Jon77

lol cheers mate (looks like your mob are staying up also )

This is one of the many stories of dedication on the WSW form at the moment -

Not missing this for the world. Taking the family up in the car as it's too expensive for all of us to fly.

Leaving Blacktown Saturday evening and arriving at the Gold Coast early Sunday. We'll be training in from there (1hr 30mins) as the tickets include train fare and parking in Brisbane will be a hassle. Back to the Gold Coast after the game and then start the drive back Monday morning.

Just about sold our allocation which is around 8,000 WSW supporters making the trip. Every combination / method of transport has been booked I think!

Great effort. We will sing and have a great time whatever happens

bobbyftm

As you say enjoy the weekend whatever

ozzieeagle

Look like WSW are the new Adelaide.

Jon77

What a fantastic long weekend away it was (football result apart of course).

From the singing / chanting on the plane on the way up to seeing so many WSW fans having a good time on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Brisbane was swarming with 10,000 WSW fans which is a new interstate fan record for Australia and one which will take some beating. WSW yet again setting the standard in the A League.

Also no reports of any trouble at all and from what I could see fans from both clubs were very good natured and mixing easily. I know I had a good few chats pre and post game to some roar fans. They wished us well for the ACL games remaining and we wished them well for next season. Not having your pub stormed by moronic fans (as in Melbourne) helps of course.

What made me proud as much as anything was the number of WSW fans with scarfs and colours showing on Monday morning. Still having a good time and still some chanting and singing going on. Disappointment of course but mixed with pride for our club.

The standard for GF support has been set now, all must lift their game for the finals to come.These finals defeats will make it all the sweeter when we do win it one day. We are still a very new club, just 2 years old, I see good times ahead for WSW.

WSW's success means our season isn't over just yet, got to lift for the ACL game in Japan tonight.

Win or lose we will sing forever more.............................................

Jon77

Letter to all WSW fans from the chairman following the game

-Dear Wanderers Family,



On the back of the mixed emotions of yesterday’s Hyundai A-League Grand Final I wanted to write to you to express my deepest gratitude and admiration. You have made an incredible contribution to the remarkable journey that is our Club and I want you to know how proud we are to be sharing that journey with you. Never before has the sporting landscape in Australia and, dare I say, globally, witnessed the incredible achievements that our Club has cemented in the annals of sporting history in such a short time frame.



While the pain of a losing Grand Final cuts deep and seems to linger longer than the joy of victory, it is also important to remember that success has many fathers and comes in many forms. Success isn’t always just about being first past the post but equally can be measured in the journey to get to the post and the lasting legacy that comes with that journey.



As your Coach and I walked through the streets of Brisbane yesterday morning and then at the airport after the match and indeed this morning at the International Airport as our playing squad departed for Japan, it has never been clearer that our Club is blessed with the most amazing fan group we have ever experienced and that our Club’s success since birth is inextricably linked to this amazing support.



Success, you see, is many things:



• Having the best fan group in the country



• A fan group that has already left an indelible imprint on how sport is supported in our country



• 17,000 Members who are so proud, passionate and grateful to have a club in Western Sydney they can proudly call their own



• A club that always stands up for the west, is always competitive and always strives to make it proud in return



• A Premiership



• Two Grand Finals




• Topping our Group and being in the last sixteen of the AFC Champions League with still more to come



• The 1.5 million viewers who have watched our games in the Hyundai A-League this year and the countless millions more who have watched our ACL matches across Asia



• Proudly carrying the Western Sydney banner in a Grand Final watched by over 250 million viewers across 57 countries



• The 200,000 boys and girls our Club has reached through our remarkable community programs



• The 265 ambassador schools who proudly carry our flag across the Western Sydney region



• Average home crowds in excess of 15,000



• Being the highest sponsored club in the Hyundai A-League



• Having the most remarkable group of corporate partners



• Record merchandise and licensing numbers as you clamour to so proudly wear your Club’s colours



• Creating the largest ever sporting crowd migration in any code from one state to another with in excess of 10,000 of our fans travelling to Brisbane yesterday and back and never once losing their full voice and pride and passion for their Club and where they come from



• Having strong pillars that always make us look forward. Pillars like Pride, Passion, Aspiration and Resilience that will continue to drive us on a daily basis to do better tomorrow what we are doing today



• A club that has a vision for the future:

- To always be in the top three of the Hyundai A-League

- To regularly participate in Asia

- Its own Academy and player pathway for boys and girls

- An upgraded stadium

- Its own training and administration centre

- Greater investment in its Foxtel National Youth League and Westfield W-League programs

- To continue to enrich the lives of boys and girls in a raft of social areas to guide them to be better people.


- Its own Foundation to help address some of the social inequities in Western Sydney

- To continue to foster, nurture and grow grassroots and community football



As we reflect on yesterday know that no stone was left unturned to stand up for you, be competitive and make you proud. Know that everyone to do with our Club gave every last ounce of energy to ensure that your day was a success. Equally know that your role in getting us there and the incredible support on show will live in the hearts and minds of all associated with our Club for many years to come. United as one, we will in time be one of the biggest and most successful clubs in any sporting code in Australia. Our vision to be a world class football club, the pride of Western Sydney has never been stronger. Our future is indeed one of endless possibilities on the back of the incredible support you continue to give us. On behalf of all to do with our Club I thank you from the bottom of my heart.



Walk tall and be proud


Great letter and sums up the WSW mood well, about the best you can feel after a GF loss. This is just the beginning for WSW, the future is red and black.

ozzieeagle

I'd say the Adelaide Crows and even more impressively the West Coast Eagles would dispute that largest migration point..... I'd say 15K a piece for them at different grand finals.


22,000 members at Victory and despite the fact that the NT has been in dispute with the board at Melbourne for most of the season, the RBB still has a bit of a way to go yet.

Melbourne V's average gate this year was over 19K.... In fact their lowest home and away game at home would have been 15K.... A midweek game.

Do carry on it's getting amusing now

Good luck in Asia BTW

Edit make that 15K Freemantle docker fans to Melbourne as well....

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/thread...ourne.1032570/

Adelaide United would have had very close if not more than 10K at their Melbourne Grand final.

Jon77

22,000 MV ticketed members or just 22,000 in total?

The 15,000 is the number of season tickets WSW has, add non ticketed supporter memberships on to that, but then we don't need to fudge the figures. Plus we are limited with the percentage we can offer for ticket membership because of the stadium.

By the way what happened with the ESFC QF attendance figures?

As for AFL finals, that doesn't count as it isn't a real sport

Next time WSW play MV you should introduce yourself, I would love to shake you by the throat lol

All for now until next season anyhoo.

ozzieeagle

MV Ticketed members ..... They are aiming for 30K by 2016.


Your lot and your fans are sounding and acting more like Adelaide Utd and its fans every day.

Perpetual bridesmaids.

Took me a while to work out what you meant by ESFC QF....had to look it up on your boards. That was a really interesting anomoly.... It actually brought home to me something one can still learn about Australia even after 33 years here. Being a very unusual fixture from the Aus Publics point of view inasmuch in having the final played on Good Friday was too much of a relgious affront for a hell of a lot of the Ethnic based supports point of view. I had mates with me that wouldnt drink for the first time in 9 years of going with them.

I was going to Good Friday games back in the early 70's back in Sarf London.

Catch yah later

ozzieeagle

Finally..... It was more like 2 years actually..

Breakthrough !!!!

They're back, 1 hour young news. It's onwards and upwards for the A league for sure now.

Now we'll see which is the most vocally supported team in the League.

After a season fighting the most onerous supporter restrictions in the history of the league, the North Terrace is set to return!

Gone are the tarps separating the fans,
Gone is the scanning in and scanning out, and
Gone are restriction on banners.

The NT standing area at both Docklands and Swan Street is set to more than double in size and, most importantly, all fans will have the ability to join us.

While the simplest way to stand in the NT is to buy a membership to the area, the North Terrace fundamentally rejects the idea that our way of support should be restricted to those who have the means to buy a season ticket.

As such, the NTC has been working with the Club to establish access for all other members and non-members.

Details are still being finalised but what we're working towards is a quick and simple way for fans to pick up an NT area ticket from in or around the NT on match day.

The North Terrace would like to thank all fans of Melbourne Victory for the overwhelming support we've received over the past year, we recognise that without your support this would not have been possible.





n

Jon77

Would this be relaxing and opening up be in reaction to the fact that you have a bigger club than Victory in Melbourne now right on your doorstep?

I am not meaning this as a dig here. With the funds Melbourne City have available you have to think they are a bigger club than Victory, off the pitch at least.... the history will follow.

Perhaps the plastic Melbourne derby games will now take the form of a proper derby and try and rival the Sydney derby. Of course there may have been bigger number at the Melbourne derby but unless you have experienced the noise at a Sydney derby, they are immense. But not Victory fans will be back on form perhaps they will rival it.

Not sure how much interest I will be taking in WSW this year. Currently in the process of gathering everything together for our return to the UK to live, it is a big job. Haven't renewed my membership and I will probably just get a basic supporter membership that will keep me going until we depart.

ozzieeagle

What this means is actually bigger than all of that. It means quite simply that Melbourne Vic tory will have bigger membership this season by far than any other A league club... around 28 to 30K and whats even more important is it cements Footballs place as the very likely biggest code in Australia in less than 10 years.


It is quite simply a massive massive breakthrough.

Sorry to hear your going back Jon.... Unless your happy about it


BTW Not sure how big you think MV are... However last season they fought off Palaces attempt to secure Milligan at 2 Million pounds. Much to my Chagrin as a Palace fan.

When you "know" your bigger than most of the NRL clubs and 2 of the AFL clubs come back and chat

Jon77

Happy enough to be going back to the UK, things haven't been right for a while here and perhaps we persisted too long with pretending otherwise, which took its toll on our marriage also.

So many stages to go through for the move back and you just want to hit fast forward and be transplanted back in the UK.

Football will be taking a back seat for sure.