Meet Robbie Martin: Football fan

Why our bandwagon is nearly full

Robbie and I go way back.

I bumped into him at the gym today.

He should have been in Melbourne playing AFL but he came home to Canberra to see his mum.

I used to teach Robbie accounting.

In fact the day Aussie Legend Don Bradman died we were in class together.

Robbie and his mate Joey were disappointed Bradman didn't get to 99 years and 94 days. Sports nuts and number crunchers!

We did talk accounting a bit, but mostly it was sport, League and AFL. Soccer as Robbie called it got a big grin and we quickly got back into the accounting.

In fact Robbie was playing with Tadhg Kennelly in the Sydney Swans Seconds at the time. He was also ACT Junior Development Officer for the AFL.

An AFL man through and through.

So I was a bit taken a back to hear Robbie was rusted on...to football.

"I'm a convert. I went to the Grand Final in Melbourne."

"What!" Could this be the same Robbie?

"And I've been to other games."

"What happened?" I wondered

"I went to watch Victory at Olympic Park. There were 13,000 singing. All sides of the ground were singing. I thought if that was good enough for them, then I'm in. That was it. I'm a convert."

Don't think it's all roses...read about Robbie nearly fell off the bandwagon on my www.asiancup.blogspot.com

Welcome aboard Robbie, there's room for all sports fans in our game.