Samantha Donovan: Well, footy fans from across the country are in Sydney for tonight’s do or die AFL prelim final between the Swans and Port Adelaide. But some of their journeys weren’t easy. Port fans flying to Sydney for the match had their morning flight cancelled just one hour before it was supposed to take off. Kathleen Ferguson prepared this report.

Kathleen Ferguson : It was a tough morning for some of Port Adelaide’s most committed fans.

Footy Fan: It’s going to be tight getting to the game, but yeah, I look really annoyed and frustrated.

Kathleen Ferguson : Their Qantas flight was cancelled because of an engineering issue. People were offered refunds or spots on other flights later in the day, but some cut their losses and bought new flights to get in a little earlier before kick off at the SCG. Those at Adelaide Airport who did manage to avoid the cancellation were in high spirits.

Footy Fan: Could sing the song at a pretty young age, so yeah, it’s in the blood. It’s in the blood. They just want to win, I don’t care how. It could be one point, I don’t care.

Kathleen Ferguson : And at Sydney Airport, it wasn’t just South Australians wearing Port Adelaide’s colours.

Footy Fan: I’ve come from Launceston in Tasmania today.

Kathleen Ferguson : Alright, who’s going to win?

Footy Fan: Look, I honestly don’t know. I hope it’s going to be a great game.

Kathleen Ferguson : AFL Fans Association President Ross Issko says it would have been a tense morning for those who had their flight cancelled.

Ron Issko: My heart goes out to any fan that would happen to and any fan that’s travelling to see their team play in a preliminary final with a chance to make it to the grand final. That is devastating.

Kathleen Ferguson : But he says he has no doubt fans would have gone to great lengths to figure out another way to get to the SCG to cheer on their team.

Ron Issko: Well if, let’s just say, they couldn’t make it by air, they’d probably be driving and even if they saw half a game, they’d still go and see half a game. That’s how dedicated AFL fans are. So I congratulate them all for doing their best to get in there. And I wish the fans a good, nice, close game. They probably don’t want that.

Kathleen Ferguson : Senior lecturer in sport management at Deakin University, Hunter Fujak, says Australia’s dedication and love for sport is quite unique.

Hunter Fujak: Firstly, we have one of the highest concentrations of sport in the world. When you look at obviously having four discreet football codes and not necessarily having one dominant sport, you know, we support a lot of different sport teams and a lot of different codes in our country, which contrasts to places like Europe, or obviously soccer mad, for instance, or India being cricket mad. And then secondly, sport is very much embedded in our culture. So we invest a lot of government funding.

Kathleen Ferguson : He says with most Australians ticking the census box indicating they are interested in sport, it makes sense that they care so much and that they’re willing to make such an effort when travelling interstate.

Hunter Fujak: We can think of these as being somewhat like a pilgrimage in the same way we can think of religions having certain pilgrimages as well. And that reflects that, you know, in most leagues, in big leagues, you might have 16, 17, 18 teams in them. And so success does not come every year. And given how much we emotionally invest in our sport teams, when there is that opportunity to see them at the pointy end of the season, cost becomes very secondary to taking advantage of that opportunity.

Kathleen Ferguson : He says supporting a team brings us together.

Hunter Fujak: That’s one of the big appeals of sport in our culture. And we saw it with the Matildas effect where everyone came together as a nation to support that team. And that’s underpinned as sport is by this idea of social identity theory that, you know, we identify with our tribe, whether that’s Australia, whether that’s New South Wales, Queensland, whether that’s with our specific team in a league, you know, these form part of our social identities and people who might otherwise be strangers to us become part of our clan.

Kathleen Ferguson : And AFL fans aren’t the only ones experiencing footy fever. The North Queensland Cowboys are going up against the Cronulla Sharks in the first NRL semi-final round tonight.

Samantha Donovan: Kathleen Ferguson reporting.