Let the battle for Queensland Commence!!

By: Ahmed | August 5th, 2009

The season is upon us. This time round, it’s going to be different. There are 2 new teams entered in to the Hyundai A-League, North Queensland Fury and the big talking Gold Coast United. This can only mean one thing, rivalry. Brisbane Roar now has two Queensland teams to rival for top dog in the state and the league. With this in mind, we decided to catch up with a fan of each of the clubs on their thoughts for the upcoming season. Matty is our North Queensland fan, Gary (Gaz) is our Gold Coast nut and Reuben is the Brisbane boy and proud of it. Let’s have a read on what they have to say.

Offside: Firstly thanks everyone for your time, let’s get stuck straight in to it. What are you expectations for your team?
Reuben: If we don’t make the finals the season will definitely be a failure. In my mind I can see 4 teams (roar, Melbourne, Perth and gold coast) fighting it out for the top place and at the moment just can’t separate them.
Matty: C’mon, get excited. You Roar guys are the ones with the history, pedigree and genuine right to make winning the league claims, we newbie’s don’t. We have no real expectation other than being competitive. The only demand I have is the players give 110%.
Gaz: I agree with Reuben on the Roar side of things, but I think we can win the A-league; No doubt we can do it.
Matty: Geez, it’s going to hurt when that bubble bursts….hahaha. Can’t wait.

Offside: Which team do you want to beat the most?
Gaz: Roar
Reuben: There wouldn’t be anything better than beating Gold Coast at home in the first round of the season.
Matty: We all hope the Roar tonk the coast as well. Other than one small insignificant part of the south east corner of QLD, Australia will be united. We want to beat Gold Coast without question.
Gaz: I would rate NQFC as a team I most don’t want to lose to. Based on our squads, a loss to NQ would be inexcusable.

Offside: Players you most want to see for you team?
Reuben: Michal Zullo showed us what he is capable of last season and he is getting better. He may even push for a world cup spot.
Matty: Personally can’t wait to see Reinaldo bowling Orange Army members back with those scud missiles….ahem shots..at goal. I can’t wait to see Fred Agius. His attitude has been great since joining us and he has trained very well.
Gaz: I hope the Henrik Larsson rumours are true.
Matty: What no one in the current 23 excites you?

Offside: Do you think Bleiberg and Palmer are too arrogant?
Reuben: I think it has put a lot of unnecessary pressure on the players to perform claiming they going to go through undefeated.
Gaz: The players seem to be responding well.
Matty: AC Milan, Barcelona, Man Utd and Real haven’t been so should GCU. It is hardly a state secret the distain and dislike I hold for this club. Over the past 6 months, the constant arrogance, hyperbole and contempt the club along with its supporters have treated others with, has absolutely disgusted me. On the flip side I wish Brisbane Roar all the best.
Reuben: I am kind of the same. I was first happy to seeing GCU in the league and was hoping to go watch a few games down there. However, over the past couple of months everything the GCU has done has made me dislike them more and more.
Gaz: Man Utd and Madrid not cocky? Maybe it does not look that way if you are a fan?

Offside: Robbie Fowler….your take on him?
Matty: Masterstroke, even the knuckle dragging egg balled has had to acknowledge the presence of ‘God’. I am forty something lifelong ex pat scouser of the Evertonian variety, so you can imagine I choked on my cornflakes upon news of Robbie signing.
Offside: The other two lads seem to agree, can’t wait to see him play, even have him in my fantasy team…

Offside: Back on topic then. Being the most established of the Qld teams; do you think the Roar will have an upper edge in terms of supporter base?
Matty: I actually hope Brisbane get the fans they deserve. A large city should provide. We only want 5000 or so to keep games boutique.
Reuben: Of course we will. It takes quite some time to build up a solid support base and we saw in the GCU vs. Fulham game how small their crowd was.
Gaz: Got to wonder what kind of crowd we might have pulled if it was Celtic down here instead of Fulham.

Offside: Would you be happy if you were offered 7th place, but a victory in all derby games, or 6th place and a loss in all derby matches?
Reuben: I don’t think either is very likely to happen, however, if I had to pick, I would choose 6th place with losses in the derbies. Finals are a huge thing in sport in Australia.
Matty: That’s sort of what I was thinking, great mind and all that eh…
Gaz: 6th? 7th? What you talking about, Willis, LOL.
Matty: Didn’t Willis become a crack addict after a string of poor on stage performances….watch this space!
Reuben: Would be kind of funny if these things happened to the team meant to be going undefeated.
Gaz: Would be good to see NQFC grab 6th.

Offside: Finally, we will end with a Roar stanced question here, The Roar have been favoured by the bookies, do you think anything short of top 3 will be a failure?
Reuben: Anything short of top 4 would be a failure
Gaz: I think the Roar (esp. Farina) need at least a Grand Final appearance this season otherwise they will need some changes next season.
Matty: Never trust a bookie, they still think England will win the Ashes, enough said.

Thanks lads for all the time. Well what can i say, I am looking forward to this A-League season more than ever. It promises to be a cracker with the derbies in store and the old rivalries already current. Everyone can feel free to wage in to the debate in the comments if they feel like. Let the battle for Queensland commence!!!!

editorial side note: This was done over email, so was quite hard to get very accurate responses. I’d like to thank our three participants for all their time and effort in making this possible.