Trent Martin, a 24-year old GWS supporter from Blacktown, recently commented on a post showing graphic images of young Pie Tim Broomhead after a horror collision with the goal post. The comment read: “Never good to see a player go down, as a GWS supporter who attended the game I hope he makes a full recovery and comes back better next year”.
This isn’t just a once off occurrence from Martin either. Last year Trent commented on a Facebook post by Port Adelaide informing fans that Robbie Gray had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Even though Trent doesn’t support the Power, he left a comment saying “Hope Robbie makes a full recovery – from a Giants supporter”.
“Even though I don’t want his team to win the flag, it would still be nice to see him survive cancer” Trent told The First Reserve.
“It’s not that I want opposition players to play well or anything, I just don’t want them to have career ending injuries or die, which I think makes me a pretty selfless bloke.”
For Martin, the posts don’t always have to be related to opposition players’ wellbeing. This was shown by his most recent comment on a post-match article from the Geelong vs. Hawthorn game, which took aim at the umpires and read: “Umpires did everything they could today to give Geelong the win today (GWS Supporter)”. The comment amassed over 20 reactions, much to Martin’s delight.
He has even started mentioning what team he supports on completely unrelated posts, which some believe is going a bit too far. One of his (now former) Facebook friends who asked not to be named, made the decision to block him after he commented on a touching post about her recently deceased dog saying “Sad to hear – from a GWS supporter”.
Despite almost always having negative comments in his replies, Trent remains determined to spread awareness of the team he supports.
“The comment on the Robbie Gray post last year got over 10 likes and I think it might have even had a love react or two, so I knew I had to keep doing it from then,” said Trent, who swears it isn’t a cry for likes and attention.
“It’s always good to let everyone know you support a different team, because then they think you’re a better bloke.”
Interested to see whether Trent’s theory was true, we had our best researchers here at The First Reserve look a little further into whether or not people actually care which team you support when leaving Facebook comments.
After multiple surveys and focus groups with football supporters across the country, we found out a mere 1.3% enjoy knowing what team a commenter supports. The remaining 98.7% don’t give a shit.