Nine games across three venues in South Australia - the excitement ahead of the AFL’s first Gather Round treating footy fans to a four-day feast has been in full swing this week.
Despite all the hype, one Club’s supporters group found itself in a tough predicament.
Fremantle had battled the Crows at Adelaide Oval just six days before its scheduled Gather Round clash in SA with Gold Coast and the Dockers’ diehards opted to stay in SA rather than return to Western Australia.
But that meant the fans were forced to take their banner construction operation on the road, while trying to to find a suitable location and supplies to complete the job.
Then, enter the President of the Adelaide Crows Supporters Group cheer squad, Peter Kauschke.
After chatting with the Fremantle cheer squad in the lead up to last week’s game, Kauschke got to work and organised a joint banner making session on Tuesday night, ensuring the Dockers were right to go before their match against the Suns on Friday afternoon.
“When I was down in the race on Saturday afternoon, Megan (from the Dockers Supporter Group) told me they were here for nine days and asked if I knew of a place for us to make our banner,” Kauschke told AFC Media.
“I told her where we did ours and said I’d enquire to see if they can join us and ended up sorting some supplies for them to use as well.
“We all got together, helped each other with our banners, my sister provided some snacks for us all to eat and just had a great time chatting footy together ahead of what is going to be a fantastic weekend.”
Fremantle is not the only club Kauschke and the Crows Supporter Group has been assisting this weekend.
“We’ve lent our poles to Mount Barker for North Melbourne to use for their banner, so I went up during the week and dropped all of that off,” Kauschke said.
“We’ve also left all of our ropes at Adelaide Oval for all the other teams to use, and a lot of our committee will be at every game at Adelaide Oval to lend a hand wherever needed.
“Gather Round is a great way for all of us supporters to come together, so whatever we can do to help we are more than happy to do it.”
SA beat NSW in a bid to host the special, inaugural event this weekend and the Crows kicked off Gather Round with a win against Carlton at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.
