Meet our Members - Carlie

We won't ask you your age but how long have you been a Melbourne supporter?
I started barracking for the Dees at the age of 7 (1984).
 
How did you become a Melbourne supporter?
 I started out life on the wrong side of the tracks being a Hawthorn supporter in my early years. My cousin played 3 games and was delisted – I was devastated and vowed never to support the "poo and wee" colours again! My uncle Kevin used to take me to Moorabbin to watch St Kilda games so I thought I would follow them, but Mum intervened. My Mum, Mary Ann Ryan, was a lifelong Dees supporter and said if you barrack for Melbourne we will go to some games. SOLD! My first year as a member was 1988. Mum and I would go every week and sit in the front row behind the goals in the Ponsford Stand.

How long have you been in the cheer squad? And what made you decide to join?
 I joined the cheer squad in 1991. Mum and I wanted to get more involved. I started going to run-through at the Junction Oval. It was heaps of fun but scary as hell being a teenage girl walking through the streets of St Kilda! I was so excited to help make the banner and even more excited to be on the ground – true life goals ticked off right there!

Favourite current player?
Alex Neal-Bullen and Jacob van Rooyen in the AFL and Kate Hore and Gabby Colvin in the AFLW.

Favourite Melbourne player ever?
Anyone that has meet me once should know the answer to this question…The great Ox, David Schwarz.

Favourite game?
I will remember the 2021 Grand Final for obvious reasons but so disappointing not to be there to experience it. So I would have to say the 2022 AFLW Grand Final against Brisbane up there. We flew in and out in the one day and it simply was amazing. The emotion, the celebration…the tears! Best day ever.

Greatest player you ever saw? This can be from any club.
Leigh Matthews was a gun in his day. Chris Judd in the more modern era.

Highest point in your footballing career
Having never played myself, I will go with cheer squad memories. Making friends – lifelong friends. It’s crazy to think that I have known a lot of the crew for 30 years. Also, the support of the cheer squad when my Mum died in 2000 was amazing. They scrambled to get a message on the banner to honour her and some of the players wore black armbands, including Jeff Farmer who was her favourite, kicking 8 goals. I know Mum would have been up in heaven leading the chants on GF day in 2021, along with Jimmy Stynes and Troy Broadbridge.

(Converting my husband from Essendon to a one-eyed Dees supporter is pretty memorable as well.)

Lowest point in your footballing career
My Mum and I never experiencing a Premiership win together. Footy was “our thing” – we lived through a lot of crap times (as we all have). Mum got sick in November 1999 and was unable to get to a game in 2000. We organised for her to come to a game at Telstra Dome (now Marvel) against Fremantle and sit in a corporate box and see the players in the rooms. Unfortunately, she passed away a few days before the game.

Any football superstitions?
Nothing that I can think of.
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Craziest thing you've ever done for the Dees?
Ha ha…I am part of the Demon Army – I’ve done MANY crazy things! Wearing the mascot outfit (especially on the stinking hot family days). I dressed up as Rex Hunt to a Player’s Fancy Dress night and was then being dobbed into Channel 7, where I then dressed up again and went on live TV. I came second in the Rex Hunt look-a-like comp (out of 35 people) in 1994!

I've had many other funny TV appearances but the worst was in 1995 when I had to show Robert DiPierdomenico how to wave a flogger. Dipper was using it correctly and I had to jump around with it and say “Nah Dip – this is how you do it!” I went off to uni in Warrnambool the next day and all I heard was “Nah Dip”. For the rest of the semester, I was knows as the Nah Dip girl!