Melbourne wins interstate battle of ALM brands as Western Sydney’s woes continue
On Sunday afternoon, a former Western Sydney Wanderers player and coach accused club management of overseeing “the most toxic environment I’ve seen in 20 years of football”.
“How can 60 odd players and four coaches over five years be wrong,” tweeted Dean Heffernan, who made nine appearances for the men’s team between 2013 and 2014 before becoming coach of the women’s team in 2019. “I rejected a third year due to the above.
“I was an empty shell in that place mate. It was a slow football death over three years of coaching … it’s not the players. This has been happening for years now, most former players that walk in there say somethings not right here anymore. It an energy and you feel it, and can smell it from the car park. It slowly seeps into you without even knowing.”
A couple of hours later Macarthur FC, the incumbent Sydney represent for off-field disarray, staged another exhibition of togetherness on the pitch (and not a great pitch at that) compelling enough to win while playing with 10 men for more than 70 minutes. That come-from-behind 2-1 result against Newcastle, which keeps them top of the table, played out just before the ostensibly floundering dynasty that is Sydney FC finally recorded its first green tick of the season at the expense of Wellington.
There is something going around in the harbour city – and it’s not just Covid-19. Things in the league north of the Victorian border are … weird. A bit kooky and off-kilter, and throwing up surprises. Not that the Wanderers’ slide is at all surprising; it is, merely, continuing. The surprise is the people speaking out about it.
Heffernan’s very public censure of the club was accompanied by that of Patrick Zwaanswijk, who was briefly on the club’s coaching last season. Heffernan and Zwaanswik’s criticisms were not directed at the club’s coaches. The Wanderers declined to comment.
“Thank you Dean,” Zwaanswijk tweeted in one of a number of posts. “I know 100% I wasn’t the only one … we will keep our heads up but won’t be silenced anymore. Truth hurts but is healing at the same time.”
Both followed the Wanderers’ 2-0 loss to Central Coast on Saturday. The former powerhouse now sit eighth and on track to miss the finals for a fifth successive season. The club’s on-field performances mean Carl Robinson’s tenure as head coach is surely unsustainable, in the same way as those of his predecessors Jean-Paul de Marigny, Markus Babbel and Josep Gombau.
The guy before Gombau, of course, was Tony Popovic, whose recent presence in Melbourne seems to be a key contributor to Victory’s A-League Men reawakening. Him and the other new local, John Aloisi. Between the pair of former Socceroos teammates-turned-managers both Melbourne Victory and Western United have regained a pulse.
Victory, the reigning woodenspooners with a proneness to conceding 13 goals and scoring none over two games against City, now sit third. Two points above them in second are United – the same club that lost their last eight matches of 2020-21 to place 10th.
Their home win over Adelaide was achieved on the same day as a second and third squad member tested positive for Covid. Of course, it is more straightforward to muster victories against the odds when the whole team is not stuck in a Queensland hotel room for 14 days – the obstacle currently encountered by Perth Glory.
“We knew this could happen... training had to change times, you’re not sure if you’re going to play the game or not play the game,” Aloisi said. “But the club worked tirelessly in the background, the players remained focused and showed their character because we had to fight ... we did have to adjust … it’s probably going to happen all season. We just have to be ready for it and make sure we adapt well and the group did.”
Melbourne City, granted, have thus far appeared somewhat skittish by the champions’ high standards but Saturday’s 2-2 derby draw with Victory was still just about everything the seasonopening Sydney derby wasn’t. The goals were one thing. The high-quality, helter-skelter nature of the contest was another.
Another entirely was the genuinely outstanding pettiness of supporters that makes such ties sing. Original Style Melbourne – the Victory active fan base which replaced the disbanded North Terrace – accused the owners of home team Melbourne City, the City Football Group, of being “an enemy of our game” for apparently not allowing them to bring their full tifo to AAMI Park (reports indicate both sets of supporters were allowed one banner each and OSM had requested a second).
“See you on Saturday you rats,” the group wrote on Facebook during the week. “Now you’ve started a real rivalry.”
Popovic was seemingly cool with said rivalry.
“We want passion, we want noise, we want a derby not just on the field but also off the field,” he said on the eve of the game. “We know that our fans will bring that to the game and what they’re allowed to do is out of my hands, I can’t control that. But I know that nothing will stop the passion from our fans tomorrow.”
The almost 20,000 in attendance matched the forecast, and made for an atmosphere very much needed by the Australian Professional Leagues and broadcasters Ten and Paramount + who are in the midst of rebuilding the game’s wider popularity. Right now, at least, Melbourne are winning the interstate battle of the brands.