Cheer Squad Terminology

Here's a tongue-in-cheek review of the strange language of footy cheersquads. 

Floggers - The giant red & blue pom poms in the front row of our wonderful Demon Army. Waved during our goal celebrations and to distract the opposition while they're lining up for goal. Great fun to sit behind during a wet game!

Flags - Branded flags on a single pole, up to 1.5 metre square. ​

Big Flags - Flags over 2 metres square. Poles must not be longer than 4 metres long. We have some fantastic people who wave these every week. They give you quite a workout!​

And then there's our favourite kind of flag...the premiership variety!

Patties - Small hand held pom poms on a stick. ​

Banners - Signs with slogans held up within the Cheer Squad bay. Usually made from fabric, with a pole on each end to hold it up.

Big Heads/Heads - Enlarged cutouts of player's heads. Made from Corflute (like a plastic cardboard). Keep your eye out for the pre-beard Max head floating around!

Cutouts - Same as the heads, but include torso & arms, usually an action shot.

Reach - The illustrious Jim Stynes' charity - The Reach Foundation, on Wellington St in Collingwood, where we create our run throughs each week. ​

Run Through - The on field huge banner the players run through when they come onto the ground at the start of the game. Made out of crepe paper, tape, paper letters, tape, tears of our losses, fantastic images from Mario at MAD Printing for commemorative games, and then some more tape. Made a few days prior to the game, generally on a Thursday, by our members (please feel free to join us to help - see the Run Through page for dates & info. There are a lot of components involved, with terminology of it's own.

Base Plates - Metal plates that slot into the bottom of the run through poles. These plates have pretty hefty spikes on the underneath that dig into the turf. They help prevent the base of the poles from moving, which reduces the chance we lose control of our run through.​

Grounders - People who stand on the base plates of the run through to prevent the base of the poles from moving. Nothing worse than a runaway run through!

Sleeves - Large pieces of vinyl that slip over the run through poles, and the run through is taped to the sleeves. Their job is to make attaching the run through to the poles much easier, and are Sponsor branded (gotta get that advertising in!).

Corners - The four corners of the run through. These have extra tape to prevent the weak point from ripping, usually a metre and a half from the top.

Lifters - People who lift the pole of the Run Through, from laying down to upright. Usually done in a hurry, because the players came out quicker than we anticipated.