CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact

In a shocking new trend, middle-aged men from Sydney are starting to pretend they know, love and follow AFL.

With over seven professional rugby league clubs in a predominantly “league city”, men who would have previously supported a local NRL side are now ditching their jerseys altogether.

Ditching them for guernseys.

Young urban professional men make up the largest number of NRL fans migrating to the scarves and singlets of the Australian Football League. Many claiming they “have followed the Swannies since day dot” – in an attempt to look more “Victorian”.

One man who is as guilty as anyone, is 41-year-old construction manager, Peter Codey.

“People put shit on me because I grew up in the rugby league hotspot of inner-west Sydney. They just assume I live and breathe Wests (NRL)”

“What most of them don’t know is that I am a Bloods (Sydney Swans, AFL) supporter ’til death”

One of Peter’s co-worker can see straight through this facade.

Allen, a legitimate Victorian that moved to Sydney seven years ago, claims that Peter is just another “Bandwagon Fan” that got behind the Sydney Swans in the days leading up to their 2012 AFL premiership.

“When I started here, Peter was a die-hard Balmain fan (NRL) – He was still reeling from their premiership over the Cowboys in 2005 and used to bang out on about having played for them in juniors,”

“Then all of sudden he stopped talking about rugby league. I reckon it was back when the Blues didn’t win an Origin series for the better part of the decade… It became a Queenslander game,”

“This lot in Sydney just saved face by pretending they live in an AFL-state”

Allen claims that Peter often tries to “banter” with him in the office over AFL.

“He’s such a loser, he doesn’t know shit. Constantly heckling me about Geelong… Mate, he doesn’t even know who Barry Hall is,”

“It’s because these crumbs in Sydney think they look more cultured by following the AFL… It’s all an act to impress our Western Australian bosses,”

However, Peter claims that his family have been die-hard Swannies fans since the club relocated from South Melbourne to Sydney in the early 80’s.

“I don’t really keep up with league anymore, hey. It’s a bit too low-brow for me nowadays. I love footy,”