THE BLUES BROTHERS

An unusual presentation took place at Glory’s McGillivray Oval training ground earlier this week as lifelong Carlton fan Adrian Zahra anointed team-mate Steven McGarry a fellow-Blue.

The ceremonial handing over of a Blues jersey to the Scottish midfielder marked the culmination of a story that began with Zahra’s enthusiastic tweeting about Mick Malthouse’s men.

“I’ve been a massive Carlton supporter all my life,” he said, “and I was a member for years and years.
“I’d never miss a game when I was at home in Melbourne.
“I like to tweet about the club and I was also in “The West Australian” recently talking about my support for the Blues.
“They actually responded to some of my tweets, said they valued my support and sent me out a jersey.
“One of the media guys at the club, Luca, said that if any of the boys wanted a jersey he’d be happy to help out and they were kind enough to send this one over for Stevie.”

McGarry, meanwhile, could hardly wait to don his new colours and claimed that he had finally found a home after several years in the AFL wilderness.

“I used to travel in with Adrian every Monday,” he explained, “and he used to bore the pants off me talking about Carlton and how they’d gone at the weekend.
“I used to hammer him about it.
“At that time I was in AFL limbo, I didn’t know who to support.
“I’d been to watch the Eagles and Freo, but neither of them captured my heart.
“I put it out on Twitter when I first got here asking whether I should support Freo or the Eagles and I got so many people telling me to do different things that I ended up just sitting on the fence.
“But now I’ve been converted and I’ve found my AFL home.
“And it’s a good fit because my dad looks a bit like Mick Malthouse and in this jersey, I think I look a bit like Chris Judd!”

Follow Adrian, Steven and Glory on Twitter:
@adrian_zahra
@stevenmcgarry
@PerthGloryFC

Gareth Morgan