Contested Possession: Visual Codes and the Negotiation of Meaning in AFL Football

This study investigates the representational practices of the Australian Rules Football league's Geelong Cats cheer squad to better understand the cultural productivity of their fan practice. In this study the representational practices of the Geelong Cats football club and its cheer squad were investigated in three case studies which were then compared through a cross-case analysis. The case studies encompassed participant and non-participant observation of the cheer squad's representational practice, an analysis of the visual representational practices of all of the participants, and photo-elicitation interviews with fifteen cheer squad members and two marketing and design professionals involved with the development and maintenance of the club's brand language.