In Round 27, the final round of the 2012-13 A-League season, my family and I arrived half an hour before the Newcastle versus Western Sydney game at Turton Road.
I parked and while getting out of the car my wife remarked, “Can you hear the Jets fans singing?”
“That’s the Wanderers fans,” I replied.
Half an hour before kick off and there was already a barage of sound from Australia’s newest A-League team. Their season had been a slow burn, but they’d made it to the final game needing a win to secure first place.
Newy needed a win to make the finals.
For many Newcastle fans there was a natural affinity for the Wanderers. They had five former Jets in their playing ranks that day: Ante Covic, Tarek Elrich, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Labinot Haliti and Mark Bridge.
They were liked, and still admired, by many Novocastrians to this day. We have much in common. They may well be stereotypes, but Newcastle are seen by many as the blue-collar boys from the steel/coal town. The fact that the steelworks closed 20 years ago is still not lost on many outsiders.
The boys from Western Sydney are seen by some as working-class fibros. How true this really is, again, is up for debate. One thing’s for sure: we both have a dislike for the blue half of Sydney.
(AAP Image/Paul Miller)
Newcastle had, by their own standards, a good season in 2012/13. Emile Heskey and Michael Bridges were at the forefront of the Jets’ attack with Adam Taggart starting to shine, too. Expectations at the time were justifiably high and I believe we were favourites to win, having already beaten WSW twice that season.
The crowd that day was 22,518, and at least 8000 Wanderers fans generated noise and a spectacle for the entirety of the game.
People stood in awe and captured vision on their phones. The east and west stands sang back and forth: “Who do you sing for? We sing for the Wanderers”.
For all those fans from other clubs that claim to take over other A-League grounds for the day, well, this was a true takeover.
They didn’t talk about it, it just happened. Newcastle were monstered on and off the field. It ended 3-0 to WSW – Bridge got two goals. Michael Beauchamp and Topor-Stanley put in a Herculean performance at the heart of the WSW defence. There was nothing minor about this premiership win.
Fast forward to this season and this fixture is eagerly anticipated. Plenty of Newy Jets fans can’t wait to get to Bankwest, too.
WSW have begun their campaign well, although they’ve faltered in recent weeks. Newcastle have got their first win, and should have more points in the bag. The Wanderers are back with a home ground and have reignited their Red and Black Bloc and Newcastle are looking to do likewise for this Saturday’s Round 8 fixture.
With Elrich out with a long-term injury, Daniel Georgievski is the only former Jet likely to be welcomed onto the Turton Road turf. His hard-working, tenacious style will be welcomed back to the Hunter, but obviously Novocastrians want him on the losing side of the ledger this time around.
Newcastle, from front to back, have looked much better defensively. With Lachlan Jackson likely to partner the indefatigable Topor-Stanley and a rejuvenated Ben Kantarovski back in favour and more importantly in form, it’ll be a a defensive spine that will be hard to break.
Up front, there may be more questions than answers, but with both Angus Thurgate and Jason Hoffman off the mark, this surely applies the pressure to score on the Panamanian Abdiel Arroya. One outstanding performer who is surely due a goal is the Energizer bunny of the team Steven Ugarkovic. For all his kilometres covered during games, he surely must start to add goals this season.
A crowd matching the size of that fateful day in 2013 is unlikely. In saying that though, with Newcastle’s membership in excess of 10,000 and Western Sydney’s at 15,000, maybe the A-League battlers could surprise.
Steve Harry
Guest
That was a decent game , another var controversy, but the best team won on the night .
anon
Roar Pro
I don't think anyone would begrudge the Newcastle Mariners having some success.
Kannga2
Guest
Wsw could stake a claim to being a football heartland or more appropriately the landscape of the Australian footballs final frontier , abundant with gunslinging strikers and other golden nuggets of footballing talent.
Incognito
Guest
And yet the Central Coast and a city in another country have a team in the A-League and those two do not... madness!
Nick Symonds
Guest
Don't forget Canberra and Wollongong...they're heartlands too.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
No, it makes a good discussion point - or a fruitless argument!
Post_hoc
Roar Rookie
Western Sydney might have a problem with your Football Heartland comment :stoked:
Simon Kelly
Roar Pro
I’m hoping for a return of those big crowds. I think we’re heading in the right direction. Yeah agree we’ve become a tourist destination but we’ve still got the busiest coal port in the world. Still think other teams view us and to a lesser extent WSW as battlers or underdogs which I don’t have a problem with.
Simon Kelly
Roar Pro
Good comments there. One thing I have noticed with the RBB is that they are very absorbed in what they are doing, which is fine. You’re right they don’t seem to react to what’s happening on the field. I even think they don’t sing negatively about the opposition which in itself is almost unique. Agree with the later kick offs. The A league should stop the mid day games. Better for a high intensity game and better for the fans.
Kannga2
Guest
Those 20000 crowds at Newy were great days . The late nsl Newcastle United kicked it off with visitors like Olympic and glory getting big crowds , then early a league days a few 20+ crowds for visiting Nsw teams . By the way we are more surf coast then steel city nowadays. The tourism capital of Australia and the heartland of football.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
That was a really enjoyable away trip in the early days of WSW. It was raucous, somewhat out of control at times and a good result if you were a WSW fan. It was Hersi who really stood out that day and it was that day that I realised that the new “active support” was a totally managed affair that wasn’t really in tune with the game except perhaps when the team scored a goal. I had been used to years of rousing clapping, cheering, chanting of names or singing a particular song about a player whenever someone did anything really special in a game and on this occasion, Hersi had carved up the Jets defence and created a goal, but no acknowledgement from the visiting fans although they celebrated wildly when the goal was scored. Times have changed since those early days and so has the make up of the support. After being on the receiving end of fines and threatened with points deductions, the club has worked hard to change the look and feel and with the move to the new stadium, increased pricing etc It looks to have worked. The numbers are not there anymore, except for “ events “ but it looks as though the former army of black shirted young men and teenagers, often with scarves to mask their faces have also disappeared. I suspect we might just see a reoccurrence next season when MacArthur comes into the league. Still, a trip to “Newie” is usually a good day out irrespective of the outcome. It would be good to see a good turnout in the Squadron although sadly the Jets active support seems to come and go. The best thing is that it is a later kick off as the 5-30 pm game often has the sun beating down over the Andrew Johns stand contributing to sunburn/sunstroke, headaches and the desire to drink far too much beer. The only prediction I make is “a good day out” once you get past Pennant Hills Rd.