Norwood fan Kasey van Puijenbroek takes out membership at rival SANFL clubs to help league survive
Meet the Norwood supporter so passionate about the SANFL surviving the COVID-19 shutdown he’s a member of nearly all rival clubs – stopped only because of his chemo.
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Passionate SANFL supporter Kasey van Puijenbroek could not sit back and watch a state league club fall apart financially because of COVID-19.
So he took out two memberships at his beloved Norwood, the club he has followed for 34 years since his dad Keith started taking him to games when he was just eight.
And he is now also a member at West Adelaide, Sturt, South Adelaide, Sturt and Woodville-West Torrens after his generous backing of the league.
Van Puijenbroek has even joined Central District, confessing to not being a “huge” fan of the Bulldogs. Hardly surprising for a devoted Redlegs follower.
Glenelg and North Adelaide memberships are on the to-do list. His health has become his priority again though, with more chemotherapy necessary because of brain tumours.
“It is all about supporting the clubs, 100 per cent they need us behind them,” van Puijenbroek, an engineer, said. “I love the SANFL and don’t want any clubs to die.
“The Norwood Football Club represents a happy childhood for me, going to the footy with the old man. It is like a family.”
Van Puijenbroek’s battle with brain tumours started in 2006 and has kept him from games. But he is determined to be at Norwood Oval for the Redlegs’ first game following the resumption of football when his name will be on the players’ jumper.
All fans who have purchased Fortis in Procella merchandise, born by the Redlegs to help in the financial fight created by the coronavirus crisis, will have their name on the jumper and be invited on to the ground to welcome the players back into action.
And it is becoming more likely this will happen in front of the $8 million redevelopment, scheduled for completion in mid-June.
“The club has waited 10 years for this to be built and it could be ready and we not able to use it,” Redlegs chief executive James Fantasia lamented.
“But it could well be the next time we play a game at Coopers Stadium we will be opening the facility. So it could be a celebration of playing football again and the opening of the redevelopment.
“Imagine that on a Friday night, what a night.”
Support Our Clubs
The Sunday Mail today launches Support Our Clubs, a series which aims to support our sporting codes and clubs as they emerge from lockdown and to show how much they mean to our cities, towns, regions and communities.
With the return of sport at both elite and community level set to be determined by the national Cabinet next Friday, the series, which starts today and will run each day in The Advertiser, will ask key questions including what clubs will need to get back on their feet, what are the key challenges they face and what communities can do to support them in this, their hour of need?
