A Footscray man's $2,400 outdoor entertainment pergola, built specifically for the footy season, has drawn a formal complaint from his next-door neighbour, who confirmed the issue was not the noise, but the timing.
The pergola, completed in March, features a weatherproof 65-inch television, a bar fridge, two heat lamps and a retractable shade sail, and has been used for every Western Bulldogs game since Round 1. It is positioned eleven metres from the neighbour's back deck.
"I love that he's got it," the neighbour said. "I support the same team. I can hear every goal. That's the problem."
The neighbour watches the game on a streaming service, which runs roughly forty seconds behind the live broadcast. The pergola television, connected to an antenna, does not.
"He goes off like a bomb," she said. "Every goal. I'm sitting there, ball's in the middle, nothing's happening, and then through the fence I hear a grown man screaming 'GET IN.' And then forty seconds later, they score. It's like watching a replay of a decision I've already been told about."
She raised it first in round nine, over the fence, and was told "it's the footy, mate." In round fourteen she sent a letter.
The man said he had not realised he was spoiling the game.
"I just thought she wasn't a big fan," he said. "I've never seen her react. I assumed she was cool."
She is, in fact, a member of the club, and has been for nineteen years.
A compromise was reached last Saturday, under which he has agreed to delay his celebrations by forty seconds. He tested the arrangement during the Bulldogs' match against Collingwood by sitting still through two goals with his mouth closed and his fists tight.
"It was emotionally very difficult," he said. "I think I pulled something."
The neighbour reported that it was the best she had ever enjoyed a goal, and has offered to bring over a bag of chips.