As the GIANTS prepare to face the Western Bulldogs in an Elimination Final, GIANTS Media will tell the stories of those within the GIANTS Family. Their stories are our stories.
“The army keeps assembling, we're a family now, this club. It doesn’t matter where you come from, now there’s orange in your blood.”
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“Our whole family is back home; the GIANTS is our family.”
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Imagine it’s 2007 and you’ve just moved halfway across the world to a country all on your own.
You know no-one there and no-one knows you. Your family, including your wife and young daughter, are back in India.
You find work and soon after your wife and daughter make the move too.
After working different jobs, you finally land a position as an electrician, your field of expertise.
Then in 2014 your co-worker Bevan starts talking about something called the AFL and the GIANTS.
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GIANTS member Krushnakant Maru doesn’t need to imagine that scenario, he lived it.
“I’m from Gujarat, Northern India,” Krushnakant recalls.
“Being Indian we love sport, especially cricket, I knew nothing other than cricket, but after I started working with Bevan, he asked me if I could join him at an AFL game.
“I said, ‘I have no idea what AFL means, I’ve never been to an AFL game’, so anyway I went along to my first game at the GIANTS in June 2014.
“I watched a couple of games after that and he told me the history the club had.
“Then a couple of weeks later my daughter came back from school and she said, ‘Daddy look I’ve got these stickers with GIANTS on it’.
“I asked where she got them from and she said, ‘They came from the club and they gave us this and some players came to my school’.
“And she said, ‘Daddy I like it!’.
“So slowly we went to some games, came to the club and met some players like Toby Greene, Stephen Coniglio and Josh Kelly and in 2016 we became members; my daughter and I.”
Going to the GIANTS’ home games at GIANTS Stadium and at UNSW Canberra Oval with his daughter Dhruvi has now become a tradition.
Krushnakant recalls what it was like taking his eldest daughter to her first game in 2016.
“What I saw on her face was joy,” he said.
“It was the joy and happiness on my daughter’s face, I was amazed afterwards having kick to kick on the field and thinking ‘wow I’ve never seen this before’.
“That happiness, that started in 2016, is still in front of my eyes and we all love it.
“Everyone was so inviting, everyone makes you feel special in this group, that’s what pulled me in.
“I just became a part of it.”
Now into his fourth season of membership Krushnakant is as passionate as any GIANTS member.
So in love with the GIANTS is Krushnakant that he has personalised GIANTS number plates and at times has been spotted wearing an orange wig in the crowd.
“I couldn’t hold myself back even if I wanted to,” he said.
“I’m just getting more and more involved.”
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Getting more involved at the GIANTS has helped Krushnakant adapt to life in Australia.
It’s given him more than just a place for him to be passionate about sport and a pastime for him to enjoy with his family.
“It was a big move,” Krushnakant said.
“When we came here, we had a little group of friends, a temple, one place to go each weekend.
“Since we started supporting the GIANTS, I’ve got to know hundreds of people, all different people coming from different backgrounds.
“The GIANTS is a big part of our family life now, my kids enjoy it, my wife has come to a few games.
“She now reminds me about the games and more and more says, ‘Remember you can’t work in the afternoon, you’ve got a game to go to’.
“We had no one here in Australia, it’s only my wife and the kids.
“Our whole family is back home; the GIANTS is our family.”
It’s the sense of community and a commonality – a love for those that play in orange and charcoal – that Krushnakant loves the most.
“At the GIANTS what I see is really amazing, we don’t only have the footy, we have the culture, we have that spirit, that energy, that brings smiles to the people’s faces,” he said.
“It’s bringing different communities and cultures into the club, the players going into the schools.
“That happiness flows throughout the group, which could be the players group, the fans group, the kids, the families.
“I have no words to explain the emotion and passion I have for the orange and charcoal.
It’s bloody got me in, you know.
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As the GIANTS prepare to face the Western Bulldogs in an Elimination Final at GIANTS Stadium, Krushnakant is preparing to do whatever he can to support the GIANTS.
He’s hoping the result will be a reversal of the last final between the two sides in 2016.
“I want those tears back again, but I’m expecting it to be tears of joy,” he said.
“When we lost in the Preliminary Final, I was just frozen on my seat.
“This time I just want to get up out of my seat and cheer loud and just say, 'Here we are back again'. I’m expecting a big game, I can’t wait for it.”
