The Australian Championship: Has proper football returned Down Under?

Ten years ago, transiting through Singapore en route to Australia, I killed time trying to find a constant between my life in England and the new one I was starting Down Under. Football felt the obvious answer.

The global financial crisis hadn’t been too kind to millennials, but I was lucky enough to have a few years between its end and my departure to Melbourne, where I had a few quid in my back pocket.

I’d spent the back end of the noughties travelling the country for work and taking every opportunity I could to scour nearby football grounds whilst I stayed in random towns from here to there: Thurrock, Dartford, Swindon, Swansea. Some were shut tight, gates closed. Some had service entrances open as they stocked the bar for Saturday’s match. Some had people who wanted to chat, some didn’t. The football terrace is a constant up and down the green and glorious English land, and as the years went by, I could afford to travel to away games and experience the atmospheres those amphitheatres had to offer.

Latching on to an A-League team felt a natural step. Watching football and seeing new stadia overlapped nicely with travelling Australia. I couldn’t have been more underwhelmed. My first taste of ‘soccer’ was a Melbourne derby. Heart, who had recently been acquired into the City Football Group and had rebranded Melbourne City, faced off against Kevin Muscat’s wily and experienced Victory. World Cup winner David Villa was City’s marquee signing, and the prospect of seeing such a player put bums on seats. I’d been excited to get inside AAMI Park, with its space-age bubble dome look. But I’d have to wait, as the game drew such interest it was switched to what is today known as Marvel Stadium.

Cauldron it was not. It took a history lesson to understand why the A-League was. Top-flight football before the turn of the century had had its financial challenges, and talent was starting to go abroad. When the TV money finally dried up, major reform was needed, but that meant a family show. The Premier League had felt extremely partisan to me, even though hooliganism was becoming a rarity. This ‘soccer’ felt strange, passionless almost, in comparison. The following winter I’d watch AFL and experience an atmosphere somewhere in between. I learned the term ‘feral’ was one that belonged in Australian sporting lexicon, but perhaps not so much in its soccer.

I was missing home, and missing football as I knew it. In 2016 I laced my boots up again and joined a, without realising initially, Serbian club. It was an education; that most of lower-league football in Australia had migrant roots, but the ethnicity had been whitewashed from the game.

As time went by, I realised I didn’t really feel at home in these surroundings either, and there was little joy in the visiting of different grounds around the area, most of which at my level were a changing room block and bar on the halfway line.

The storied terraces were few and far between, and obviously so given the country’s infancy.

But perhaps the answer has finally arrived. The perfect balance between community and quality. The Australian Championship. Through spring, whilst interest in the European game is at a peak, but perhaps before fatigue sets in and fans switch attention to cricket, sixteen sides will compete in four round-robin matches before heading into a knockout format.

There is representation from Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, and both South and Western Australia, with many of the clubs involved already holding important places in the country’s rich football history.

The opening game is a Greek heritage affair; South Melbourne v Sydney Olympic at Lakeside Stadium. South were already unfortunate not to be granted an A-League licence when the division expanded a few years back, and despite their underwhelming campaign this year will want to use the tournament as a springboard back to the top flight, should it eventually become a promotion pathway. The inaugural season won’t see sides rise to the A-League. Avondale v Canberra Croatia is another tie to look out for in round one.

In round two APIA Leighardt, who will go by West APIA, will host Sydney United 58.   Heidelberg United made it in after winning the Victorian NPL (Premiership). And seeing them again will bring my football journey here full circle. In 2015 I visited Olympic Park to watch the yellow Alexandros host Melbourne City in what is today known as the Australia Cup. Flares smoked the sky and barely a word of English could be heard. Seeing these circa 10,000 grounds full, in the spring sunshine, is what I’ve been waiting for.

The more I read about the upcoming games, the more I feel there is a movement happening. SBS has backed the tournament and will show all the games. Fitting, as the broadcaster was one of the remaining supporters of the National Soccer League before it was re-established as the A-League.

There’s a feeling around Friday’s curtain raiser that it already has its place in the game’s history here, as sides who’ve been in the shade for too long will have their moment in the sun. And it feels genuine too. If Preston Lions v South Melbourne could draw 9,000, then what potential do these fixtures have and could some momentum really be gained for a second tier? Would Preston have to give up their Genis Steel Stadium home if they made it to the top flight or would we see more diversity in match-day experiences if they were allowed to play on there? What if Brisbane Roar, who finished second bottom last year, went down? Suncorp Stadium in the Championship or NPL QLD?

It’s much too early to say with the concept barely past an embryonic phase. But Friday’s match is a tantalising one; a proper crowd, a proper souva in hand, to watch a proper game of football….that’s what I came for.