{"id":403788,"date":"2026-01-10T08:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T08:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/403788\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T08:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T08:17:11","slug":"afl-fan-troy-west-known-as-catman-reveals-shock-of-losing-precious-memories-in-victorian-bushfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/403788\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL fan Troy West known as \u2018Catman\u2019 reveals shock of losing precious memories in Victorian bushfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geelong Cats<\/a> faithful Troy West has taken to social media showing the remains of his man cave and shed that was lost in the ongoing bushfires across Victoria.<\/p>\n

One of the AFL<\/a>\u2019s most famous fans who made headlines following Geelong\u2019s grand final capitulation to the Brisbane Lions<\/a> in September claiming the \u201cgame should be replayed\u201d recorded the impact left by the devastating bushfires.<\/p>\n

\u201cF***! It\u2019s the end of the catcave,\u201d an emotional West can be heard saying as he sobs after arriving to his Mount Alexandria property near Bendigo in the Ravenswood fire.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Fan favourite AFL supporter Troy West loses his catcave in the Victorian bushfires.<\/p>\n

The catcave is the shed where he kept his Cats AFL paraphernalia, cheer squad equipment and filmed content about his beloved club.<\/p>\n

West who has evacuated to stay away with family overnight told 7NEWS reporter Rochelle Brown he returned at 6.30am on Saturday to discover he had lost so many precious valuables in the fire as his house was in the fire\u2019s path when winds turned easterly on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

He revealed his father had lost his battle to cancer and there was a lot of his late father\u2019s memorabilia dating back to the 1960s which were very sentimental that he has no way of recovering.<\/p>\n

\"TroyTroy \u2018Catman\u2019 West lost his beloved catcave in the Victorian bushfires. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of paperwork he had signed off at Geelong is irreplaceable,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

An emotional Catman revealed the shock of losing his special cave.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s gone,\u201d a sobbing West said as he fought back tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just finished doing a Catman portfolio of all the things I\u2019d done over the past 30 years and that went up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very elaborate room, so I\u2019ve lost all that,\u201d the heartbroken West said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to come here every day from 2pm to 6pm at night to get away from everything, it was my peace palace, where I keep calm, to deal with everything and deal with my anxieties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve lost three-quarters of my Catman gear. My family videos, everything, it\u2019s been horrendous.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my makeup, my beautiful boots, a lot of stuff, it\u2019s all gone, including the flag I wave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no power, no wifi, no showers, because it\u2019s all connected to the pump, so no water, we can\u2019t make a phone call\u2026 it\u2019s pretty bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Geelong'sGeelong’s #1 fan Catman arrives at the MGC to watch the Second Semi-Final AFL match between the Geelong Cats and North Melbourne Kangaroos at the MCG in Melbourne, Friday, Sept. 12, 2014. (AAP Image\/Joe Castro) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL USE ONLY Credit: JC\/AAPIMAGE<\/p>\n

West also revealed there were other victims of the devastating fires, with livestock also impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just seen some very burnt kangaroos which really, really upsets me,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

However, despite the devastation of losing so much, the Geelong Cats fanatic was keen to see the silver lining through it all.<\/p>\n

He said he was fortunate to save have his home due to having an elaborate watering system which saved the house from being burnt down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe turned it on with the generator,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very lucky to have a home still. We\u2019ve kept our home and a lot of other people haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a really sad cat today,\u201d an emotional West said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

AFL star\u2019s heartwarming reason behind his move home to new club<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

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Collingwood star granted leave for \u2018personal situation\u2019 <\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geelong Cats faithful Troy West has taken to social media showing the remains of his man cave and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,13659,1625,3863,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-403788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-geelong-cats","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-sponsored-content","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}