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Your View on a former Melbourne Heart Fan Comments ?

OmarOfTheWest

By OmarOfTheWest,
in Melbourne City

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OmarOfTheWest

OmarOfTheWest

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm a Westie and saw this on our fourm today, your take on it ? if you want just read the bold part (about your club).

 

 

I’m from Melbourne and I sing for the Wanderers

Posted: November 10, 2013 in Uncategorized
Tags: aleague, mvfc, soccer, socceroos, victory, wanderers, wswfc

I’m from Melbourne and I sing for the Wanderers. Granted, I moved to the inner west suburb of Petersham in early 2013 but that wasn’t until season nine of the A-League, up until which point I had not actively supported any A-League teams.

 

Why you ask? Initially I was like many other disenfranchised NSL and State League supporters who vehemently refused to support the new A-League clubs. Whatever the reasons (and there were many which have been well documented elsewhere), attitudes shifted over time and the success of Melbourne Victory on and off the pitch is testament to this. Go to a game and you will see familiar faces amongst the often 40,000 strong crowd who used to adorn the stands and terraces at Knights Stadium, Connor Reserve Bob Jane Stadium and the Veneto Club.

 

But this isn’t about the former NSL. This is about the A-League. A commercially viable domestic football competition which has, on the back of repeated World Cup qualification care of the Socceroos, propelled the status of the code in the country to new heights evidenced by record gates, TV audiences, sponsorship dollars and lucrative TV broadcast rights.

 

So why don’t I just support the Victory then now that I clearly support the A-League. I have many friends supporting the Victory. They are arguably the most successful team in the competition’s nine year history. Their supporters are incredible. Well, simply put, my newfound support for the domestic competition was in step with the Melbourne Heart’s introduction to the A-League and I figured it made sense that I supported the red half of Melbourne, given that I had always supported the red of Manchester United and Preston Lions – that and I had spent a few years slagging the Victory for all the wrong reasons so the hypocrisy would have been hard to wipe off.

 

So it was that I made my way to the Heart’s first game at AAMI Park back in 2010, hopeful of finding the same passion that I had standing on the terraces at Connor Reserve. A large banner was unfurled at the game by the supporters with logos of the former NSL and Victorian Premier League clubs on it, an acknowledgment of the many like myself who had decided to embrace the Heart. However, try as I might, the club just didn’t pull at my heartstrings, excuse the pun.

 

Obligatory scarf purchases, exchange of vitriol with Victory fans and half-hearted (sorry, it’s just too easy!) attendance at pregame events aside, it became akin to dating a girl you’re really not head over heels for and willing it to work. Sooner or later, the relationship will unravel, as it did with my brief fling with the Heart. I chose to resign myself to being a Socceroos supporter, which I had been since I was old enough to understand what was going on during the 1994 World Cup qualification games against the might of Argentina.

 

But then something happened. Season eight happened. The Wanderers happened.

 

I made my way to a handful of games in the Wanderers debut season, purely as a neutral observer, with a very close friend from Sydney’s west that I had met at the World Cup in 2006, a testament to the beautiful game. My first feelings towards the club were of jealousy. Pure jealousy.

 

It wasn’t the level of support, which is nothing short of legend for a new club, no, it was something much more than that and something oh so simple. The club stood for something.

 

When I compare the Wanderers with the Heart, it’s like comparing The Beatles with the winner of a reality television talent show. The latter is clearly manufactured, lacks substance and will be quickly forgotten, the former still pulls at heartstrings more than 40 years after their first record was released.

 

Having been brought up in the western suburbs of Melbourne I felt an immediate connection with the Wanderers and what they represented. Looking around the terraces at Parramatta Stadium, I could have been forgiven for thinking I was in Melbourne’s west. Predominantly working class, of migrant background and with a hard working, ‘knock me down and I’ll stand back up’ outlook on life, there is no mistaking the reasons why the Wanderers amassed such a huge following so quickly and are now the subject of private sale talks. Political correctness aside, ‘westies’ are looked down upon. No matter if you’re an honours graduate making great coin for an investment bank in Sydney’s CBD or a doctor saving lives, mention you’re from the west to someone who’s not and there’s always some sort of lingering unresolved tension in the air.

 

The Wanderers give the people a club to rally against the unjust treatment of a hardworking, family oriented demographic. People want to feel a part of something and the Wanderers fans were involved from the get go. They were given real ownership of the club. The club, at all levels – players, coaching staff, boardroom and most importantly, the fans – are united much more often than not. And they all have a common enemy in Sydney FC, which the history of the world shows, helps bond troops together.

 

Having moved to Sydney to pursue some business opportunities in early 2013, I was primed for the Wanderer’s second season and had no hesitation purchasing a membership. The feeling I got going to watch the Wanderers against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on October 26 was nothing short of the feeling I get going to watch the Socceroos play a crucial World Cup qualifier.

 

This is the moment that I knew I had finally found a club to call my own.

 

So, how did Melbourne Heart get it so wrong? Or rather, how did the FFA get it so wrong with Melbourne Heart? The club routinely fails to get 10,000 people to a game and let’s face it – Melbourne is blue, half of those that attend Heart games clearly have nothing better to do and aren’t actually Heart fans. There’s no red half of Melbourne, there’s blue with maybe a shade of red on a corner in the distance somewhere. The club, particularly when compared to the might of Western Sydney, has failed.

 

Why? Because it became what the second Sydney A-League license got close to. A mirror club. We have Melbourne and Melbourne. You go to a Melbourne derby and both sets of fans (what little the Heart have that is) chant “come on Melbourne”. It is kind of funny.

 

Despite the clubs half-hearted attempts at saying they are the people’s club and basing themselves out at Latrobe University in the city’s northern suburbs, they don’t stand for much. Melbourne Heart could have and perhaps should have been the Western Sydney of Melbourne and if not that, whether they based themselves in the northwest or the southeast.

 

Should the Heart’s days come to an end, I sincerely hope the FFA will look long and hard at the Wanderers and take inspiration from them before awarding another Melbourne license.

 

Not to worry though, I’ve got my club now. Oh, and an added bonus, they wear red and black, just like the Preston Lions of old.

 

Sign me up for life.

its also what i feel, your club is not different enough to the victory. so here are my questions

 

1 ) Whats your opinion on the comments

 

2) What do you feel is the cultural difference between the victory and you lads ?
 

3) If the heart fold, will you follow the victory or wait for a future melbourne expansion team?

Thanks.

Edited by OmarOfTheWest
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Caddy

Caddy

Posted
Posted (edited)

Seems like a fickle supporter, hopefully for you guys he sticks around when WSW goes through bad times.

I moved to Sydney in late 2010 and I still passionately follow Heart. In my opinion you don't have to live in the same city to identify and love a football club.

EDIT: Just read your question 3. I've had it with talk of folding from supporters of other clubs on our farking forums.

Edited by Caddy
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jw1739

jw1739

Posted
Posted

Omar, I couldn't care a toss what you think about Heart. You're just one of that fairly large number of people who for all your disdain for us and how we don't stand for anything and have a hollow identity and all the rest...but yet can't help but talk and write about us all the time.

 

We're from all sorts of different demographics but we're loyal and we won't be deserting our club. What ever you think about us.

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Caddy

Caddy

Posted
Posted

I'm a sydney boy, but the heart captured me back in mid season 2. I have been a member ever since. People ask why don't I just give up on them and support wsw, but heart was the choice I made and it will never change.

Both Sydney teams are so unlikable, even if you're from here.

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bazzatron

bazzatron

Posted
Posted

Errrm, WSW was a success because it was started by the A-League/FFA. They had to throw enough money at it and make it succeed because they have to sell it for a profit within 5 years( i think thats the right timeframe). The only thing the A-League did wrong with Heart is not start the team at the same time as Victory, so it was already going to struggle. 

West Sydney is the the 3rd largest economy in Australia and going by population alone, if WSW was "unpopular" it would still attract higher than average attendances.

 

What a fickle cunt.

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Caddy

Caddy

Posted
Posted

A few of you are getting a bit personal. I don't have anything against the heart, i didn't write the piece, i was just curious of your thoughts.

thanks to those who answered.

OUT SUNG BY AWAY FANS. 

and i though sydney fc was pathetic.

 

i hope your club just folds and hopefully we can get a club with real passion. thats the least the top boys at melbourne victory deserve.

on the positive side the KGB / yarraside youth or whatever tryhard firm you guys have didn't manage to 'bash' anyone today.

K

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OmarOfTheWest

OmarOfTheWest

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  • Author
Posted (edited)

 

A few of you are getting a bit personal. I don't have anything against the heart, i didn't write the piece, i was just curious of your thoughts.

thanks to those who answered.

OUT SUNG BY AWAY FANS. 

and i though sydney fc was pathetic.

 

i hope your club just folds and hopefully we can get a club with real passion. thats the least the top boys at melbourne victory deserve.

on the positive side the KGB / yarraside youth or whatever tryhard firm you guys have didn't manage to 'bash' anyone today.

K

 

i wish you read the thread because i stated i was trolling on that thread and made serious posts which most of you agreed with.

 

Move along Omar, have a drink for us at rooty hill rsl

underage m8

 

Mods, why don't we just delete this type of thread?

because as i am aware of it doesn't violate any rules you have on this forum. just a curious post .

 

What's the fucken story?

Because another turncoat WSW fan ain't no story. :up:

ill give you that one although the basis of that argument is false ;)

--- 

that will be all for me tonight. if an admin wishes to delete this thread than so be it. I hope none of you lads took this personally or as an attack on your club because if i wanted to attack a club via the interwebs then why am i not on shitneys forum at the moment ?

 

Edited by OmarOfTheWest
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Ando

Ando

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Posted

I wouldn't go as far as to say WSW are a club just yet, just a franchise that the FFA has a vested interest in. So the FFA held a few community meetings to get people on board, that's hardly the basis of a 'peoples' club'.

Heart are a different story of course, and we're going through a pretty rough patch so it's quite easy to pick out the various faults at play, no denying that.

The author of that piece can stay in Parra for all I care, doesn't sound like a true Melburnian to me at all.

Looking forward to the day when WSW are sold to a SE Asian business group.

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HEARTinator

HEARTinator

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Posted

I cried tears of laughter when I read the Mills&Boon story fcuken. Leave that crap on somebody else's website. For every story like that they'll be proper stories about fans sticking by the club no matter what. You fckwits think you're so mighty coz you got a club started for you on the back of FFA $$$$ and promoted to the hilt by FFA HQ and Fox and SBS.

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belaguttman

belaguttman

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Posted

A bit of dialogue with other fans isn't a bad thing. We support our clubs for all sorts of emotional reasons, if he likes WSW good luck to him, his loss. Their time for despair will come as it does to every club. Funny how everyone else seems so concerned about our club's identity though, why is it their problem?

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jw1739

jw1739

Posted
Posted

A bit of dialogue with other fans isn't a bad thing. We support our clubs for all sorts of emotional reasons, if he likes WSW good luck to him, his loss. Their time for despair will come as it does to every club. Funny how everyone else seems so concerned about our club's identity though, why is it their problem?

Maybe we're actually the only club that has one? 

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belaguttman

belaguttman

Posted
Posted

 

Funny how everyone else seems so concerned about our club's identity though, why is it their problem?

This continues to amaze and puzzle me

 

Yes, nobody looks at the facts, we have increasing attendance and season ticket holders despite playing the worst football in the league for a season and a quarter, yet inevitably get compared to the visitors and get told that we have to move to some god forsaken location to 'get an identity' by people who don't live in Melbourne and know nothing about Melbourne culture. They certainly worry about us, I'd just be happy to have an identity as a team that played good football.

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Rutherglen Rambler

Rutherglen Rambler

Posted
Posted

OmarOfTheWest, on 08 Nov 2013 - 9:58 PM, said:OUT SUNG BY AWAY FANS. and i though sydney fc was pathetic. i hope your club just folds and hopefully we can get a club with real passion. thats the least the top boys at melbourne victory deserve.on the positive side the KGB / yarraside youth or whatever tryhard firm you guys have didn't manage to 'bash' anyone today.

Ki wish you read the thread because i stated i was trolling on that thread and made serious posts which most of you agreed with

Piss off Omar, you can't have it both ways mate.

I don't really understand why you would post such rubbish here anyway?

It's not our problem if you want to embrace bandwagon jumpers, those people piss me off the most!

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