To be honest I am having trouble with all those saying the Club has taken away the very thing that made it so special be it the Anchor, The Colours and the right for members to choose these things.

From my (be it beer affected) memory of events when our Great Club was formed No Members, supporters or otherwise had any Say in the Jumper, the Club song or anything else to do with our entry to the AFL. Why now some feel so agrieved at not having a say is a bit beyond me.

I seriously wonder if Prospective Members had of had a say in the original decision making process would we have ended up with the Colours we have worn for the last 15 years or the Club song?

In my honest opinion I'd say not.

I'll put this to you. If they change new jumper in 15 years, will people care as much?

The young lady or gentleman sitting at their tilted desk in 1994, sketching something that didn't exist, clearly got it right.

Ah bundy, ye ponce.

They put the colours and the icons out there. We made the decision to follow them and built a club on blood, sweat, tears and fragments of broken bone around them.

Then, they took them away without asking.

Now we have to decide how we feel about that, and if you can't understand blocker and freojohn's emotions (and my presumptuous nature says the majority of members too), then you need to check your pulse to see if you're still alive.

Club against club. Team against team. Member aganist member. Member against club. The future ride is here. And it's purple, and achorless with chevrons and a D skewered by a twisted paperclip. Get on!

Absolutely spot on bundy. Nobody (or at best a very small percentage) signed up as supporters/members of the club because of the club's colours, logo or original jumper design.

frejohn should have put a full stop after the word "naively" in his post. The end of the innocence?? Seriously. A little while back Rosich & Co sat down and mapped out the future direction of the club on the field which included revamping the football department, creating roles for Chris Bond, Brad Lloyd and Simon Lloyd and turning over the list including making decisions on the careers of a number of senior players. Should the members have been consulted about that too?

Having said all of that Mr Smiley is correct on this point - whether you agree with the decision of the board or not neither the 'fors' or the 'againsts' should be telling one another to nick off and support another club.

Sometimes our decisions are obviously right or wrong at the time and sometimes you have to wait for them to pan out....Flag_2005.

Blockerhall, I'm not denying how the club has gone about the change could have been done better, but all of us being angry is not going to change anything back to the old jumper, we may as well embrace things and get on with life. We have to now live with what we have. If people are serious about how the club has made this change, they will voice their opinion in the right way, at the club's next AGM and look to have the process changed in how changes can be made at a club.

it'd be sad to finally see the club get to a position where we can have some on field success, for only the supporters to drop away as they cry over spilt milk. Let's just admit, yep it's crap how they've changed it, but ****, there's worse things happening in life.

How about all those kids we support through "Purple Hase". They battle for their lives every day, yet there's some fans who are acting like it's the end of the world, simply because their players will run out in a different jumper next year

Incidentally, do people remember that Cameron Schwab cooked Purple Hase Day up as a way to sell gear, then shopped it around for a charity to give it a bit of weight.

I also don’t like the fact that Freo fans are fighting amongst themselves. But it’s an undeniable truth that there are many different types of fans.

I lot of people who are upset about the change are those who, first and foremost, support the club, and believe that something as simple as a jumper is a huge part of that. Players and teams come and go, but the club endures, the club has meaning. Each game carries with it the comfort, and often weight, of history. When Pav stands and holds the Cup aloft, and the players swamp him, in the minds of those fans there will be hundreds of players standing behind them. While Mundy, Sandi and Hill stand on the dais, their thoughts will turn Dale, Macca and Hase, and to everything that has come before.

There are others who think supporting the team is the most important thing, and can’t for the life of them see how a jumper could be so important as to make people angry to the point of considering not renewing their membership. My brother, ever the pragmatist, was a lot like that. Hell, if the new jumpers help in any way, or just look better, then why not change? It’s all about Freo winning a Premiership.

My mum is one of those people who - whilst nominally a Freo fan – just loves seeing a good game of football. To her, the best thing about footy is seeing superb athletes at the height of their powers playing the greatest game ever invented. She can come away from a Freo loss beaming at the exploits of one of the opposition’s best players. She’s undeniably a nice lady, but I think she’s crazy.

And then there is my girlfriend, who goes for Freo, but mostly because she knows it means a lot to me, and she likes the colour purple.

I fall within the first category. I believe there is more to a club than the blokes running around at the moment. A good player lasts 10 years, but a good fan is forever. Pav could come out and say ‘I hated the old jumper’, and rather than change my feelings about the jumper, it would change my feelings about him. I know other fans, including those in my own family, would think I’m crazy, but that’s the way I’m wired. Personally, I don’t get how other people, other than casual fans, can feel differently. If a club’s culture and history is so devoid of meaning, why would you support Freo? There’s a club up the road that is much more successful, why not support them?

Everyone has different reasons for supporting Freo. Mine were that I loved the WAFL (actually, I loved Claremont), and so when the Eagles put it on life support, I vowed never to support them. I loved Neesham’s game plan, and the dash of the early days. I loved that we were daring enough to be different on and off the field. And I loved that we were rooted in a region that had history and a culture; it wasn’t necessarily mine (I hated South and Easts), but it just felt like it actually represented WA more than a generic West Coast team. I liked that we were The People’s Club.

Losing the anchor sullies all those things to me. We are now just a generic club. We look like everyone else, and we act like everyone else. We aren’t The People’s Club. We have lost our biggest link to our history. We are now just a team who plays in Freo. An exciting team, that will hopefully win a flag in the next few years, but just a team.

Sure, we are a more likeable team than all the others, but we aren’t a better club. And that is what upsets me.

And on a personal note, when my brother passed away, there was a purple, red, green and white Freo scarf on his coffin. Sure, that doesn't really matter in the greater scheme of running a football club, or in marketing dollars, or to any of you, but for whatever reason it matters to me.

It matters to more than just you, Morgan.

Thanks purple33.

Now I've read my post again, I don't want to be seen to be playing 'the emotion card'. Frankly, as I alluded to, my brother wouldn't care less. But people are different. I attach meaning to things like that. It may be irrational, but footy is supposed to be irrational. I guess when people say 'well, just get over it, you're not a real fan, suck it up and support the team', I get a bit worked up.

Whatever card you play Morgan, this is all about emotion. And emotions are real. As real as a jumper. As real as a logo. As real as an icon to follow until you die, if you so choose. The thing that makes it good is the emotions are not cold, calculated or soothed by a "just get over it" attitude, accompanied by a bitto of language twisted from the same seppo dudes who talk in terms of "whoop-arse" and spell it incorrectly too.