Stadium Tour?

As mentioned previously, I’ve attempted to visit every A-League ground this season – a journey that has been fraught with problems. Bon Jovi was responsible for the Wellington Phoenix game being moved, while several games were cast into doubt because of adverse weather. Seemingly the most finite though, was the Brisbane flooding. I had a picture in a previous blog of the problems they were having – 8 feet of water inside the stadium apparently makes the pitch unplayable, and so the game was cancelled, while all remaining games were moved to pastures new.

Time was running out. The league had finished, but I was not. The Suncorp Stadium looked to have eluded me, forever to remain the unvisited ground. However, I had one more trick up my sleeve! The wonder of the A-League is that at the end of the season, the top 6 teams go into a hideously complicated play-off system, which meant one more home game for Brisbane – the Minor Final against my supported club, Central Coast Mariners. Well, how could I refuse? I booked my flights, my hotel, and printed out my match ticket, and went to Brisbane for the weekend!

Unfortunately, the late, cheap flights were not at the most sociable time, and after an ill-planned late night, I reached the airport in little more than a zombie state to check in. I managed a hour or so sleep on the plane, but when presented with a double bed at the hotel with several hours until kick-off, I couldn’t resist a little snooze. Refreshed, (and full of complimentary tea and biscuits – far better than hostels!) it was on to the match, and I must have taken the most meandering route possible to the stadium. Fortunately for me, a particularly helpful bus driver eventually took pity on me, and directed me where I needed to go – first North, to a depot where I could change, then Southwest towards the stadium, but not near enough to disembark, before finally changing again to get the complimentary bus to the stadium gate. I made it with minutes to spare! With darkness having fell, my photograph of the outside of the stadium didn’t come out too well, but no matter. I made it in to see the game kick off, my 11th and final stadium! (Also, it’s been a while since we’ve had my awful photography on show)

I’d sat myself in the away stand, which, as per usual with Aussie matches had only about 50 travelling supporters. What a noise we made though, especially against the cold stares of 25,000 Brisbane fans. For sheer volume alone, we deserved to win. Until Brisbane scored, their fans didn’t make a squeak.

Needing to overcome a 2-0 deficit from the first leg, the boys from Gosford did themselves proud against a Brisbane side that has swept aside all before them this season, racking up an impressive 28 game undefeated streak. But for the fact that Central Coast threw everything forward for the last 10 minutes, they would have surely won on the night.

I feel I should also mention that Brisbane is the first ground where I have encountered fan violence. There is a policy in Australia not to segregate the fans, but as the equalising goal went in, a section of home fans ran into the away section to celebrate. With security more interested in making sure we weren’t spilling beer onto the Brisbane fans in the tier below, they were oblivious to the increasingly aggressive shouts and gestures being aimed at the visitors, and ultimately, it turned to a fight. I’m not saying one side definitely started it, but the fact that it was in the Mariners stand would suggest that the Roar fans had moved to begin the fight. Lets hope they learnt from it – security was appalling. Ironically, as the fight erupted on the pitch at the end of the game, I saw nothing, the fight in front of me was all I could see.

Brought up with English football, I smartly had the ability to cover my colours on leaving the stadium, and managed to find a somewhat shorter, more populous route back to my hotel.

Remember how I said it was a hideously complicated play-off system? Well, despite being knocked out at that stage, the Mariners weren’t fully out of it. If they could beat Gold Coast United the weekend after, then they would win the chance to play Brisbane again (in Brisbane) to try to win the title of Champions. I was sorely tempted to travel to it. Tickets were affordable, while I could probably sort out my transport for $40. With accommodation factored in, it would probably only cost about $100. However, I had assignments, and eventually reached an uneasy agreement with myself. I would do my Maths (which was marvellous by the way, but I couldn’t even begin to describe it to you), watch the game at a local bar, and if, IF, Central Coast could win, I’d try to go to Brisbane.

With the match about to kick off, the commentators announced that 33,000 tickets had already been sold for the Grand Final. A full house would be expected. With 70 minutes played in the CCM-GCU fixture, Adam Kwasnik fired Central Coast ahead. With 80 minutes gone, I began to think about booking flights to Brisbane. With 85 minutes on the clock, I reminded myself to calm down. With 93 minutes played, the Mariners came through! And on Tuesday, when tickets were finally made available to the public, I went ahead and booked my seat, my flights, and my hostel. I’m going back to Brisbane, and this time, I’m sure we’ll win!

My journey back from Brisbane was a peculiar one, particularly the ride back to the centre of Canberra. How apt it was that a Billingham lad, having finally completed his Stadium tour in Australia, should find himself at the back of an airport bus listening to BBC World Service talk about that most beautiful of towns, Billingham. I could scarcely believe it myself.

And finally, I’m afraid I haven’t been out and about enough to snap any humourous images of my own this week, but I have found this news clipping. I’ve been assured by “someone who knows the brother of the cousin of the mate of the sister of the girlfriend of the guy who did it” that it was about 8 or 9 years ago. It certainly made me laugh.