One club represents new football, a keystone entity in the contentious reboot of Australia’s round ball game 21 years ago. It was a brand designed to bring together Melbourne’s sporting tribes. The reality was something different.
The other club can trace its roots back to the 1950s, and a proud history including four titles in the now defunct National Soccer League, intertwined with the pride and community of European post-war migration. The club has delivered many of Australia’s football’s most meaningful days. Or, as it seemed to some in recent decades, fading memories.
South Melbourne might be dubbed “old soccer”, but the club is anything but yesterday’s news ahead of the Australia Cup final against Melbourne Victory on Saturday. A capacity crowd of around 28,000 at AAMI Park is expected for a clash heaving with significance. The diverging of their paths is tainted with dismissal, envy and, worst of all, apathy.
But this coming together for what will be a marvellous showpiece of Australian football has revealed the sport’s greatest strength: connection. Take former Socceroos player Jason Davidson, the Victory captain, whose father Alan spent his formative years at South before a distinguished career in Europe and at international level. Hellas captain Marco Janković is the son of former Real Madrid player Milan Janković, who emigrated to Queensland in the 1990s.
Janković junior said he is close mates with Sawyer – who spent three years at South – and the build up has been flush with banter. The friendly rivalry culminated in some light needling at the local supermarket when Janković saw the forward reach into the fridge. The fixture is a triumph of the Australia Cup concept, which has provided hope for state league optimists in its 12 years of existence but has never entered the broader national sporting consciousness.
This will be the tournament’s best-attended final, even though one of its teams does not play in the A-Leagues. It is a hint of what might be possible in the future of the sport in Australia, as the game looks past the limitations of the A-Leagues to a pragmatic embrace of its broad church. And it is a reminder why this sport matters the world over, and how identity cannot be divorced from football support.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
