We are the Navy Blues
We are the old Dark Navy Blues
We're the team that never let's you down
We're the only team all Carlton knows
With all the champions
They like to send us
We'll keep our ends up
And they'll know that they've been playing
Against the famous Old Dark Blues
Song sung to music, from Lily of Laguna.
I have been a Carlton supporter since the age of 12 (1982), I chose the team under the influence of an older brother (I also loved the appearance of some players on the field and they also happened to win the premiership that year). The tradition within my family was to have a team from the football codes within each of the states in which we had lived, N.S.W. Victoria and W.A. That was before the ideas of "national leagues" arrived in Australia, now most of my family who are still living in Perth barrack for one team the West Coast Eagles (a Western Australia based team).
Back in 1982, in Perth, the Western Australian Football League W.A.F.L. (pron="waffle" now the WestStar Rules) highlights would come on telly at 5.00pm, then came the Victorian Football League V.F.L (the big V) at 5.30pm. The V.F.L was closely watched by West Australians because of the West Australian contingent of footballers that actually played in the Victorian league, at some stages the players from the west made up to 1/3 of the entire V.F.L league which was arguably the largest and most fierce of all the states in Australia. This is interesting to note when population figures are compared between states, Victoria has 3 times the population.
The Carlton Football Club is known as the 'rich boys club', the current president John Elliot a vocal member within the state Liberal party typifies this and attracts lots of media attention via his habit of persistent smoking and his most quotable quote "PIGS ARSE" (meaning I don't believe you). The rich boy status has not always been the case, in the club's early days they struggled to survive. One of the two founding teams that made up the VFL now the AFL, Carlton always strive for a tope three finish out of the 16 team division and currently holds the most number of premiership titles.
I hope to add more items to this area, if there is something you would like to know about Carlton, Aussie Rules Footy, the A.F.L, the W.A.F.L. give me an e-mail.