GabiBoyd

The 4-1 against Brisbane at home, I remember how surreal it felt to win by such a margin against such a good team. The home game that was the culmination of the "One Melburnian" campaign (was it Adelaide or Sydney?). I brought a couple of my Eurosnob cousins along and I was so nervous that we were going to play like shit, but we ended up pulling out a really impressive performance, one to be proud of, and I remember Yarraside being fucking loud and inspirational that night too. The cousins still never came back but were very impressed and full of praise for Heart. Brisbane away with a great group of people. First away trip, the whole weekend was amazing - except the 90 minutes on the pitch haha. We lost 2-0 then got absolutely drenched in a Brisbane storm trying to get back to the hotel, but it didn't matter, we all went out to party anyway. Manuca crashing in our room on two armchairs that he pushed together haha. My first day in Yarraside. Never looked back. The behind the scenes of the Keep the Red and White campaign. Hilarity, ambition and determination. Love you guys! Best pre-game ever at Albury away, swimming in Lake Hume, then trying not to faint playing trumpet in the 43 degrees heat or whatever it was. And I agree with the above about the Newcastle game where we broke our win drought and Engelaar debuted, I can still feel the rumble of the stadium as "Oo, ah, Engelaar" rang out. Haunting and spine-tingling!

Ok I don't know why I bother sometimes but anyway: No one discussed banning swearing, in fact it was specifically said that there shouldn't be 'rules' one way or the other on this. What was discussed was discouraging 'distasteful' chants like rape jokes or violence. "Would smash the physio" comes to mind. Cunt is a beautiful part of the female anatomy and is a-okay by me For me personally the Archie chant is fine because it appropriately calls him out on the disgusting behaviour that got swept under the rug. What gets frustrating is when this is the ONLY chant that is sung with any real passion, because then it seems like we're obsessed with some dickhead opposition player who isn't even any good any more. There is a big difference between singing "come on you boys in red", referring to the PLAYERS who are obviously all male, and singing "We are the boys from Yarraside" which is describing the make-up of the terrace and the people singing. Obvious troll is obvious but there were far more than two girls in Yarraside and none of the ones I spoke to had been 'dragged there' by their boyfriends (although many of us did meet our boyfriends at the football. Common interests and all that). So it would be nice to acknowledge their presence and increase the potential for more to feel like the terrace is not just a place for the 'lads'. Growing the active support base is the ostensible goal, is it not? Expanding beyond the 16-30 year-old male demographic would be an easy way to start. Anyway. It was a great meeting. Really positive. Big kudos to King Malta, Jimmy, Tony and the others for getting this up and running. I have every confidence you guys are going to succeed and make this new terrace truly great. If it were possible to love a terrace without needing to love its club, I would be 100% on board already. As it is, still not quite reconciled with the 'City difference'. Rolled over my active membership anyway, but every time I think about singing for a team called City that plays in blue I still feel a little sick. I'm just hoping I feel better about it all by the time the season rolls around.

You seem to be going out of your way to avoid the word "apology", did you or did you not apologise to them?Because you have responded to my post that said I thought they deserved an apology, but your replies haven't stated that you did apologise. Bozza has gone into a meeting now so can't reply. I don't want to talk for him but I don't want this to get any more out of hand either, so let me just say as someone who was present while said phone calls were made, YES, heartfelt apologies were offered long before kickoff. Let that be the end of it.

Not trying to be what you say I am. I'm just highlighting that those NOT on the forum, etc don't necessarily know who is who. Just another thought (my thought), I don't think dress codes are the answer at all for 'improving yarraside' or for getting people more 'in touch' with core. Not once has the CORE group turned anyone away from giving ideas... In-fact, It is encouraged to approach them and introduce yourself and give ideas. Just a generalisation here to everyone that reads this... Please take note: You want to know who the Core are? You want to be pro-active? You want to be 'in the scene'? You want to belong? You think you are passionate? You have questions? You have answers? Come to the pub, just by you being there and mingling with the various people there... you will learn quickly:- - Who the care are. - How to be Pro-active (in-fact you are already pro-active just by showing up to the imperial) - You'll be in the scene. - You'll feel like you belong. - You'll learn what passion is. - Your questions will be answered and your answers will be taken on board. And arguably the most important aspect, is the realisation that we are all here for the same cause!!!!! If you are unable to make the Imperial Pre AND/OR Post games, ask around on game day who everyone is and come and introduce yourself. Ask the questions and observe for yourself. You'll learn quick that keeping everyone happy is bloody hard! But ultimately what is done is for the best of the terrace. It's easy to throw hatred and criticism. It's hard to be pro-active and show faith across the board. This has been reiterated so many times across the forum, across social media, etc. You never know, you might even get shouted a drink or two! Without wanting to rock the boat. I’ve been going to the Imp pre- and post-match and for away games for over two years, missing perhaps a handful of sessions total in that time, and have also attended pre-season and away games. Yet I am no closer to feeling accepted or part of the crew. I don’t have access to Terrace Talk. I only found out for certain who the Core were quite recently, at the derby tifo session (which I was only invited to through Bozza), when Bozza came straight out and asked who the Core were. Incidentally, even then, the answer was provided hesitantly, even in private, when there were literally about 5 people in the room who had all been personally invited. I feel like if I didn’t happen to start dating Bozza 4 weeks after starting to attend the Imp, I wouldn’t even enjoy the level of silent tolerance that is the best I expect from the Core at the moment. Most of the time I don’t even bother sitting at the same table as the Core at the Imp these days, but when I do, it’s like I’m not even there. Conversations go over and around me, totally ignoring my existence. Is it because I’m just not their type of person/they don’t like me? Is it because I’m a female? Whatever the case, it is a myth that simply turning up to the Imp regularly will get you magically accepted into the crew. I think accessibility to the Core is a real issue that perhaps isn’t obvious or apparent to those on the inside, but that those on the periphery struggle with every week. By the way, this isn't in any way to take away from the difficult job that running the terrace is. But accessibility to the leadership group I think is pretty important. EDIT: Also not intending to come across as butthurt. Genuinely don't care if you guys like me or not, I have my own friends and I'm happy to just be there supporting our club. I only commented because the processes you think you have in place don't actually necessarily work.

Yes it will be in the city, Bozza will confirm final details tomorrow if this is actually going ahead. We probably need one more person to make it viable. Stay tuned for more details here tomorrow. Thanks so much for being willing to help out!

Hi guys is anyone free between 12 and 5 tomorrow to do a photoshoot and interview for the Herald Sun? They are interested in publishing an article about us but they need a photo of a few people wearing a bunch of Heart merch. If you're willing to do the photo the interview is optional. Please post here if you're free!

Top article, well done on getting it out there.

I think FB's position has been pretty clear from the start. Nearly three months later, these very valid questions are still not answered. I know the Man City fans on this forum have said a few times that the owners don't like to say too much publicly, but we probably could have saved about 70 pages of angst in this thread alone if we had some certainty. As things stand, I think it's perfectly reasonable to have a final colourful display and celebration at the WSW game. No matter what decisions end up being made up above, and no matter what path individual supporters choose to take next season based on those decisions, at least we will always have this final celebration, and know that we at least made it clear that we really love our current colours. The effectiveness of the message or whether it has any impact whatsoever on our owners is really another issue altogether. Let's all unite under the red and white on Saturday

Sorry I am being soft this week and watching from the comfort of Alexiano's couch, however I look forward to meeting you in future to share a drink and hopefully revel in the glory of Arsenal winning the FA Cup!

The day the story broke about Man City buying Heart, I gave a 10 minute TV interview to Channel 7 on behalf of Red & White Unite, the Supporter's Association (of which I am the treasurer). I made it clear that in the majority, Heart fans were cautiously optimistic about the takeover, and would entertain a name change to Melbourne City, but were adamantly opposed to a colour change, particularly to BLUE of all things. This was just based on the immediate reaction to the news on twitter and the forum and from speaking to people I know. That interview was meant to be aired on the 6pm news, but other stuff happened and they ended up barely even mentioning Heart at all that night. Gotta love the mainstream media. Point being, they should still have that footage, I presume. Let's give them a reason to air it.

I don't think anyone is really suggesting yelling at kids. As some of you have said, often they're just deflated and with a small amount of encouragement will happily follow the crowd and continue to chant. The key part of that though is that the crowd (i.e. terrace) needs to be chanting. My request in the opening post for people to call out others is directed at those fully grown members of the terrace who spend the vast majority of games atmosphere-sponging, either just standing there sipping their drinks or worse, sitting down disinterestedly as happened this week. They might sing the first line or two of a chant, then they simply lose interest and prefer to watch the game. And the thing is, that's fine! Singing for 90 minutes isn't for everyone. But if you want to relax and watch the game, sit elsewhere in GA. If you want to stand in the terrace, follow the capo and sing for the entire time that you're there. If you want to do both on any given matchday, simply move depending on your mood. We have the luxury of a half-empty stadium and non-assigned seating. People just need to understand what the expectations are of choosing to be in a particular area. If I were to stand up in the middle of GA and start blaring out tunes on my trumpet, people would tire of that pretty quickly and tell me to sit down because they didn't want their view obstructed. It's not the Active area, after all! Same standards should apply in reverse.

With the greatest respect to you, Hackett, to the rest of the Core, and to MTP who I think does a great job every week, I think that we might find many more people willing to put their hands up if we broadened our search beyond the usual suspects. I know Yarraside has traditionally been very hesitant to trust those outside its inner group, and reluctant to concede power to anyone they don't know implicitly, but I think you're right in that we're going to struggle with the position of Capo unless we give new people a chance. Bearded Tony, for example, has volunteered on a number of occasions this season when the Capo on the day was less than motivated, but he either got shot down entirely or mocked for not quite knowing the chants perfectly. This is a guy who is at the pub week in, week out, who sings for 90 minutes every week, and is generally as enthusiastic and passionate for the terrace as you can be. If people like him were nurtured and given a chance to learn the lyrics properly, I bet he'd do a great job. Similarly, it seems like it's an unspoken requirement that the capo must have a penis. There, I said it. You're eliminating a good number of potential candidates right there. I know before I took up playing the trumpet in the terrace I often wanted to volunteer for the job, but felt like there was no point because I either wouldn't be allowed or no one would respect my authority anyway. [**EDIT** I feel like this might be a bit more inflammatory than I originally intended. I wasn't trying to suggest that I would be any good at the job, or the right person to pick, in fact I'd probably be rubbish because my voice is too quiet. I was just trying to say that it often felt like even if I had clearly been the best possible person to be capo, I would never have been considered just because I was a girl. Realistically, there are probably no female candidates at the moment who could do the job, but it would be nice to know that if someone DID come along, they would at least be considered for the role.] There are many passionate 'unknown' people in the terrace who I'm sure would jump at the chance to be capo for a day. I'm not saying just give any old person the megaphone, that would be stupid, obviously they have to prove that they can do the job, but I don't see that they should be disqualified from volunteering themselves just because they're not part of the Core. Anyway, that's my unpopular opinion, feel free to tell me why I'm wrong

Niko, the only thing I'd say is that the club already have a solid relationship with Yarraside. They perfectly understand the atmosphere we're trying to create because they've given Yarraside as an entity the responsibility of providing that atmosphere. I don't think the problem is there, although I agree that the club should definitely do more when selling Active memberships to outline exactly what is expected from the purchase of such a ticket.

Fucking ACG security guard sees my Arsenal jacket hanging over my arm as I'm about to leave the terrace yesterday. OF COURSE he's a Chelsea fan, starts giggling his little face off and saying "Hahaha Arsenal" "Hahaha tough 24 hours you've had" "Hahaha, I'm a Chelsea fan". I had to ragequit and walk out of the stadium before I smashed his face in. And I'm a generally pacifist female.

Isn't this basically what Pinterest is for? Seems like people just get recipes off it and stuff.