- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
This weekend bore witness to what could become one of the fiercest rivalries in Australian sport. What made Western Sydney’s win over Melbourne Victory all the more remarkable was the sight of hundreds of away fans in the stands.
Fulsome praise must go out to the more than 21,500 fans who transformed AAMI Park into a cacophony of unrelenting noise.
Watching on television, the atmosphere was nothing short of incredible and there’s no doubt it helped inspire the players in what ultimately ended in a pulsating 2-1 win to the visitors.
The Victory fans were deafening but even more noteworthy was the fact the away stand was packed with red-and-black-clad travelling supporters.
The Western Sydney fans turned out in such large numbers they must have gone close to bringing the largest travelling contingent ever to a non-derby regular season game – although Victory supporters have in the past also turned up en masse against Sydney FC.
Such was the impressive nature of Western Sydney’s away support it got me wondering, why don’t more away fans turn up at A-League games?
Of the fans who do make regular trips away from home, many have spent time living and supporting clubs overseas.
I myself have had the good fortune of following two clubs who command massive away support, Borussia Dortmund and Shimizu S-Pulse.
I travelled regularly to watch Die Borussen on away turf, although it didn’t occur to me until a particularly nasty clash in Leverkusen that the majority of travelling supporters were of the hardcore variety.
The dynamic was totally different watching S-Pulse, what with whole families tending to pack up and hit the road for a chance to get out of the boondocks, but they still travelled in impressive numbers.
I vividly recall heading up to Kawasaki on a steamy Wednesday night and looking around in amazement at the sight of more than 5,000 away supporters filling one end of Todoroki Stadium, despite the fact they had to work the next day.
Travelling to watch S-Pulse was a bit different to watching Dortmund on the road, because in most cases I caught a club-sanctioned tour bus to get to away games.
Occasionally the method varied; one freezing Sunday afternoon a group of us drove up to Omiya Park and another time the fan club I somehow found myself a part of chartered our own minibus and driver so we could get as badly hammered as Shimizu did by Kashima Antlers that day.
In Germany, though, I always caught the train because it was quick, easy and usually the cheapest method to travel to away games.
Of course, catching a train from Wellington to Perth is never going to happen.
The sheer geographical spread of A-League teams is what makes travelling to away games such a novelty compared to other leagues around the world.
But with flights as cheap as they are and at least a handful of A-League clubs within reasonable proximity of each other, should our away contingents be gradually increasing in size?
Certainly there are times when the New South Wales clubs in particular should be attracting more away supporters to their games.
But do A-League clubs do enough – if anything – to help travelling supporters get to games? Especially for matches where the only option is to fly?
Watching Saturday night’s FA Cup clash between old rivals Luton and Millwall, it was no surprise to hear that 1,500 Millwall fans had made the 60-kilometre trip up the M1 to the postage stamp-sized Kenilworth Road.
Sixty kilometres might be very different to six hundred but the principle is still the same.
Watching football as an away supporter is a totally different experience, but it’s not one I’m sure every A-League fan has so far enjoyed.
So what specifically should A-League clubs be doing more of to help entice travelling fans to games?