“Another great showing from the green seat elite – you City fans are as plastic as they come.”
This Friday night marked a momentous milestone for Melbourne City Football Club in their ten-year anniversary, and haven’t these ten years just flown by? I still remember a young ten-year-old Thomas pleading with his AFL loving father to take him to Melbourne Heart’s first ever game against the Central Coast Mariners.
The feeling of wonder and awe I felt at the gates of the first Melbourne Derby as the sea of red and white took over the south end of AAMI Park – with Alex Terra scoring the winner that night – was the moment I fell in love with football.
Since that time, I’ve received endless abuse for following the club I love blindly – primarily from other fans of the league – but also often from former fans of this club I dedicate a large portion of my life to.
All of which prompts the question – was City football coming to Melbourne a blessing or a curse?
On one hand, the quality of football increased dramatically – with established names like David Villa and Tim Cahill coming through the doors plus the development of future Australian legends like Aaron Mooy and Daniel Arzani, CFG’s impact cannot be understated.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
However, this has come at a detriment to the loyal fans who have had the – pardon the pun – heart ripped out of a club they loved so much. They lost their name, they lost their colours and for so many that was enough to lose the league. It’s been devastating to watch and – as someone who cops enough abuse for having no fans – it’s incredibly frustrating.
This frustration however, is nothing compared to the Melbourne Derby.
Melbourne Victory are thugs – snobbish, ignorant thugs. A generalisation sure, but finding a Victory fan with reason is like looking for a parking spot in a shopping centre three days prior to Christmas – it’s rare.
This is highlighted by the constant go-to insult they comment my way regularly, “You are as plastic as they come.” I’ve personally always found it odd how people who follow their club through the horrendous results on the pitch as the Heart and then proceed to follow the club through a complete transformation only for the results to still not arrive as promised by City Football can be called plastic, because honestly I have such respect for my fellow fans who’ve stuck through thick and thin to support the club – and I can’t imagine anything less plastic than that.
As I can hear Victory keyboards already furiously typing “you’re not even our biggest rival” and “Haha 4-0 in the cup final”, I’m going to just say relax – my problem with derbies doesn’t even have to do with your team.
My biggest problem with derbies comes from the former fans who come back for that game, and that game only. Whether it be fans who have defected, or fans who left altogether because the club had no heart.
(AAP Image/Julian Smith)
When it was announced that we had sold out our allocation to the Round 1 derby this season, I was ecstatic. A sellout was something unheard of in the recent years of declining City support, and – despite the result on the pitch being a dull 0-0 draw – off the pitch was excellent. Even after our own club refused to give us a megaphone as a punishment for flares being ripped at the pregame march, spirits were kept high all game long.
So why am I frustrated at that?
Well there’s the obvious reason – the club in recent years has lost touch with the fans through a lack of transparency in the Warren Joyce era, coupled with poor results. Trust in the club was at an all-time low – taking away the megaphone was a harsh call made as a snap reaction by club officials, but luckily for the club Victory’s support was even more disorganised and we came off looking good for once.
Secondly, I counted just over 20 fans on the day – and over 50 in recent weeks over social media – who have shed the City blue and donned the green and black of Western United.
As Simon Hill wrote earlier this week, City should be worried about the impending growth of Western United. As a fan of the wider league, I have always been a huge advocate for expansion and – as little as a I care for Western United – the idea behind their club is right. Expand into an area with a geographical divide from the other Melbourne teams to create a rivalry, and it’s definitely going to work eventually – just how long it takes is the question.
In all of this, it would be unfair not to consider the undeniable fact that membership counts league-wide are decreasing, and some of the fan loss can absolutely be attributed to that. This however is an excuse, not a solution.
City needs stars to align to successfully grow their attendances, and they need these stars in line for a sustained period of time in order to offset the idea among City fans that once hope returns to the hearts of fans club-wide, catastrophe is soon to follow – and this season is already on a good track to breaking that hoodoo.
These so-called stars include consistent results on the pitch, players that can create an identity for the team and an active support bringing life to matchday experiences. All three of these have been met over the first four rounds of the season.
The demoralising loss in the cup final was haunting – myself and a few fellow fans drove the nine hours to Adelaide and we felt a sickening sense of familiarity as we drove back to Melbourne after having four put past us. Smatterings of “typical City” were all over my social media feeds and we then had to turn our minds to a trip west to Geelong.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
It was in Geelong where I felt a familiar sense of nostalgia – a feeling of hope, a sense of a heart beating from the corpse of my club. With fans in full voice, backs against the wall and with ten men, our team – after seasons of begging and pleading for it from Warren Joyce – finally fought back. Pride was an understatement, and any fan who was there can tell you the same – that win meant something.
So, I return to my question from the beginning of this piece – was City Football a blessing or curse for Melbourne?
After years of this opinion bouncing back and forth, I’ve settled on this – Melbourne City has grown significantly since Melbourne Heart. If Heart was the delinquent teenager acting out because of the hope placed in it by its parents, City is the deadbeat adult who – until this current moment – was stuck in a dead-end job going nowhere cursed with that same weight of expectation.
I expect we’ll return to this argument again in a year’s time – there will always be Heart hopefuls longing for the old days, and there will be City realists who accept what is and dream of what can be.
Personally? I’ll never stop loving this club. Through the Aloisi eras and Joyce eras – the Mooys, Engelaars and Maclarens – from Heart to City, I’ll be forever here.
con
Guest
THE BIG V on Melbourne victory is a huge identity a sense of belonging, proud to be Victorian , not that I am a huge fan , but they are my fav team , I am happy to follow all Victorian team but make me identify to you ,so how has melb city /heart done that ,well they haven't and the red and white was something they could have build on, but destroyed it by aligning them self's with another team in England ,which they could have archived and left their original colors, going to Manchester city colors was a complete melt down ,it than makes them hated from all other supporters that don't go for Man city . Yes they are a good breeder club but only to make money for big brother and take them away look at Azani ,a sad state he is in ,I bet he wished he had stayed in Melb for a few more year and established himself and grew stronger but he got whisked away for greed and no compassion for the game here , or a need to grow and lift Melbourne city I know he would have grown the crowds and the game had he stayed ,I would have gone to see him for sure and I don't really go to A league much ,I remember when I was at south melb we had just signed up Frank Arok and in his first speech to all the members he promised that he would develop youth and have at least three players sold and playing overseas ,I thought as a fan and member " I DONT WANT THAT" I want to see my star players in my team not over seas what do I care about overseas I care about my club and want only the best ,so ask yourselves are melb city giving you the best they can , the answer is NO they short change there fans everytime
Vic
Guest
Great article. Supporting a Club should be for life;. no jumping off the bandwagon, no jumping back on. I never understood how some people can just switch from Club to Club and more to the point, how one can abandon a Club during poor times. I have been a City/Heart member since Year 2 and my son a Foundation member. We love the Club and as much as I hated 2018/19 with Joyce at the helm, we stuck fat and our support for the Club never wavered. Hopefully our time is coming and the true fans will be rewarded.
Zoran
Guest
I’ve been hearing the same argument regarding GWS in the AFL. Once they start winning the crowds will come, except umm they have been winning for the past few years. Same goes for City who have been in and around the finals for the past few years. On the ground in Melbourne I feel there is next to no interest in the club.
Onside
Guest
Thomas, Melbourne in particular and The A-League in general, both need a strong City. And it will happen the moment a senior executive says enough is enough, and sends some quality footballers to Australia. Once this happens, and City start to strut their stuff, the crowds will build . Furthermore, a strong City will attract more elite quality young players to the club. That's all it takes, somebody in ' carpetland' on the other side of the world, deciding it is time for the company's antipodean investment to show a little more promise.
lesterlike
Roar Rookie
"Was City football coming to Melbourne a blessing or a curse?" It was absolutely a curse. Heart being rushed in with no identity and nothing to differentiate themselves from the existing club apart form being "Not Victory" doomed them and robbed Melbourne of the chance to have a proper derby with meaning like in Sydney. It's extremely telling that Sydney FC is still MV's biggest rivalry, despite there now being two Victorian teams in the competition. At least if South Melbourne came in, the narrative of the two biggest clubs of the "New Football" and "Old Soccer" era would have been easy to transition into a fierce derby.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Western United are tweeting 4,000. This seems well of the pace!
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Wow, after that recount of agony I feel pretty lucky. Always annoys me the way Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham fans carry on when they aren't really in the running. Welcome to our world hey?
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Yep, they led twice and Gerrard 'go again' got us big time.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Nice article, Thomas. I rather suspect Victory fans do find City irksome as if they truly didn't care you'd be utterly ignored rather than swamped with bile. With the football City are playing compared to that of Victory, brace yourself for the wave of disconent heading your direction.
Nemesis
Guest
Western United put out a Tweet yesterday, that they've reached 4,000 members
Nick Symonds
Guest
MEMBERSHIPS: Melbourne Victory = 22,932 Melbourne City = 8,262 Western United = 3,206
Voice of Reason
Roar Rookie
Very well put, if I may say so. I enjoyed the article though and good on Tom for hanging in there. Now that the strange Joyce era is over, I suspect the club will improve with a strong youth policy and exciting overseas imports.
Micko
Roar Rookie
The problem with Melbourne Heart/City from the start was that the 2nd Melbourne/Victorian team in the A-League needed something to distinguish it from Victory: some previously known identity/history, or at least a specific geographical divide. South Melbourne could've been there but realistically they're still essentially an ethnic club from the NSL era, which the A-League was created to phase them out. Western Sydney Wanderers and Western United fill that role, and in the AFL, you have Fremantle & Port Adelaide which fill that niche of a previous identity/history and a clear geographical divide. Melbourne Heart/City just came in as a lazy expansion team that had no history or a reason to exist except to create a derby for Victory, who were already a massive success as they had united Melbourne fans with strong support with no ethnic alignment.
Micko
Roar Rookie
They were unlucky in that FA Cup final with Liverpool over a decade ago. I think they were 2-0 up?
AGO74
Guest
Stuart - before the ALeague I was a big fan of Middlesbrough and first followed them back in late 80s when they were in the (then) 2nd division. In 145 year history they have won 1 trophy. That’s a definition of a B grade team! I spent a year in the UK in ‘97 and it coincided with the most dramatic period in club history - in the space of a few weeks we were relegated from EPL (after having 3 points docked), lost the League cup final (after conceding last minute equaliser to Emile Heskey of all people) and lost FA Cup final to Chelsea after conceding fastest goal in fa cup final history. I remember the TV footage of our little Brazilian master Juninho crying on the pitch after we were relegated at Elland Road (I was so happy when he turned out for my Sydney FC all those years later). What promised was glory turned out to be heartbreaking. Years soften the blow of those losses/relegation in quick succession (I was fortunate enough to be at League Cup final at Wembley) but it was an incredibly exciting time and if anything I think it helps you really appreciate the good times when they -sparingly - happen. Another example is our run to uefa cup final in 2005 when although we lost - again - in the final to Seville the quarter and semi final are considered two of the greatest games in club history as we came back from 3 and 4 goals down in those ties. What’s that saying about not the destination but the journey itself. As a fan of Boro that is very true (because the final destination for Boro is usually a loss!). I don’t watch Boro as much these days now that we have our own league here and I’m a big Sydney FC fan but still keep an eye out for Boro results (currently in relegation spots in championship LOL). So yeah I can relate -overwhelmingly! - to your comment! To the author of this article- hang in there, your club needs people with passion of your ilk. And I agree with you on Victory fans. And apologies for my lengthy stroll down memory lane.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Agree with all that Fad. The biggest criticism I can think of (recently) is that they lost the engagement with their fans - clubs that do that suffer badly for years after the event.
Waz
Roar Rookie
I’m sure Stuart, Once nemesis comes down from 49,000 feet we’ll probably find out :stoked:
Fadida
Roar Rookie
A really good read. I have a real soft spot for City. Perhaps it's because, CCM aside, they cop more abuse than any other club. What do they stand for? Plastic fans. MV small unloved brother. Terrible crowds etc. Why do I like them? Great home ground. Training infrastructure. The best youth players in the country. And they play them! They are essentially building from the bottom, and perhaps now we are seeing results, after years of dull coaches playing generally dull football. Yes, crowds aren't MV sized, but I've never used crowd sizes as a barometer for anything. If they average 8-10k but can pay their bills so what? Perhaps in time what might set them apart is that they are the club that they are full of home grown talent, a club famous for youth development, while their Victorian rivals relying on imports and pre made talent
Zoran
Guest
A Heart fan from its inception I enjoyed the early rivalry in the derbies as most of my friend remained loyal to Victory. Outside of the derbies the atmosphere at games was lacking and with the quality of play average there wasn’t much to be excited about. Most non derbies I attended had crowds of 6-7k. The city takeover ended it for me. Call me a fickle fan but it is something I just couldn’t overcome. Seeing my team run out in the colours of the team I most despised in the EPL was tough, extinguishing everything about the Heart. The club was always behind the right ball coming into the league after most Victorian fans had become rusted on Victory supporters and the success in their early years and players like Archie Thompson helped build brand awareness. Heart had a meek entrance with no recognisable players and I wouldn’t have been surprised if 8/10 melbournians never heard of the club. The rebranding would have turned away some fans and we now have a club that is a blight on the league with seagulls providing most of the atmosphere at home games.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
It was a little harsh but he did well to escape with a touch of humour. Surely they will all take it in the manner intended!