With a nod to Humans of New York, we meet some of our diehard GIANTS supporters as part of #MembersWeek

KALEB BLAND

Sutherland

When I was seven my family went to Melbourne for Christmas and I met my uncle, Trevor, for the first time. Because he lived down there, we never got to see him much. I found him really funny, and since that first time we met he’s become one of my favourite relatives. I grew up in Sutherland Shire and was a mad Parramatta Eels Fan. He watched AFL, barracked for Carlton and never got to see much rugby league. So he made me a deal: he’d start following the Eels if I started watching the Blues.

I took him up on the offer and when I got back home I looked up a bit about AFL on the internet. I’d seen it on TV but never really knew the rules and found it confusing at first. I started watching Carlton on TV, but then a few years later I started to read a lot of articles about a new team coming to Sydney, the GIANTS. I liked the name, and the colours. And I didn’t like the Swans; everyone I knew who watched AFL went for them and I’ve always liked to support the underdog, so I thought I’d jump on board with the GIANTS from day one. I remember collecting posters out of the newspaper and reading the sport section to find out more about them. I think I still have a few old posters packed up in the garage somewhere.

The first game I got to see was in Canberra. I’m adopted, and so is my brother Ethan. My foster parents, who took care of me for the first two months of my life, live on the outskirts of Canberra and I’ve been able to stay in touch with them my whole life. We went to visit them one weekend back in 2012 and I saw that the GIANTS were playing a game there, so I started begging Dad to take me and Ethan along to watch it. My first game was the club’s first win, which was pretty cool. We sat up in the grandstand and when we were walking out of the stadium we could see the team walk into the rooms and sing the song through the glass.

Ever since then, I’ve loved the game. I’ve been umpiring for two seasons – this was meant to be my third - and I’ve been selected for the NEAFL’s next generation group. They pick a handful of players who have done well and we get to train with some of the NEAFL umpires once a month at North Sydney Oval, which is pretty cool. I umpire in the Sutherland Shire and I've played two seasons for Miranda Bombers, our local club, in the juniors. This season I was due to play up in the men’s comp for Southern Power. I’m not sure how that will happen this year, but hopefully we’ll get to play some games.

I watch all the GIANTS games I can. My neighbour has become a member too and we have a little tradition: I always go to the first home game with my dad, my brother and my neighbour. This year I have my licence, so I was hoping to get to more home games than ever before. My dad will sit and watch games with me and because I’ve become an umpire he’s learnt all the rules too. He’s really into it now but there was a definitely a bit of begging involved to get to that first game. He can see how much I love it, so he can’t help but get into it too.

Last year I made it down for the Grand Final. Originally I wasn’t going to go. After the preliminary final I didn’t even think about going, because I thought it would be really hard to get tickets. But the next night my mum and dad were surprised I wasn’t going to go. So I called my uncle, asked if it would be OK for me to come down and stay with him, and if he wanted to come to the game with me. He’s not all that fond of GWS but I managed to get him into a GIANTS hat for the day, and we had a really good time. It was such a cool experience to be there, it wasn’t the result any of us wanted but I’m so glad I got to be there for that day and to find out what the atmosphere was like. I look back to that day when I was seven, and I’m really glad my uncle made me that deal. If it wasn’t for that, I would probably never have found AFL and never have found the GIANTS.