Nikki Bretag sent this photo from the Reds v Chiefs game in Brisbane in 2007. Nikki staunchly supports all things Bay and NZ despite marrying a West Islander. Good to see the Mafia tee being displayed around the world.

Andrew Somerfield

This is super Steamers fan Andrew Somerfield in his match day outfit in 2006. The Mafia approves of his dedication to the Bay colours! Look out for Andrew at BayPark, usually found on the pitch after the game with autograph book in hand.

Andrew is also a huge All Blacks fan and recently won a Small Blacks competition with his sisters to go to the first Bledisloe game in Christchurch.

William Guy

Submitted by Ian:  The picture shows my boy William and his hero. Until three years ago William hadn’t never seen rugby and certainly never heard of Glen Jackson. However, he experienced a life changing experience – attending the Chiefs –v- Brumbies at Rotorua in 2002. From then on he was committed to one thing – his team were going to be the Steamers.

Of course it helped that we knew some of the Steamers staff. William, with his self styled ‘ORTOGRAF’ book (a Bart Simpson notepad from the Warehouse) was soon bugging everyone for their signature – the team liked his book and he was invited in the socialize with the team after the 2002 Otago game. Needless to say he has all the autographs now. His obsession runs to knowing the ages, clubs, height, weight and other info. Re the players. He has been known to look up players phone numbers in the book and saying he is going to phone them (to our knowledge he hasn’t yet done this – Glen if there was a child on the phone it could be ours!!)

Other highlights include him telling Chris Jack he didn’t want his autograph – if he wasn’t good enough to play for the Bay he shouldn’t be in his book (William aged 6 and all of 105cm telling the Behemoth Jack to beat it was quite a sight!)

Perhaps the most inspirational player he has met was Paul Steinmetz, who on noticing William’s name on the front of the book, said he had heard about him, his running game and passing ability, and how if he kept training hard he’d play for the Bay one day.

However, nothing can eclipse the day William had his picture taken with Glen. It now resides on his bedside table and is inscribed, “Best wishes from your friend Glen Jackson”. When every AB’s squad is announced he moans about Jacko’s non-selection. Also, William now wants to represent NZ Maori, just like his idol – he wants to know if he has a Maori girlfriend can he qualify?
 

Aidan Anderson-Gardner
Born over 3 months premature and weighing in at a whopping 550gms, Aidan (above) had to be delivered by cesarean at Waikato Hospital in 2002. Despite this unfortunate occurrence of geography, ever vigilant parents Mike & Michelle made sure that Aidan knew which side of the Kaimai ranges was home.