Finally the Melbourne Heart starts pumping

 
Adrian Musolino Columnist

By , 23 Feb 2010 Adrian Musolino is a Roar Expert

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The new coach of A-league team John van't Schip (right) takes questions from the media in Melbourne, Monday, Oct. 12, 2009. Dutchman van't Schip has been appointed coach of Melbourne Heart team whose syndicate hopes to gain entry to the Soccer A-League. AAP Image/Julian Smith

The sight of Clint Bolton in a Melbourne Heart polo shirt in the week he wore the gloves for Sydney FC as they began their finals campaign didn’t go down too well with Sydney fans and football purists. But it will go down as a significant moment for Melbourne’s second franchise.

It was the moment they finally ramped up the pressure and started making some serious waves in the media.

The timing of the announcement was impeccable, just as Sydney FC had defeated Melbourne Victory for the Premiership Plate and were heading south to face the Victory in the first match of the finals.

Yes, it may have been far from ideal for Sydney FC, fueling the loyalty debate in the wake of ‘Mrdja-gate’ (although, it must be said, you sense Bolton’s frustrations with his negotiations with Sydney made it easier for him to slip on the Heart shirt at such a time), but it’s exactly the sort of publicity Heart needs to generate.

When I spoke to Heart CEO Scott Munn following the announcement of the clubs name and logo, he said the club would hold off on announcing new signings til the end of the season in respect to players currently in the heat of battle with their current clubs.

Bolton’s announcement signals a change of tack from Heart – a much-needed change of tack.

As a new franchise, especially one with Heart’s predicament of competing with and differentiating from the Melbourne Victory, they need to be creating waves; forcing themselves into the public consciousness.

They need to keep this upward trajectory of traction going.

Bolton’s Sydney FC teammate John Aloisi is another heavily linked with Heart, and the fact that the club released a press release to the media hosing down rumours that he had already signed was a positive sign in itself as it kept the story in the news.

This is what clubs must do: cater to the media, feed them stories and keep their name in the backpage of newspapers through any means.

Obviously, boldness and brashness aren’t the only ingredients to a new franchise’s success. If it were, Gold Coast United wouldn’t have handed the league the lowest ever finals crowd with a deplorable 4,000 fans turning up for their elimination final.

But Heart have, encouragingly, outlined community engagement programs, run in association with major sponsor Westpac, with the club even hiring a general manager to work specifically with the community.

These are positive signs coming from the Heart.

Meanwhile, Sydney Rovers, who will become the 12th A-League franchise when they debut a season later than the Heart, have also been making news with the colours and design of their intended strip hitting the web.

The striking similarity between the Rovers strip design and colours and that of the St Kilda Saints AFL club has raised some eyebrows.

The colours do have a connection to Sydney’s football history in the western regions of Sydney, particularly with Blacktown City, but the resemblance is uncanny. Whether it will force a rethink of the design remains to be seen, particularly with the Heart going for a similar look, with red and white stripes the likely design for the Melbournians.

But while the St Kilda lookalike strip was widely being debated, the most interesting fact surrounding the Rovers remains the absence of ‘West’ or ‘Western’ in the name.

By sticking with just Sydney, Rovers are undoubtedly widening the net for its fanbase, hoping to catch some from Sydney FC’s.

As witnessed by the healthy crowd for the NAB Cup clash between the Sydney Swans and Carlton, the area isn’t the desolate ghost town for non-NRL codes that many have predicted.

How the Rovers position themselves in the west of Sydney will be as fascinating to watch as how the Heart can build a fanbase in the shadow of the Melbourne Victory.

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