Very often it was Carlton who held sway across the decades.

More recently those bragging rights have gone to Hawthorn, West Coast, Collingwood and Richmond.

But the significance of raw member count to the bottom line has decreased over time as clubs shift strategies, with club memberships now providing less than a quarter of total league revenue.

From 1908 right up until 1967 a club member had just as much entitlement for home and away games - which is why I guess generations later the Victorian clubs have such a strong attendance culture for home and away games.

Below shows how club membership has changed over 115 years:

1909



1925




1949



1984



2003



2022



If you look at the Victorian clubs only, there were heaps of changes up until the late 1940s, but from 1984 the status quo is unchanged, with the most popular clubs changing little from 1 to 10 (in fact, the only change was Richmond leapfrogging Geelong from 1984 to 2003 and Essendon and Hawthorn from 2003 to 2022).

Before the Second World War, Collingwood jumped from being a mid-tier club to the top two and eventually went past Carlton to become the biggest VFL club sometime after the 1950s. Footscray and South Melbourne went from big to small clubs (Footscray was bigger than Collingwood when they joined the VFL), while Geelong also went from being a top-three club (pre-1950) to mid-tier after the 1940s. And Hawthorn had an enormous jump - from last in 1949 (when they should have been kicked out of the league) to 5th, where they haven't moved for 40-odd years.

I still can't believe that South Melbourne—which topped the VFL attendances in the mid-1930s—had more members in 1909 than it had in 1984! It's also somewhat surprising that Geelong had more members than Essendon and Richmond right through from 1909, 1925 and 1949.

 

[What else we can do]

If the Roy Morgan numbers are inconsistent, this is much worse. Talk about a crap shoot.

Some of those reddit sub groups are a lot more organised than others.

Hawthorn's is not organised but it has grown reddit AFL is sample of almost half a million people. Love to know bigfooty though

 

[What else we can do]

Now this is very, very interesting.

From an ABC article a few years back - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-23/what-membership-means-to-afl-clubs/102513546

This quote is very interesting:



From 1908 right up until 1967 a club member had just as much entitlement for home and away games - which is why I guess generations later the Victorian clubs have such a strong attendance culture for home and away games.

Below shows how club membership has changed over 115 years:

1909

View attachment 2284599

1925


View attachment 2284598

1949

View attachment 2284597

1984

View attachment 2284596

2003

View attachment 2284595

2022

View attachment 2284594

If you look at the Victorian clubs only, there were heaps of changes up until the late 1940s, but from 1984 the status quo is unchanged, with the most popular clubs changing little from 1 to 10 (in fact, the only change was Richmond leapfrogging Geelong from 1984 to 2003 and Essendon and Hawthorn from 2003 to 2022).

Before the Second World War, Collingwood jumped from being a mid-tier club to the top two and eventually went past Carlton to become the biggest VFL club sometime after the 1950s. Footscray and South Melbourne went from big to small clubs (Footscray was bigger than Collingwood when they joined the VFL), while Geelong also went from being a top-three club (pre-1950) to mid-tier after the 1940s. And Hawthorn had an enormous jump - from last in 1949 (when they should have been kicked out of the league) to 5th, where they haven't moved for 40-odd years.

I still can't believe that South Melbourne—which topped the VFL attendances in the mid-1930s—had more members in 1909 than it had in 1984! It's also somewhat surprising that Geelong had more members than Essendon and Richmond right through from 1909, 1925 and 1949.

In regards to Geelong and St Kilda (not sure how old you are) I remember them being considered just as big as Essendon and Richmond around 80's early 90's. Geelong would bring so many supporters to games and be in the majority a few come to mind:
queen's birthday 89
89 finals series apart from the Demons final
91 finals series apart from the Saints final
Remarkable to think that now that games at waverley the crowd was pro Geelong.