Passionate Essendon supporter Nicholas Fogharty led a strong fan driven campaign to #BackOurBoys during last Saturday night’s win over Adelaide.
The regular contributor to BomberBlitz shares his story with us on essendonfc.com.au.
I thought I would start a warm and fuzzy thread specifically in appreciation for the great blitz and Essendon community that made the whole #BackOurBoys posters campaign a huge success. More and more I realise we are so lucky to be part of the best footy club in the world. We have passionate fans that embrace the playing group and support staff like no other.
Last Saturday night I was lucky enough to be involved in what was the greatest football experience I have ever had or been a part of. Don't underestimate my last sentence, I mean that. In my lifetime I have been fortunate to see Essendon win four flags and have been part of local junior and local senior premiership teams, but I would not trade any of them in for the day I had on Saturday. The win against the Crows was just the icing on the cake. Listening to some of the players on the radio on Sunday and getting feedback about the impact the posters had was surreal. Watching back the recorded Channel 7 broadcast and seeing them zoom in on the posters and hearing BT talk about the campaign was very encouraging.
There's been some feedback that we probably should have encouraged people to raise their posters at a specific time. I actually had the same conversation with Pete Lazer the ground announcer before the game started and he made a good point - he said something along the lines of how you need to allow people to create atmosphere themselves and not force it. I think he was spot on.
That impromptu "We Are Essendon" chant as the players walked off the field after the match wasspine tingling. There was supposedly only 31,000 people at the game but it felt like 50,000! I don't know what others thought, but personally, I felt the atmosphere and the noise was close to being up there with the best I can recall. We were loud and fanatical and I strongly believe we gave the players a boost when they needed it.
Some feedback and facts you may be interested in knowing...... We received over 250 donations for the campaign. Donations varied from 50 cents all the way up to amounts in the hundreds. Some blitzers donated several times. We received donations from two current players, a legend of the club and many current staff and relatives of players. Of course though, they will all remain anonymous. Every donation went towards the 20,000 posters that were placed on every seat on level one at Etihad stadium. To all of you that donated, a massive thank you. You are the reason for such a great day.
We were privileged to have several volunteers that were at Etihad from 2:00pm until 5:00pm setting everything up. I was thrilled to put faces to so many names. I personally want to thank all of the following blitzers that volunteered:
- Koala and Koala's Dad
- Boomerang
- Saladin
- Dunlop
- Megz
- Bugman
- wimmera1 and a hangover and Crows supporting wife
- Mrs fogdog and our two children
- My brother and his two children
- mattmcp
- Lone Wolf McQuade
- Nackers
- Mr Casio
- Valtello Starkwind
- DJR
- Tool666
- wannabe
- JBOMBER and wife and baby
- bdstratton and sister
- nemir
- windyhillbomber2408
- Hoffy
- Stendahl
- Jezz
- Humbert Humbert and son (who was a star!) plus brother in law and I think sister
- Mackster
- SheedsIsOurFather
- aartusa
- Same Old
- Bettybomber
- A couple of people who turned up on the day
- Plus there were a few who contacted me on twitter but I won't post their full names here as I have not been given permission from them
I do apologies if you helped and your name does not appear above, feel free to post in this thread to let us know you were there. And anyone on the list that wasn't there, I also apologise but I couldn't remember everyone I met so I went off the list of those that said they were coming. Special thanks to Riolio and the blitzersthat contributed to the design and wording for the poster, they looked fab!
Lastly and far from least importance, I want to thank and acknowledge the work of Ryan McKee, who without his support and work behind the scenes this would not have happened. For those that don't know, Ryan is the fan development manager at Essendon. He is also a "blitzer" who pops up every now and then on the forums. Ryan has been at the club for I think nearly four years. I have no doubt in my mind that the "family" feeling amongst fans and the general relationship between fans, players and club is at an all time high. Yes, I can accept that the current issues the club is facing has probably galvanised us a bit, but I think the majority of the strong relations can directly be attributed to Ryan and all the work he has done should not be overlooked. The Don the Sash stuff has been an exceptional campaign, membership is at an all time high and the fans are seemingly very happy. I don't say this as any kind of suck up job, but when it comes to knowing what it means to be an Essendon supporter and to bleed red and black, Ryan "gets it".
To our favourite Canadian, thank you Ryan from all of us to you. And thanks also to Nicole and the rest of your team for the enjoyable day and all the ongoing hard work.
Well done to the cheer squad who also got behind the campaign.
Finally, it is clear to me that whoever was responsible for the air raid siren on Saturday night should do it every week. Obviously this can be attributed to the positive start by the boys against the Crows - I kid.
