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In our modern Australian football ecosystem, travelling for fixtures has become an intrinsic component of the profession.
Contemporary players are becoming immune to external factors which can be aroused when training and playing on the road.
Although it may be hard to comprehend by us mere spectators, game-day support, regardless of passion, does not win football matches.
The players have become accustomed to performing in front of large crowds on a weekly basis that the energy and excitement they receive, if any, is merely a gratifying prelude to their business of playing football.
The fact is regardless of how passionate your cheers or taunts, players, referees and blind touch judges are rarely affected.
They certainly don’t take your thoughts, no matter how sincere, into consideration.
What then, will become of the age old ‘home advantage’?
This fleeting psychological factor which has historically swung the outcome of games is on the brink of extinction.
Alike a celebrity has-been player, the ‘home ground advantage’ has become redundant within sporting realms and now seems to exists for business profitability purposes to promote fixtures and develop the guise of vivacious patriotism saving the day.
However, the powerful embers still exist deep within the football universe, awaiting ignition.
It’s this spark punters wish for walking through the gates.
Considering the array of rectangular field codes they host, nowhere else in Australia does this furnace burn more often than in Brisbane at the famed Suncorp Stadium.
Lang Park has the knack of hosting memorable and remarkable Queensland and Australian sporting moments.
How often have we witnessed our home teams rally in the dying embers of games to snatch victory when it is deemed unwinnable?
Maybe names such as Lockyer, Slater, Samo, Genia and Berisha will arouse a few remarkable memories.
It would be foolish of us regulars to Lang Park to believe the stars are always aligned.
The best summation I have found of Lang Park was by New Zealand Herald sports columnist, Wynne Gray, when he described the stadium as ‘intimate’.
He revelled in the proximity between supporter and sideline and the unique experiences that bestows upon the crowd.
He could hear the collision of bodies and symphony which is boot on ball, sounds that don’t reach him at other stadiums.
We as spectators take for granted our experiences within Suncorp Stadium.
Maybe it is the constant whiff of fermenting beer which alters our state of mind but there is no doubting football fanatics have struck gold in the River City.
If the ‘home ground advantage’ beast still exists it would certainly be housed up, deep within the brick foundation of Suncorp Stadium awaiting the correct circumstances to poke its head.
Fictional or not, there is no denying the pleasure and satisfaction spectators feel when our teams surmount unfavourable odds.
You can’t help but feel your presence has made a difference to the outcome of the game, and it’s these emotions which keep us coming back.
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