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An Australian Football League team song is traditionally sung by members of the winning team after an AFL game. It is played when each team runs out onto the field prior to the beginning of the match, and played for the winning team at the end of the match.
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 four of the 18 team songs having both original lyrics and music.
| Club Name | Song Name | Basis | First Used | Writer/Composer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide | "The Pride of South Australia" | "US Marines Corps Hymn" | 1994 | Club version by William Sanders (based on 1867 composition by Jacques Offenbach) |
| Brisbane Lions | "The Pride of Brisbane Town" | "La Marseillaise" | 1997 | Club version (Based on Fitzroy club version by Bill Stephen from 1952 which was based on 1792 composition by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle)[2] |
| Carlton | "We are the Navy Blues" | "Lily of Laguna" | c. 1930 | Club version by Ernie Walton (based on 1889 composition by Leslie Stuart) |
| Collingwood | "Good Ol' Collingwood Forever" | "Goodbye, Dolly Gray" | 1906 | Club version by Tom Nelson (based on 1897 composition by Paul Barnes and Will D. Cobb ) |
| Essendon | "See the Bombers Fly Up" | "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" | 1929 | Club version by Kevin Andrews[3][4] (based on 1929 composition by B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson) |
| Fremantle | "Freo Way To Go" | "Song of the Volga Boatmen" | 1995 | Club version by Ken Walther (Derivative sections later removed) |
| Geelong | "We Are Geelong" | "The Toreador Song" | 1963 | Club version by John K. Watts (based on an 1875 composition by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) |
| Gold Coast | "We Are the Suns of the Gold Coast Sky"[5] | Original | 2010 | Rosco Elliott |
| Greater Western Sydney | "There's A Big Big Sound"[6] | "Arabian riff" | 2012 | Harry Angus |
| Hawthorn | "The Mighty Fighting Hawks" (also known as "We're A Happy Team at Hawthorn") | "The Yankee Doodle Boy" | c. 1956 | Club version by Chic Lander (based on 1911 composition by George M. Cohan) |
| Melbourne | "It's a Grand Old Flag" | "You're a Grand Old Flag" | c. 1912 | Club lyrics (second verse) by Keith "Bluey" Truscott (based on 1906 composition by George M. Cohan) |
| North Melbourne | "Join in the Chorus" | "Just a wee Deoch an Doris"[7] | 1920s | Club lyrics unknown (based on 1911 composition by Sir Harry Lauder) |
| Port Adelaide | "Power to Win"[8] | Original | 1997 | Quentin Eyers and Les Kaczmarek |
| Richmond | "We're from Tiger Land" | "Row, Row, Row" | 1962 | Club version by Jack Malcolmson (based on 1912 composition by William Jerome and James Monaco (Row, Row, Row lyrics © Peermusic Publishing sung by Bing Crosby)) |
| St Kilda | "When the Saints Go Marching In" | Club version "When the Saints Go Marching In" | c. 1965 | unknown |
| Sydney | "The Red and the White" | "Notre Dame Victory March" | 1961 | Club lyrics by Larry Spokes (based on 1908 composition by Michael J. Shea and John F. Shea) |
| West Coast | "We're Flying High" | Original | 2020 | Current version by Ian Berney in 2020 (based on 1987 composition by Kevin Peek) |
| Western Bulldogs | "Sons of the West" | "Sons of the Sea" | c. 1935 | Club version origins unknown (based on 1897 composition by Felix McGlennon) |
- The Brisbane Bears' team song was to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic/Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory/Glory, Glory Hallelujah"
- The Fitzroy Lions' team song was compiled by Bill Stephen in 1952 on a train to Perth during a football trip. Bill Stephen wrote the first line of the song after which each other player wrote a line. It is to the tune of the French National Anthem, "La Marseillaise" and was adopted by Brisbane in 1997.
- The Western Bulldogs team song was originally called "Sons of the 'Scray" before Footscray changed their name to the Western Bulldogs in 1997, with the song's lyrics being altered to "Sons of the West".[9] At that same time, other lyrics changes were made to the last few lines of the song.
- The South Melbourne Swans' club song was identical to the current Sydney Swans club song, with the lyric "South will go in and win over all" being changed to "Swans will go in..." when the club moved to Sydney. Until 2021 Sydney Swans used the same 1972 recording by The Fable Singers, with "South" being re-dubbed as "Swans". In 2021, the club adopted a previously unused recording of the song dating from 2018. The lyric "While our loyal Swans are marching" was re-dubbed over the new recording - replacing the previously used "While her loyal sons are marching" and making the song more gender inclusive.[10]
- Prior to their relocation to Moorabbin, St Kilda's team song was a variation on I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside, referring to the Saints' original home ground the Junction Oval.
- 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.
- The West Coast Eagles' song was rerecorded by Birds of Tokyo in February 2020. The song sticks with the chorus most fans will recognise, sticking with We're Flying High, but it now contains a couple of verses as well as a didgeridoo intro performed by indigenous musician Matthew Doyle, the first AFL song to contain the didgeridoo.
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