About six years before I became a Manchester City fan, there was Sydney Croatia. Yeah, there was a girl involved… But I always liked watching The Big Match on the ABC as a kid - just not as much as I liked my rugby league.
So, in 1987 I went to Edensor Park to watch my first National Soccer League match. “My” Sydney Croatia up against Preston Macedonia. As a sixteen year old, my knowledge of Yugoslav history and politics was limited. I was chased off the front lawn of the aforementioned girl once in 1986; but that may have just been a teenage boy thing.
Anyway, during the match, fans started to throw flares at each other. I turned to my Croatian friend and asked, “is this normal?” He assured me it was. I can’t even remember the result, but here’s what I do remember - Sydney Croatia had Graham Arnold playing for them at the time, and as he was driving out of the carpark he wound down his window to ask me how the Parramatta Eels did. That was soccer in 1987.
I ended up loving Sydney Croatia alongside my beloved Manly Sea Eagles and the Richmond Tigers. The New York Yankees and Giants would follow, as did Manchester City. Sydney Croatia always just fell short of winning the competition, but it was still better than watching the Northern Eagles in the late 1990s, or trying to find how Man City went against Grimsby in third division in the days before the internet.
Sydney Croatia became Sydney United after the NSL passed an edict to have clubs renounce their immigrant histories. When the A-League came in, Syd Utd were relegated to the NSW Premier League, where they have had some success.
So what? you may ask. You liked a team based on a crush on a gal. Nah, it was WAY more than that. I got to meet Serbians, Bosnians, Macedonians and as an outsider I was able to find some common ground through football.
When I worked at Mission Australia, one of my co-workers happily wore Serbian and Australian wristbands during the World Cup. Another co-worker, a Bosnian whose family moved to Australia after the implosion of Yugoslavia, pointed me in the direction of a Serbian mechanic when I needed to buy a car.
Turns out the mechanic is a great fan of Manly. Even after moving 300km away, I still take my car to him. We both love the awesome Manly and Australian captain Max Krilich, whose family has a Croatian background. My mechanic went to school with a Serbian bloke called John somewhere on the northern beaches. John married a gal named Melissa and had four sons.
When Manly started to slide down the ladder after Brett and Glenn Stewart left the club, my mechanic mate told me about John and Melissa’s boys, who at the time were coming up through the Manly juniors. The first two to make it into first grade were Jake and Tom.
So, to recap, over 35 years I have had the pleasure of meeting several people from the former Yugoslavia, and forming some life long friendships, as well as at least one less than successful romantic relationship.
Which makes the weekend’s fan brawl in the NSW Premier League match between Sydney United and Rockdale so disheartening. Rockdale were formed, like so many soccer clubs in Australia, by immigrants. In their case it was Macedonians. The news of the brawl reminded me of my first NSL game back in 1987. I can’t believe we haven’t moved forward in 34 years. The war is over people. You have your own independent nations. There’s no need to fight anymore. So just stop it.
Just stop it.