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.

Haha, RoyalHeart, you and I must have been thinking alike overnight, see my new thread for Ideas for Improving Yarraside in Match-Day Planning. Thank you for your kind words about the trumpeting too!

So I’ve been pretty disheartened with Bay 17 in general over the last few weeks, and I think as a collective terrace we need to make some changes for next season so that we can all take pride in Yarraside again. I’ve been thinking about it all night and here are some ideas I have come up with for improving the culture in the terrace. This thread is intended to be a place for brainstorming and planning for next season so please add your own ideas or give feedback to mine. I hope that the Core will not take offence but rather receive my ideas in the spirit they are intended: full of respect for the work that has been done so far but recognising that something desperately needs to be done to stop the stagnation of Bay 17. So, without further ado, my ideas: Make the Capo a fixtured, rotating curation position. I think everyone acknowledges that this is a tough and often thankless job, which requires a lot of effort and sacrifice (usually of actually watching the game that we’re all ostensibly there to watch) and can be very morale-draining when everyone ignores you. I don’t see why it has to be just one person’s responsibility to bear this burden for the entire season, and I perfectly sympathise with our regular capos who wanted to take a break this week. The thing is, we can’t just have NO capo in any given week. So let’s use the off-season to spread the load. It can be 2, 3, 6, 10 people who put their hands up for the job, be it for a single game or for many. But when the fixture list for next season is released, I think a similar roster for capo should be assigned in advance of the season, and published publically on the forum so that everyone is aware who to look to for guidance and authority on any given matchday. The people who put their hands up for it should get a bit of ‘training’ in advance, and put in some effort to learn the chants (otherwise what’s the point). But I really think that if a capo knows that next week he (or she??) has a break coming up, where he/she can just stand and sing and drink and enjoy the game with their friends, then this will in turn inspire them to be a better capo on the day they have the job. In my opinion the capo should try to stay relatively sober, because we’ve seen already this season that it just doesn’t really work if the capo is wasted by the second half. This is a much fairer expectation if it’s just for that game, and next week they can go back to drinking/enjoying the game. Hopefully they will also be inspired to really put in the effort to cajole and inspire everyone else, because it’s not the same old crap as every week, rather this is THEIR turn to shine and be a good leader. Approximately two minutes before kickoff, whoever is capo on the day should give a short speech to everyone in Bay 17, reminding them of the basic rules/expectations that come with being in the Active area. i.e. stand for 90 minutes, sing for 90 minutes, follow the capo, follow the drum, clap with your arms over your head, don’t start your own chants unless the capo invites you to, etc etc. A speech could also be given to Bays 16 and 18 to remind them that they have also purchased Active tickets so these rules really apply to them as well. Invite anyone not comfortable with these expectations to leave the Active areas at the outset. I know when I first joined Active these rules were outlined to me at the start as non-negotiables, but I think that as time has gone on, new faces have drifted in and out of the terrace without ever really being told what is expected of them. It’s not really fair on new people to expect them to pick up the rules by osmosis and then get annoyed with them if they don’t follow them. Let’s help educate people each and every matchday. Instil and encourage a culture of individual and collective responsibility for enforcing these rules/expectations – encourage people to call out those beside them, whether stranger or friend, if they see them failing to stand/sing etc. Shame people out of thinking that that behaviour is acceptable or tolerated in the terrace. Applaud people who are brave enough to call out those slacking off. Divert some of the terrace tifo funds to repairing the musical instruments. Both drums desperately need new skins. One side on each drum is torn right through (the actual snare part of the snare hasn’t been available all season), and the skin on the other side of each is so loose and stretched that it needs to be hit much harder than usual to produce any volume, meaning we are also going through drumsticks like candy (they keep snapping in half). Similarly, my trumpet needs to be literally bent back into shape after capo fell on it a few weeks back. Repairing the instruments will provide a huge boost in volume, meaning that their sound will be much more imposing. Currently it is easy to ignore a sound that you can only vaguely hear from several rows below you. But produce a clear, strong drum beat that cuts through the crowd and in combination with a strong capo suddenly the average Joe is much more compelled to feel that they should do what the drum tells them to! We need a huge burst of creative output in the chant department over the off-season. Bozza and I will be doing our bit to try and incorporate the trumpets into more chants, or adapt new trumpet-led songs ala Espana. Even so, Yarraside’s repertoire has gradually shrunk more and more as players with catchy songs have left, never to be replaced. Many of the other tried and tested favourite chants have become tired/stale/boring to sing 5 times in a game. We have had some new stuff this season which is great, but I honestly think we need to double the number of songs currently available to us to inspire Bay 17 as a whole to get involved in singing again. In order to achieve this – and this is where I’m probably going to get unpopular – I believe there has to be a lot more willingness on the part of the Core to accept suggestions from ‘unknowns’. Whether this means giving a chance to a chant you think will just never catch on, or whether you disapprove of the chant because Club X in League Y once did it, I really think that for a while we just need to suck it up and allow the creative juices of people to flow. If someone makes a promising suggestion but their suggested lyrics are weak, have a go at polishing them instead of shooting down their whole idea or just ignoring it altogether, as often happens. Desperate times/desperate measures, and all that. So those are my ideas. Love them or hate them, I believe they are real, achievable targets for next season, and at the very least they are practical suggestions rather than just complaining at the status quo. So if you hate them, don’t just ignore me or tell me I’m wrong, but offer me alternatives that will feasibly work better. Better yet, add to my ideas with your own. Let’s work cooperatively as a terrace to bring the pride back into Yarraside and make us the envy of the A-League. After all, our new owners mean we’re going to win the league next season, right?

Hi Schrecky, I largely agree with you in terms of the performance. It was a much more positive display than a lot of what we've been subjected to this season, but again the frustration is in not taking our chances and then conceding too easily at the other end. The flatness I felt at the end was largely because this felt like yet another game that got away, another game where we were the better team for good chunks of the match but still couldn't do enough. If we've gone 1-0 up against a team like Central Coast, we should be holding on to that lead with everything we have, knowing that games against them are typically low-scoring and how good they are at nicking a goal. Conceding on the stroke of half time from a silly turnover just typifies the lack of concentration or complacency that is enough to lose you games. Can't agree with your comments about Yarraside though. Don't know how it looked from the side, but I can tell you standing in the thick of it that it was half empty. Fair play to those who did come and did sing, and if our motley crew managed to make enough noise that 'the atmosphere was equivalent to all other weeks', then bloody hell we should be proud of that. But the terrace in general was definitely very flat today on top of being depleted in numbers - at one point a whole row just sat down and started playing with their phones. That in turn impacts on the motivation levels of everyone around them, myself included. It's rubbish and in my opinion the terrace as a collective should try to come up with a plan over the off-season to stamp out that kind of culture in Yarraside.

Capo today stepped up to fill a gap when no one else would. He should be applauded for at least attempting to keep the half-empty terrace going for 90 minutes. If not for his 'poor performance' and the assistance of Bozza and me on the trumpet there would have been no chanting today. Very poor showing all around, really, and pretty gut-wrenching for those of us who do put the effort in.

7th year, final semester at Monash University. Already finished my BA in Linguistics and International Studies, plus a Diploma of Languages majoring in German. Just finishing up my LLB now and planning to do Leo Cussens the second half of this year. Come 2015, I shall be happily qualified to be the YSide Official LawyerTM (service available in multiple languages). Uni is great, Arts degrees are very valuable and rewarding, Law is where I see myself working, but boy will I be happy to finally stop being a student when the time comes! I never took any kind of gap year (closest was my semester exchange to South Africa) so I've been a perpetual student since I was 5 years old basically. I'll be 25 soon so you do the maths! Definitely ready for full time work and a different challenge.

I'm not BH but you should totally read The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. Okay, it's complete fiction and unashamedly a love story (lots of sex scenes), but it gives a great account of conditions in Russia during WWII, including the stark reality for ordinary people of the siege of Stalingrad when people were literally freezing/starving to death on the streets. It's a trilogy and the second book in particular also details some of the military experience of the Russian soldiers marching through Poland. Interestingly, the author recently released a prequel which I am reading at the moment, which is set in America in the early 20th century. It centres around American communists and anarchists, the policitcal strikes, marches, lectures etc that these people participated in, and describes how some of the strongest advocates actually followed their politics to Russia from 1917 onwards. It's a minority perspective that isn't often emphasised, so I'm enjoying this one too. [Disclaimer: the prequel is also a love story.]

Thank you for the kind offer, Peter, but I do already have the new Yside scarf. Much as I love it, the first edition holds a special place in my heart! You're a champ! If you could organise this, I would owe you several beverages of your choice, as well as eternal gratitude

So, following up my post in the derby thread [i.e. someone stole my scarf]... Any first edition scarves still floating around that anyone is willing to part with? Preferably my one that was stolen, in which case your reward will be me not exacting my full vengeance as a lawyer on your ass. However, I am also willing to fork out good money for someone's secondhand one. Someone take pity on me please, the terrace already owes me a trumpet repair after our beloved capo squished mine like a pancake in the jubilation following a win a couple of weeks back. Luckily the trumpet still works, although the volume and quality of the sound is greatly reduced. Anyway, point being, I really loved that first edition Yside scarf and I really miss mine. Help please.

Yes a PDF will be posted on the RWU website soon.

Would just like to say thank you to whichever little shit put a really sour end to what should have been an amazing night. Who steals someone’s 1st edition Yarraside scarf from on top of their bag in the middle of the terrace? On the stroke of full time, no less. We’ve just won 4-0 against that mob, and the first thing your mind thinks is “oh let me steal a scarf to mark this occasion from the girl who just spent 90 min trying to fire up everyone playing trumpet”. Cheers mate, glad to know the effort I put in to the terrace is appreciated. TL;DR: Give my fucking scarf back.