15 odd years ago, I decided to join my local football club, the Albert Park Falcons. The pride of VAFA D Grade, they wore the iconic red and blue stripes with pride. Why iconic? Read on and you’ll find out.
Back in the Wild West days of the internet, simple things like navigation were surprisingly hard. So on my first day of training, I looked on the home computer where training would be, threw my boots into a supermarket shopping bag, and hopped on my bike.
10 minutes later, I was there, and like usual, I was late. I quickly dumped my bike, jumped the fence, and joined in the warmup, which was kicking practice. I managed to get a few rather rusty kicks away before one of the coaches pulled me aside, and asked me who I was. I told him that I’d found out about the club online, was keen to join, and thought I’d come along to training.
It was then, to my horror that I realised my mistake.
The Albert Park Falcons and the Port Melbourne borough have grounds 3 minutes apart, and wear the same “iconic” strip. However, that is wear the similarities end. The Falcons are an amateur club playing in the lowest level of the VAFA, and according to Wikipedia, have never won a senior premiership. The Port Melbourne Boroughs are a professional football team playing in the VFL, and have won more premierships than any other club in the competitions history.
Turns out you can’t just jump the fence and join professional teams, but it still makes for a funny story.
