Geelong supporters have many great stories about why they came to barrack for the mighty Cats. But this one from 64-year-old Darrell Martin, who grew up in the Cats' heartland and now lives in the tiny Mallee township of Lascelles, will take some beating.

I was an Essendon supporter in my early years growing up at Swan Marsh [an outpost between Colac and Cobden].

When I was about seven, in 1960 or ’61, I came down to Geelong on a school excursion. We went to the Geelong swimming pool at Kardinia Park.

At one stage I was walking around the edge of the pool and I slipped and fell in.

I couldn’t swim very well at that stage, so I started to panic and my head was going under the water and I started to swallow a lot of water.

My dad, who was with us on the trip, rushed over, jumped in the pool, then dragged me to the edge and handed me to another bloke.

He took me up to the area where they had the medical equipment and pumped the water out of me.

I never really found out how serious the situation was, but I was fairly sick for a few minutes. They pumped a lot of water out of me.

Once it was clear that I was going to be okay, my dad pointed at the man who had treated me and asked, “Do you know who that was?”

“I wouldn’t have a clue,” I replied.

“That was Johnny O’Neill, a Geelong footballer,” dad said.

[O'Neill played 136 games for the Cats between 1954 and '62 and won the 'Carji' Greeves Medal in 1958.]

After that I decided I just had to be a Geelong supporter, so I’ve followed the Cats ever since and I’ve never regretted it.

Still, I did often wonder if I’d ever see them win another flag after 1963.

I remember all those grand finals between 1989 and 1995. When they lost all of them, I lost a lot of hope that they would win one.

So I was very happy when they won the premiership in 2007. Although the 2011 Grand Final win over Collingwood was my favourite of the three.