THERE are football fans, and then there is Gary Hincks.
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The Portland man has clocked up an incredible streak – he’s been to 972 consecutive Western Bulldogs games.
For the past 43 years, Mr Hincks, 72, has followed the Doggies all over Australia. He even attended two exhibition matches in London, but he said they don’t count in his streak.
“They’re not included – they weren’t proper games,” Mr Hincks said.
“Same goes for NAB Cup. I go to a lot of them as well.”
But out of the 972 games he’s seen, last Saturday’s was probably the best to date.
“That was absolutely brilliant,” he said.
“We jumped up and were dancing in the aisles and dancing on the chairs. Five minutes into the last quarter it was easy to think they could get over-run but they dug in and pinched it.
“It was a brilliant finish – a lot of teams in that position would have rolled over and died.”
Mr Hincks said there had been two occasions in the past 43 years where he had come close to missing a game.
“One happened this year,” he said.
“I had a bad fall in Sydney. It happened the night before the game. I broke two bones in my arm. If it had have been a bone broken in my leg (I would have missed) the game.
“I signed myself out of the hospital and went to the game.
“Another one was going back over 25 years ago. I missed the bus to Warrnambool and the train to Melbourne. So I went out to the airport but they were sold out.
“So I got a taxi. It cost me $360. The taxi driver did ask to see the colour of my money before we started.”
He described football as his “entertainment and hobby”, saying he didn’t spend his money on “pokies or horse racing or Saturday afternoons in the pub”.
It’s been a remarkable season for the injury-ravaged Bulldogs, who haven’t played in a grand final since 1961.
Naturally, Mr Hincks will be at the MCG on Saturday to watch the Bulldogs strive to win their first flag since 1954.
“I wasn’t part of Footscray (in 1954),” he said.
“I didn’t even know they existed in ‘54 so I can’t chalk that one up. Late that year or during 1955 one of my classmates at school mentioned the football and Footscray.
“It was the first team I heard of. At the time I didn’t know football existed outside of Portland. I was nine years old – I might not have even heard of Melbourne!
“In 1961, I did barrack for the Dogs … but I was in Portland and 16, and no parents are going to give permission to a 16-year-old to go to the big smoke unaccompanied.”
