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As the October 2nd date for what will be the A-League’s first intra-city derby between Melbourne Victory and the Melbourne Heart looms, some traditionalist fans perhaps can’t be blamed for having a sense of what could have been.
Following the 2006/2007 season a game was played on a cold Wednesday night at Bob Jane stadium between South Melbourne and the Melbourne Victory. Despite absolutely no publicity, the match still drew a crowd in the region of 7000. As someone who went, the match certainly had the substance of a passionate derby, one of the most historically rich clubs versus the new powerhouse in the post-Crawford era and there was certainly plenty of fire in the belly of fans in the stands.
The cost of a fan’s stupid action in the stands was that the FFA were perhaps further inclined to opt for the Heart syndicate of investors and give them “exclusive bidding rights” in much the same way it has to the now faltering Sydney Rovers bid.
This was at the price of the Southern Cross bid, which unlike the Heart investors actually had some half credible links to community groundswell (through South Melbourne) that was distinct from that of Melbourne Victory, and potentially tapped into an element of the football fraternity who hadn’t yet embraced the A-League.
Now that Heart have been brought into the league by the FFA, the Melbourne football fraternity are left to reflect on what could have been, and put up with some bizarre behaviour coming out of the Heart administrators.
This is starting with some concerning policies regarding the seating arrangements (as alluded to in this fan blog by Matt Morris) where instead of simply giving the active fans an end each (the most practical and pragmatic option in what is an unprecedented and tricky operation) the Heart administrators have opted to move the Victory fans’ section.
While one can to a degree understand the administrators being reluctant to have their own small band of supporters heavily overshadowed in the stands by the largest fanbase in the A-League, one simply cannot understand the logic of allocating between 366-700 spots for Melbourne Victory fans when Melbourne have over 2000 fans with active supporter memberships.
This is a shame because firstly the derby is potentially being robbed of its full atmospheric potential, a virtue which left Eamonn Flannagan gushing following last season’s semi final at the SFS.
This unfortunately only serves to undermine the event itself and the A-League in general given the impact that a vibrant atmosphere has for matches, as Adrian Musolino observes.
In a troubled season where many crowds are down and there is some negative publicity, the A-League needs to take maximum advantage of every opportunity it gets.
The dynamic also goes against the grain of the FFA’s “Fan Made” marketing campaign for the season – similar to how the ANZ Stadium seating arrangements in the pre-season games versus Everton ran contrary to this message, which Mike Tuckerman discussed.
The situation does nothing to fill fans with confidence that the FFA are becoming more constructively proactive as opposed to reactive.
The issue also raises some security concerns, because a surplus in the region of 1000 to 1500 fans who normally support Melbourne actively means these fans are then compelled to stand in an area intermingled with fans who would like to enjoy the derby event passively and sitting down. This needless tension can possibly lead to tension that can spoil the occasion for both types of fans and arguments.
Thrown into the mix is the fact that there will probably be more police officers than usual at AAMI Park, and many of them will perhaps be charged up given many would understandably not know what to expect which impacts on how they handle situations.
As Mike Tuckerman observes, the relationship between some officers on the ground and some A-League fans isn’t necessarily smooth, so it is unfortunate that the distasteful policies of the Heart administrators have resulted in a situation where the special event may be remembered for events off the pitch for the wrong reasons instead of the right reasons – ironically, what was trying to be avoided in opting against the Southern Cross consortium.
All of this raises further questions regarding the security advice the FFA are receiving and the inability to proactively preempt possible points of tension in the lead up to big A-League games.
All of this is further compounded by some rather bizarre suggestions coming from Heart CEO Scott Munn, as Michael Lynch reported in The Age concerning the issues in the lead up to the derby. Heart came into the A-League describing themselves as a club which was supposedly oriented towards the “traditionalist fan-base” of football fans. The Heart followers in the first game dubiously tried to articulate this through a pullover that was not well received in some “old soccer” quarters.
But it would appear football fans have voted with their feet and over half of the 11,000 fans who attended their first match have failed to come back. So far the are Heart breaking from their “traditionalist football fan” pitch and appealing to members of selected AFL clubs.
A bit odd then that Heart are forging links with and giving privilege to selected AFL clubs and their members, but Munn’s ideas of AFL-inspired medals and trinkets to go with a football derby is a complete contradiction of what the club was supposed to be about. Traditional football fans do not need such gimmicks to inspire passion and drama. Ironically, many do this via the active support Heart is working to limit.
Munn’s suggestions should be recognised as the Heart’s attempts to develop a legitimacy in Melbourne they don’t necessarily have in the Melbourne football fraternity.
Melbourne Victory CEO Geoff Miles was correct to spurn the idea, and not give the Heart administrators any kind of recognition. They simply have not earned their stripes over others such as South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights.
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