In this series, we uncover the moment when passionate Swans members fell in love with the red and white. This week we hear from Channel 7’s Natalie Barr.

I grew up in Western Australia and when I came to Sydney, I knew very little about rugby league or rugby union.

AFL was the game I was familiar with so it was the obvious choice for me to get interested in the Swans and follow them.

My husband is also from WA, so when we had our two sons he was determined they’d grow with the sport that we both loved.

From very early on we took them to see the Swans almost every week and introduced them to the game through this fantastic club.

We roped in Sydney families who didn’t know much about footy and took them along too, so there were often groups of us all cheering for the Swans. It was something we had fun doing together as a family.

Then the boys started playing footy at our local club and my husband coached for six years - three years for each of them - while I was the team manager.

We’re always thankful to the Swans because we were able to foster our sons’ love of the game through the club. It’s all about a family connection and the links back to where we came from.

The boys are teenagers now and play a lot of sport so we don’t get to as many games, but the foundations have been set. AFL and the Swans will be the sport they watch for life, and my husband is pretty happy about that!