# Cheer, Cheer, the Red and the White

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 25, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313 "2005-09-25T06:51:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![robinc308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@robinc308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinc308)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313/1 "2005-09-25T06:51:07Z")

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What? No AFL Grand Final thread?

Well. What can I say - after 73 years the Swannies have finally taken another flag, breaking the longest drought in AFL history.

I got over there being no Melbourne team in the final. Again. (Well, we can claim the Swans as still being Souths, can’t we?). My heart wanted them to win, my head said the Eagles would take it (incidentally, what was with two bird teams being in the GF?). But mostly, I hoped for a close match. And what a match.

The Swans by less than a kick (8.10.(58) def 4.12.(54)), and what a mark by Leo Barry, deep in the Eagles 50 - an absolute screamer over about 7 or 8 blokes to keep the Eagles from scoring the winning goal in the last few seconds.

But what a match - the Norm Smith went to Judd of the Eagles (how often does a losing player win the medal?) and it’s the closest Grand Final since the draw in 1977 (before I was even born).

So one last rousing chorus for the year:

Cheer, Cheer, the Red and the White,  
Honour the name, by day and by night;  
Lift that noble banner high,  
Shake down the thunder from the sky.  
What though the odds be great, or small,  
Swans will go in and win over all;  
While her loyal sons are marching  
Onward to Victory.

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**Author:** ![robinc308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@robinc308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinc308)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313/2 "2005-09-25T07:16:52Z")

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Oh, and I forgot to add - Dame Edna’s “Up there Cazaly” was brilliant (although her voice did drop a few octaves on a couple of occaisions. So fitting too on with the Swans winning

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**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313/3 "2005-09-25T21:50:35Z")

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Well, I’ll post to say that it made me really homesick to hear the Notre Dame fight song played over and over all weekend.

Plus, I like boys in short shorts. And tight shirts.

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**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313/4 "2005-09-25T22:08:15Z")

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> [@robinc308](#):
>
> Well, we can claim the Swans as still being Souths, can’t we?

It seems rather a long bow to draw. When a radio announcer said that it was Sydney’s first win in seventy something years my reaction was - “there wasn’t a Sydney team back then”. Everyone else I know had the same reaction.

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheer-cheer-the-red-and-the-white/323313/5 "2005-09-26T06:43:02Z")

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Goooooooooooooooo the Swanees!!!

Very happy expat Sydneysider checking in.