Listen! Can you hear the A-League singing?
Roar Pro
By Eamonn Flanagan, 16 Feb 2010 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- A-League, football, Melbourne Victory, Super Rugby, Sydney FC
More than 25,000 people turned up to watch Sydney FC take on Melbourne Victory and again the A-League roared to its finale. Fan passion poured down from the stands. Who said Australian sporting crowds don’t sing?
The Cove and their Melbourne counterparts were fantastic.
Even the stands were rocking as the normally more sedate spectators got dragged into the whole occasion. This was Australian sporting passion to match the best in the world.
There was colour and passion in abundance, and Melbourne fans cheered until the end, despite the fact a defeat seemed inevitable almost the moment Nicky Ward missed an easy chance in the first minute.
And for this football fan, Sydney FC’s win was crucial: for all the blue noses, for the FFA, and I’d argue, for every football fan in the country.
Yes, even those travelling supporters from Melbourne. Although they may not know it yet!
Every league across the world is dominated by teams from its biggest cities. Think Glasgow, London, Manchester, Buenos Aires, and Madrid.
In Australia, for our league to grow, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth need to succeed. And often. Only Melbourne have obliged to date.
On Sunday, Sydney won.
On Monday, The Sydney Morning Herald Sport’s section could have lead with the Waratahs’ opening Super 14 win over their rivals from Queensland, or a huge splash on the Black Vs White Rugby League match. Or even the Australian cricket team’s convincing destruction of the West Indies.
It chose football, a picture of John Aloisi, and the words “Ticket to Asia.”
The Sydney Vs Melbourne rivalry continues to build. Positively, mostly, although the edge is already there. I guess you have to live in Glasgow, Sydney, Melbourne, Liverpool or Manchester to really understand this tension.
The A-League, despite its crowd figures (still a healthy 10,000 average) and financial issues, continues to build. It may take another five years, even ten, to get the Sydney derbies and Melbourne derbies rivalling yesterday’s passion and tension on a regular basis.
But on yesterday’s showing, football in Australia continues to rise.
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rugbyfuture said | February 16th 2010 @ 1:51am | Report comment
I can see this match as a match of change, and can finally see the A-league gaining a successful marketshare soon. This will sort of be the match to be rememberd at the turning point of association football in australia.
Scott B said | February 16th 2010 @ 3:15am | Report comment
Some of what you wrote is true, but seen with sydney eyes.
“Every league across the world is dominated by teams from its biggest cities. Think Glasgow, London, Manchester, Buenos Aires, and Madrid.”
rubbish…………… berlin are really bad, lazio & roma cant come close to juve and the 2 milan teams. Paris arent close, and trondheim is tiny and their team has won the norwegein league 16 from the last 19 , thats rosenborg bk by the way. Maybe you should of written “every league i watch is dominated by teams from the biggest cities” no propaganda
Al said | February 16th 2010 @ 8:10am | Report comment
Yep because Milan is a tiny provicial Italian town, Munich contains a single beer hall with a dozen german men wearing tights and slapping their thighs and Lyon is a small Hamlet populated by a single bed and breakfast accomodation and a rest stop for trucks.
stevo said | February 16th 2010 @ 10:47am | Report comment
berlins football teams were delayed in their take up of modern professionalism, something to do with a wall (and most teams were raided pretty quickly by cashed up western german teams after the wall came down)
Scott B said | February 18th 2010 @ 1:33am | Report comment
Oh you got, i see youve been on the 10 day contiki tour of europe.
Ok then what ,about p.s.v. , and borås, braga coming up in portugal and rubin kazan in russia.
ive been to the first three, and i didnt see any traffic lights only people riding goats. Maybe similiar to your town.
Yep!
Eamonn Flanagan said | February 16th 2010 @ 4:24am | Report comment
You got me Scott, but the the point remains. For Australian football to go to a sustainable level, with our population base and number of other sports Sydney Melbourne, Brisbane and maybe Perth need to succeed more regularly in the A-League.
Not to say there isn’ t room for the smaller clubs to succeed occasionally just this fledgling league needs more noise. It’s increasingly hard to get it….but Sunday showed even in one of the busiest weekends of the sporting year football can break through.
Did it ever happen in the old NSL days? Back page of the SMH with Waratahs, a high profile League game and Aussie cricket team in full flow, not to mention the Winter Olympics whatever they are.
But I get your point…and agree..sortof:)
Timmo said | February 20th 2010 @ 7:38pm | Report comment
Not entirely true the NFL flourishes without a team in Los Angeles. New York hasn’t won in basketball in over 40 years. The bigger issue is Why did it take until the final game of the season for Sydney fans to show up? Why would we want such a predictable league anyway?
AndrewMc said | February 16th 2010 @ 4:40am | Report comment
“In Australia, for our league to grow, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth need to succeed.”
Haha! Yes, I agree… Adelaide is a Piss Ant town.
But seriously, I can’t wait to see the impact of Sydney Rovers and Hearts of Mid-lonsdale St in the two biggest markets!
Scott B said | February 16th 2010 @ 4:41am | Report comment
I agree with what you say there but………….the opposite can be positive too. If Adelaide drops of for a few years I think their fan base will remain. Therefore success in smaller communities in the short term could be better for the league in the long term. Gaining more members , and a community feel.
I guess im different from the majority, I support my team. Not because they win.
For example if fury dont make the finals in their first 5 years, its hard to see them surviving long term.
Michael C said | February 16th 2010 @ 5:23am | Report comment
“Who said Australian sporting crowds don’t sing?”
No one,
example
“Hadlee’s a (b)anker”
“You’re going home in the back of a divvy van”,
oh…..yeah, that’s chanting…..
nah, you’re right – Australian sporting crowds don’t sing.
Dunno what you reckon you saw!!!
Simmo said | February 16th 2010 @ 8:55am | Report comment
Don’t forget the Bomber Wave. That was an awesome sight.
AFL fans should try something like that again
Australian Football said | February 16th 2010 @ 1:10pm | Report comment
Yeah I have seen it up at Carrara with me ol’ mate Bert—North Melb clap clap North Melb clap clap–I was riveted…. Gawd it was so inspiring but alas I couldn’t wait for the third qrt. break—I just had to go and have a peee …
MV Dave said | February 16th 2010 @ 6:04am | Report comment
The singing and chanting came through very loud and clear on Foxsports from the game. It looked and sounded like a finals game. The active support is very unique to football and something that should be celebrated and where appropriate highlighted. Unfortunately in some cases the opposite has occured from either stadium management/FFA more likely due to fear of the unknown or a sense the crowd is out of control. l guess hundreds, if not thousands, of fans singing, bouncing and chanting in unison could be seen by the untrained as an out of control mob. The MV north and south ends do a fantastic job of making noise, adding color and spectacle to games.The SFC cove likewise and long may it continue.
F/CAP said | February 16th 2010 @ 8:06pm | Report comment
It isn’t really unique to football. It is pretty unique to Australian sport perhaps. I’m in London and have been to see Arsenal quite a few times as well as seeing something of the big heineken cup rugby matches and six nation rugby matches. They are all really much the same re. passion/atmosphere/singing with the exception of Millenium Stadium with the Welsh in full voice which is just incredible. It is pretty unique in Australia though. Australian supporters are usuually pretty dull.
mahony said | February 17th 2010 @ 10:38am | Report comment
Excellent point. I think the massive global reach of football and the ‘exporting’ of the singing/chanting culture to all parts of the globe is what people confuse with exclusivity in this respect. Of course in many counrtries, football IS the only game.
NUFCMVFC said | February 16th 2010 @ 6:31am | Report comment
The dimensions are well suited to the noise, as we saw with the Urawa game there, and of course with only a 25k crowd the Stadium looked densely packed which always looks nice, hence an argument for more boutique stadiums and to move out of the likes of Suncorp Stadium.
To add to MV Daves post, next season should be excellent in the new Rectangular Stadium for MVFC games given the closeness and rectangular acoustics, as we could all see when the seats were moved in for the game at Etihad earlier in the season
Midfielder said | February 16th 2010 @ 7:25am | Report comment
All is moving well … the Rovers will IMO be the A-League most successful club in terms of crowds support.sponsors and media coverage.. hoping the Heart get strong support in Melbourne… things are building…
Very pleased to see for football the new owners at SFC… they are turning the club around… will never be what they could have been but will be a very strong club just the same..
DiCanio said | February 17th 2010 @ 5:35pm | Report comment
backhanded compliment alert
Andyroo said | February 17th 2010 @ 6:02pm | Report comment
Mid has previously voiced dissapointment that SFC didn’t have a big enough impact in the first few years. Should have been as big as MV are.
M1tch said | February 16th 2010 @ 8:02am | Report comment
“or a huge splash on the Black Vs White Rugby League match”
hmmm
I dare say the league match was on friday night, as was the super rugby, who cares about winides tbh with sydney fc winning in sunday afternoon lol, I would have been shocked if monday didnt have the latest sport story
whiskeymac said | February 16th 2010 @ 8:17am | Report comment
hmm. black v white as a descriptor of the indigenous NRL game was unnecessarily antagonositic in an otherwise up beat opinion piece.
if 25,000 Sydneysiders turn up to Melbourne games and Rover derbies then that would be great,even if they are “theatre goers” theres nothing wrong in having a sporting spectacle draw in the neutrals and curious on occassion, so longas the crowds dont plumet badly for the games versus Perth etc and get behind the team for Asia.
like midfielder i think Rovers supporter base will be drawn from a different demographic to SFC and the inclusion of a new team hpefully wont dilute FC’s momentum, Hearts target audience however seems to be the same so it will be interesting to see how that unfolds next season.
Sydney aside i wld rather see Perth and Brisbane get their numbers moving up again – FC may underachieve but i think they will always be around 12,000. Perth and Brissy however….
AGO74 said | February 16th 2010 @ 11:04am | Report comment
agree with Whiskeymac on the “black v white” issue. It’s not about being politically correct. It’s grossly wrong to say that is what the game was about. having said that, I was at the game on sunday and couldn’t agree more with the sentiments of this piece. It was a rocking atmosphere. I’m sure the Victory fans were singing but as I was sitting at The Cove end I couldn’t even here them as The Cove were that loud. I’m sure the crowd will be even better in the finals and on a – hopefully – sunny day!