I lost a good friend recently. No, not to cancer, but to the United Kingdom. We hadn’t known each other for very long, but we had become the best of mates.
He had moved down from Brisbane and I’d moved up from Melbourne to live on the magnificent North Coast of NSW. We got to know each other from our kids playing football together in one of the local teams.
We made lots of friends through the football club, it’s a great bunch of people, mainly volunteers who do a great job or running the teams, especially when you have to travel a fair bit during the season.
But strangely enough, most of them were Broncos fans and not Brisbane Roar fans.
They hardly knew the rules of football and the conversations over the years and over the beers and barbies were more about Wendell Sailor or Darren Lockyer or Carmichael going to AFL, rather than Frankie Farina or Matt McKay.
We did go along to the occasional Roar game in Brisbane, but the interest seemed to die down in the last year or two.
But this year it’s come back on and they’re the topic of conversation again. A big group of us are going up for the A-League Grand Final on Sunday.
Funnily enough, my good mate won’t be coming with us and it’ll be strange that he won’t be there in the Suncorp stands with us.
He works in the entertainment industry and has appeared in clubs and on the TV a little bit, but he is by no means a household name.
He went over to the UK to pursue his entertainment business.
However, it wasn’t for himself, it was for his lovely teenage daughter, who’s got a voice like Barbara Streisand.
It was a brave call, but he upped his family and moved to the UK last October and is now settled in Oxford.
She recently appeared in a UK open song contest, and although she didn’t win it, she made the final and attracted enough attention to get her first professional entertainment contract to sing in clubs across Europe.
We’re all thrilled for her and their family.
My mate, of course, still follows the news in Australia and Australian sport. It’s going to be a big weekend this weekend; Broncos on Friday and the Roar on Sunday.
Sky Sports in the UK are showing the A-League Grand Final on Sunday morning UK time.
In fact, we had a Google of the Sky Sports TV guide and apart from Sunday, the A-League Grand Final is going to be repeated on Sky Sports six times throughout the day on Monday.
The betting shops across the UK are all showing it live with Roar the favourites at 1.77 and the Mariners at 3.00 to win in 90 minutes of play.
There seems to be plenty of interest in it.
Through Skype and emails I’ve also found out that he has already organised an A-League Grand Final breakfast at his place with a few Aussie expats and some of his Oxford mates.
True to form, he has already made friends over there and organised a few social events for the locals.
The temperature overnight in Oxford on Sunday will be about zero degrees with light rain forecast, so it won’t be an outdoor BBQ brekkie.
The forecast for Brisbane on Sunday is for a few showers in the morning clearing to a sunny day, but pretty warm and very humid and about 28 degrees. Might be even hotter than that for the Mariners fans.
I read that ticket sales for the A-League Grand Final had already reached about 44,000 by midday today and they look like breaking the 50,000 mark by the weekend. Should be a great atmosphere.
Broncos tickets for Friday night are selling very well too.
I’m looking forward to the game and having a good time at Suncorp and I know my mate and his new found friends will be having a good time watching the A-League Grand Final from Oxford.
Win, lose or draw we’ll be having a good discussion/Skype about it all on Sunday night, hopefully about the Roar’s first A-League Grand Final win.
Mahony
Guest
One 'back page' for the Roar after that incredible win out of the 14 'metro' dailies available to cover it from both major stables...........
Mahony
Guest
The days of Australia swanning around with the Mother Country and the 4 other Dominions kicking the living crap out of the colonies are over. We have never been a great sporting nation in global terms. It is a myth. That all changes if the Socceroos win something. This should be the nations sporting 'lunar mission'. I say"we should go win the World Cup, not becasue it is easy but becasue it is hard"...... Alternatively we could invest hevily in the AFL 'All Australian Team' where we don't need to fear failure. That is the Australian way after all......
Mahony
Guest
Hear, hear!
Mahony
Guest
Fus - I take you point, but I think we will find a 'equlibrium stste' in the next 5 or 6 years. The rewards of staying at home are better than ever (financial and technical) and the return to the national team of the very best going OS are worth it also. There are plenty of great leagues around the world that are selling leagues. We will be the next one...
Mahony
Guest
LOL!
Moonface
Roar Guru
Did you watch the A-League grand final UK Steve?
Moonface
Roar Guru
Mate we got drenched with that downpour but you didn't notice it after a while, especially after xxxx beers. In fact it was a bit of a relief after that humidity and heat before the game. Yes, half of Oxford now know who thw Brisbane Roar are and I've directed them to the Roar Online shop where they can get merchandise and the DVD of the game! :)
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Moonface---I think I made the correct decision staying on the Gold Coast and watching it on FOX---with a good crowd in the Club house with me. I would have caught pneumonia with that heavy rain downfall. Just think 2hrs on the train trip coming home clothes soaked to the skin---that would have been very unpleasant. ;) Go United. PS. hope you Pommie mate watched it.
Moonface
Roar Guru
What a game, what a spectacle, what a sporting event - up there with the best of State of Origin and Socceroos. What more can you say, I think everyone else has expressed it so well already. Sorry for the handfull of Roar supporters who gave up on us and left halfway through the second half of extra time to beat the traffic - you missed something really special. Not just here in Oz - this game was enjoyed all around the world: http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1397144.html Jordan, Poland, England, Chinese Tapei - the A-League Grand final right around the world.
Rob McLean
Guest
appauling, Ian?
Moonface
Roar Guru
Sometimes Wookie I don't even think you yourself know what you are agruing about - you just seem to want to argue anti-soccer things. South America is overseas and the point you were trying to make was that Adelaide United was unknown overseas. In fact it is. The point that AFL supporters consistently fail to grasp is that soccer is a world game played all over the world and the A-League is a soccer competition that is watched all round the world. It is not a parochial Melbourne game only popular in southern Australia. Please refer to Roar contributors by their handle. Tristan. The Roar.
ian
Guest
MyleftFoot You never cease to amaze me. Harry, according to a third or fourth party could not kick a Sherrin football. Firstly, why would he? Secondly, at the time he was doing a commercial for a clothing line dressed in a suit and wearing dress shoes. He earns more than most AFL team sheets earn. He is a world name. He is Harry Kewell. Do you see him involved in naked exploits with teenage girls,drugs,getting pissed in public and causing criminal damage like many AFL players and then protected by the governing body like that of the AFL admin? Secondly, after working for the AIS and having a University Qual in Exercise Phys.I have a pretty good knowledge of the specificity of sporting skills and fitness for each sport. When several players from other football codes can"jump" across to play this game at the elite level it shows the lack of sport specific skill acquisition that is required in this game.( Australian Rules Football). Here in Aust, AFL teams play once per week, in Europe Football teams(real football) play 2-3 games per week if involved in Champions League. The present fitness coach of the Australian Football team ( who use to be the fitness coach of an Adelaide AFL team ,stated to me personally in Brisbane just prior to the Aust V Iraq game that Kewell is by far the most impressive athlete he has anything to do with. If you do not like the biggest and the most popular sport in the world why do you persist in this forum, PO to your local forum and talk handball. You being on this specific sport site shows just how good this sport is. Good bye.
ian
Guest
Jason, Firstly, your use of grammar is appauling. Second, my 5 yr old son picked up that there is no such word as" re-iterate" the word is 'reiterate' .It has no hyphen ,as it is not a compound word. I do not wish to converse with you anymore as you are boring me. Maybe( no use of hyphen here) sometime spent using a dictionary would help you . Just remember this, Football is the number one sport in the world and if you think differently you are deluded. I have nothing more to say to you on this matter.
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Moonface it's an independent report. The 28 million comes about because a touch over 1 mill (on average) watch Collingwood on TV every week. That's what it means. Adrian has referred to the same report in his most recent article.
Rob McLean
Guest
Moonface, in SA, Adelaide United get very good coverage, considering the comparative interest. There's at least a page of soccer every day, there were several times last week it was on the back wrapper. Heck, I even gave the grand final a mention in the sportswrap on my (admittedly country based, with a small audience) radio program. I think some people misunderestimate the coverage the sport actually receives. However, I can't really talk about what happens interstate.
Moonface
Roar Guru
Rob, no need to apologise, you can still love the A-League, even if it gets no media attention at all. I can't help thinking what the A-League would be like if it got the same publicity [or even more publicity] than the AFL or NRL gets.
Moonface
Roar Guru
From the A-League website: "With less than 1,000 tickets left on sale for the Hyundai A-League 2011 Grand Final those fans and the people of Brisbane are quickly running out of time for their chance to witness history at Suncorp Stadium on March 13." If you are thinking of going to the A-League GF, get on the phone NOW! It will be a sell out - well done FFA and the people of Brisbane!
Jason
Guest
Well your opinion just lost what was left of its legitimacy with that comment. First of all I suggest you invest in a better dictionary, or learn how to use one, as the word "populace" does exist and I think the fact that you have never heard of the word reflects on your CEREBRUM- A word I'm sure you have heard before. Maybe I should of been more specific but I assumed being an Australian website you would have understood my comment to be in the context of Australia but clearly not. So I willl re-iterate. The vast, vast majority of Australia's population (as well as Canada's, America's, Japan's, New Zealand's, the Pacific Isle's and Ireland's if you insist on taking this global) call the sport soccer. This doesn't make these countries "sporting illiterate" but reflects the diversity of the world. We are not all one homogenous block and this includes football. To answer your question no I don't call steak mince that's just absurd. And the full names of the sports you listed above are actually Rugby League FOOTBALL, Rugby Union FOOTBALL, and Australian FOOTBALL (the rules part was droppped). Enjoy....http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/populace
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Oddly enough I never mentioned South America.
Moonface
Roar Guru
Woosie. When Brazil legend Romario played for Adelaide United they sold more Adelaide United shirts in South America than they did in Adelaide. Get your facts right before you embark on more anti-soccer ranting.