I was born into it, my old man was mates with some of the Carlton blokes from Bendigo, Vin English,
Jimmy Mooring, Dougie Beasy (IIRC) and others that escape me for the moment.
We'd travel down to Blues games when I was a little tacker, and one of my enduring memories is entering
PP and the first thing that struck me was the smell of pipe smoke wafting out of the ground.
Amphora, Blend 11 , etc. I know that's ''bad'', but to a little kid it added to the atmosphere which to me
was magical.

Then the Blues recruited a couple of young blokes from out the road in Maryborough,
Don and JOHN NICHOLLS !!!!!!!!!
So that was the icing on the cake, I was and remain a Blue Bagger for life.
PS. Winning had nothing to do with it (cos we were ordinary) it was because Carlton was CARLTON !

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The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

Just on the peanut man; my mate Tez who is a fanatical Blues' man, was converted to the cause by the peanut man. Why, you may ask? Because the PM is Tez's uncle and Tez, despite the unfortunate circumstance of being born into a strong Filth household (through his mum), was "bribed" by the PM for a packet of lollies if he switched allegiences, to the light. As this was in 1957, Tez often reminds me (and gives thanks) the best decision and investment he has made!

Go Blues!!!!!

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Be positive to all those @ TC- the wait is almost over!

Coming from an italian background most of the "family" support the filth

Dad didnt get into the whole afl thing straight away but when he was told by my eldest brother and a cousin that he had to choose a team he asked 'who finished on the bottom last year'? They replied "Hawthorn"! and he said, in italian,"From this day onwards i will follow hawthorn". It was the mid-70's.

Its fair to say things werent looking too good before i was even born(1984)

It was 1989 and mum had already started buying me filth apparel to wear............ enter my 17yr old brother , my saviour, he said something along the lines of "dont you dare corrupt another one ma, let him choose for himself"!

That weekend he took me to my first carlton game, and ive never looked back

To even think that i couldve been a filth or dawks supporter makes me feel nauseous

I love the Carlton Football Club, until the day i die!

We are Carlton, !@#$ the rest!

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When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way!

The old man back in '48 came to Oz by boat from the Middle East to work in his uncles factory in Carlton...his uncle was a member of the board at the time and took my Dad to his first game the first weekend after he arrived in Melbourne...CarlvColl at Priness Park. My Dad watched the two teams run out and took one look at the filth jumper and made his decision right then and there. He said to his uncle I prefer the 'other' team being Carlton. My uncle asked him why and my Dad said that black and white jumper reminded him of the colour of the death notices that they posted on the Church doors back home when people die...

The old man lived in Carlton for many years and still works at the same place...my favourite memory was the days I used to work their during school holidays or on weekends and I'd get to meet Carlton officials and players and coaches who would come in and buy from Dad...shame I'm overseas now...I would have loved to run into Ratts some time...

Carlton was never a choice for me...it was a given....and I have the old man (and the filth) to thank for all the great footy memories that this great club has brought me...

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

great thread , find it quite amazing some of u guys came from a strong family alliance to another club but u barrack for carlton, my family is all carlton and if i barracked for anyone else , god forbid what would have happened to me when i was a young fella. keep the stories rolling

My dad migrated from Hellas in 1965 and was (is) a mad soccer fan. He knew nothing about Ozzie rules
and had no desire to follow it. When I arrived on the scene, from day one he tried to influnce me with soccer.
Unfortunatly for him, here in the outback, Soccer was never heard of.

So eventually when in Primary school, about grade 3, the footy season of 1979 was about to begin and kids went around
asking everyone who they barracked for. I didnt know anything about VFL so when I was asked, I remember hearing something about
a team that was related to the Kangaroos. So i said, "The kangaroos team".

Well they bagged the crap out of me, as school kids do, and when one particular kid says to me, "why you barrack for them" ?
I said, "I dont know."
He says, well their shit and you should barrack for the Blues.
I said, "OK".

So I go home and ask dad who he barracks for in the VFL and I could tell by the look on his face
he wasnt happy I took an interest in Ozzie rules, instead of soccer. So I started to to take an interest
in Carlton and dad went to find a team to barrack for.

To this day I remember watching the the 1981 Grand Final on TV as a 10 yr old. And when Collingwood slammed those
5 goals in the 3rd quarter to lead by 21 pts, i started crying my eyes out. My dad comforted me and said,
"Dont worry, Carlton will still win". and they did.

Today we regularly talk about the AFL and who is in form, but lately he's had all the talk. My dad barracks for Geelong.

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BRING BACK PERFORMANCE BASE PAYMENTS !!!

Came from Bendigo - Followed Sandhurst
Went to college in Carlton (Melb T C) 1961
Lived in a hostel with Bernie McCarthy (North) Brian Clements (Fitzroy) and Cliff Stewart (Carlton) all top blokes but had to make a choice
Football is tribal and I picked the local team
Barrass came to Carlton after a lean period - things look up. Saw Ted Hopkins run in 1970, nothing was ever sweeter than that day.
I have quoted George Harris ever since.
Under zoning saw Bendigo district players go to Carlton - Southby Keogh Ashman English McConville Sheldon and co
Saw Swan McKay asleep in the goal square before the first whistle in 1972 GF
Geoff Southby in similar condition in the 1973 GF (all you C'wood and E'don haters may not have experienced the R'mond rivalry of those years) The perpetrator in both cases is now a "respected" football administrator.
Saw the great eighties from the country.
Went to the NT for a few years working with a lot of Crow and Power supporters - 1995 was a tonic.
I need another dose of tonic now!

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It's the jumper

Most of your points rung true to me also Graemep !!

Dont feel bad telling people what an out and out thug Balme was !!

My earliest memories, were riding the tram from Northcote with my Dad
and brothers to Princes Park.
Dad played reserves for South and Fitzroy, but then during the war he
struck up a friendship with Bert Deacon and jumped ship to the Blues.
Alas, Dad broke his wrist in the war, and that was the end of footy for him.
Vividly remember the first time i went to mcg for Barassi's first game against
Melbourne after his transfer, think we got smashed.
I idolised Jezza, and as a young 'un and used to love going into the rooms after
a home game, as you could in those days.
Think i got his autograph about 73 times, but used to hate it when the players
handed your autograph book around to other players they were sitting with and
you would get Barry Gill's moniker on the same page as Jezza or Big Nick, just not on !!
Hence, because of my adoration, 1979 GF is still my fave day at the footy.
Consider myself very lucky to have seen us win 8 flags, and lose another 5 too.
I really truly hope number 9 is brewing along nicely......... P L E A S E !!!!!!!

Both brothers still mad Blues fans although both interstate now.
Mum eventually converted from Melbourne after 30 years of pressure.

Footy has changed so much since those early days, almost unrecognisably so
but the passion for the Blues has never wavered and only grown in time.
Bit like a life long love affair really.

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I wore number 25 on the back of my jumper 40 years ago..... yes, pre Marchesani !!

My grandfather was the Member of Parliament for Carlton for more than 20 years and lived in Wilson St.

Pretty good grounding in the club, I would have thought.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

We were at my Nanna and Pop's farm on Grand Final day in '79 and the TV was tuned to the game. Until then I hadn't been interested in the VFL and arbitrarily decided that I liked the look of the black tops better than the stripy ones. My dad told me that the jumpers were actually navy blue.

When the team in the navy blue jumpers ended up being victorious that sealed my allegiance for life.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

My Dads a Blues supporter but my mum is a passionate Essendon* supporter due to her brother being a 100 game premiership player for the Scum in the 80s.

When I was born Mum got her way and I was forced into that ugly red and black jumper though through my early childhood I really didn't get into Footy much. Living in Tassie at the time I obviously didn't get much of a chance to go to games and I was just more interested in music and hanging with mates than footy. My younger brother was mad about it though and was an Essendon* supporter.

I didn't even care when we beat the Scum in the 99 prelim and my folks didn't speak to each other for 2 weeks!

We made a move to Melbourne in late 99 however and once the 2000 season rolled around Mum and my brother went to nearly every Essendon* game while my Dad went to a fair few Carlton games as well taking my brother when he was free because he just loved the game.
One day my brother couldn't make it and my Dad begged me to go along to a game (it was against St Kilda off memory) and although I wasn't keen he bribed me with a promise of a pie and a coke so I agreed.

Although I can't remember very clearly apparantly I was yelling out and loving the game by about the 2nd quarter so from there I started to really enjoy it. I went along to a few games in 2000 and even more in 01 when by then I was a fully fledged fan. Memories of that era include the game at Optus Oval against Collingwood when we kicked the shit out of them and I was giving their supporters way to much stick for a 12 year old and the Geelong game when Milburn knocked out SOS and I went with my Dad and a couple of my mates for my birthday. Again we said some not nice things that 12 year olds certainly shouldn't be saying.

In 2002 Dad bought him and I memberships, the first and last time he ever bought a membership. Considering it was the first time he bought one in the first season we won a spoon so understandably he wasn't keen on those odds.

I've continued to follow the club through these years of hell and even though like most supporters I assume I lost a little bit of passion at times I've gone to plenty of games every season and because I've only seen very minimal amounts of success it makes this coming era extremely exciting for me. I just hope when we win the flag we could beat someone like Essendon* or Collingwood to make it that bit more satisfying.