List of Australian Football League team songs
An Australian Football League team song is traditionally sung by members of the winning team after an AFL game.
The first team song was the Collingwood song "Good Old Collingwood Forever", written by player Tom Nelson in 1906 to the tune of "Goodbye, Dolly Gray", an American music hall song.[1] Other clubs have continued to rewrite other songs' lyrics to suit their team, with very few songs having both original lyrics and music.
Club name | Name of team song | Basis for team song | First used as team song | Writer/composer |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adelaide | "The Pride of South Australia" | "US Marines' Hymn" | 1992 | Bill Sanders |
Brisbane Lions | "The Pride of Brisbane Town" | "La Marseillaise" | 1955 | Fitzroy players |
Carlton | "We are the Navy Blues" | "Lily of Laguna" | c. 1930 | Carlton players |
Collingwood | "Good Old Collingwood Forever" | "Goodbye, Dolly Gray" | 1906 | Tom Nelson |
Essendon | "See the Bombers Fly Up" | "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" | 1959 | Kevin Andrews[2] |
Fremantle | "Freo Way To Go" | Original | 1995 | Ken Walther |
Geelong | "We Are Geelong" | "The Toreador Song" | 1963 | John K. Watts |
Gold Coast | "We Are the Suns of the Gold Coast Sky"[3] | Original | 2010 | Rosco Elliott |
Greater Western Sydney | "There's A Big Big Sound"[4] | Original | 2012 | Harry Angus |
Hawthorn | "The Mighty Fighting Hawks" | "The Yankee Doodle Boy" | c. 1956 | Chick Lander |
Melbourne | "It's a Grand Old Flag" | "You're a Grand Old Flag" | c. 1912 | unknown (second verse by Keith "Bluey" Truscott) |
North Melbourne | "Join in the Chorus" | "Wee Deoch an Doris"[5] | 1920s | unknown |
Port Adelaide | "Power to Win"[6] | Original | 1997 | Quentin Eyers and Les Kaczmarek |
Richmond | "We're from Tiger Land" | "Row, Row, Row" | 1962 | Jack Malcolmson |
St Kilda | "When the Saints Go Marching In" | "When the Saints Go Marching In" | c. 1965 | unknown |
Sydney | "The Red and the White" | "Notre Dame Victory March" | 1950s | Larry Spokes |
West Coast | "We're Flying High" | Original | 1987 | Kevin Peek and Ken Walther |
Western Bulldogs | "Sons of the West" | "Sons of the Sea" | 1940s | unknown |
Notes
- The Brisbane Lions song was originally written by a group of Fitzroy players in 1955 to the tune of the French National Anthem, "La Marseillaise". It has been used since the Brisbane Bears/Fitzroy Lions merger in 1996 with slightly adjusted lyrics, Brisbane's previous Club Song was sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".[7]
- The Western Bulldogs team song was originally called "Sons of the 'Scray" before Footscray changed their name to the Western Bulldogs in 1997 and the song's lyrics were slightly altered.[8]
- The Fremantle Dockers' club song used from 1995 until 2011 contained a section based on "The Song of the Volga Boatmen", a Russian folk song, but most of the song was an original composition by Ken Walther. After the 2011 season, the "Volga Boatmen" section was dropped, leaving only the part written by Walther.
References
- ↑ http://mm.afl.com.au/afl_heritage/songs_history.htm#magpies
- ↑ see interview with Kevin Andrews on the Essendon FC website at http://www.essendonfc.com.au/video/2014-03-12/btv-the-history-of-our-song
- ↑ http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=98802
- ↑ http://www.gwsgiants.com.au/theres-a-big-big-sound-from-the-west-of-the-town.html
- ↑ http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_deoch.htm
- ↑ http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/fanzone/clubsong/tabid/8112/default.aspx
- ↑ http://mm.afl.com.au/afl_heritage/songs_history.htm#lions
- ↑ http://mm.afl.com.au/afl_heritage/songs_history.htm#bulldogs