Blog! My perspective

Having written about Australian football for some time, predominantly on the unofficial Melbourne Victory Forum amongst other sites like the Roar and Football E-Zine Half-Time-Heroes when it existed I decided to start writing a blog to discuss my perspective on it all.

Part of this is perhaps because I seem to end up having a lot to write on the topics, and write surprisingly long posts which has pissed a fair few people off over the years and they don't end being read etc, so I figured I may as well write my own blog as an avenue to articulate my opinion if for my own enjoyment if nothing else.

So why NUFCMVFC?

Basically because I am of English background, and through my father who is a Geordie I ended up following Newcastle United Football Club when I was a child. I used to play "Vickick" when young (now Auskick) which is an AFL junior program but perhaps it is quite telling that instead of an AFL jumper I would play in an NUFC replica shirt. I began to pay attention in the mid-90's in particular since the Premier League began and the highlights show on ABC at the time allowed for Australian based fans to follow English football.

This was an era where the Toon were known as the "Entertainers" under Kevin Keegan and we were challenging for the title.

Our main opponent at the time was a certain Manchester United, and it is still painful to many a Toon fan of former player to be reminded that we surrended a huge 12 point lead to fall short of winning the League title in England for the first time since 1927.

There is a bittersweet irony to my story, given the fact that my Mother and her side is from Manchester, there is a mix of Manchester City and Manchester United fans throughout the maternal side of the family and in my Mothers case she used to watch games at Old Trafford in the 1960's. This of course meant that amidst the sea of bandwagoner fans I would have actually had a legitimate reason to follow Manchester United. Even if I ended up being nudged into following Manchester City I would have at least had belated joy.

But alas, the Father is usually the main influence of which team a Football fan often follows and Newcastle United it is. So a lifetime of misery awaits it seems, but hey at least we get the occasional European campaigns to enjoy which is more than what can be said for most teams

The MVFC in the name stands for Melbourne Victory Football Club. This is the entity that was allowed entry into the inaugural years of the A-League as the representative team for Melbourne under the "unite the tribes" strategy. Keen to have a local team to support, and to enjoy being able to get the experience of watching football from a place other then the TV in my loungeroom I signed up as an inaugural member and am still there eight years on.

In terms of my overall perspective, I feel quite passionate about the traditional fans perspective which has helped define my views, hence I am a member of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST), the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) in England, the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) covering pan-continental Europe more widely.

In terms of the Australian side of the equation I tend to be inclined to supporting the active supporter perspective of Melbourne Victory (North and South Terrace) even though I started out as a Gold member/season ticketholder on the wing in the first two years and currently have a General Admission membership/season ticket. I am also part of the Green and Gold Army (GGArmy) and have on occasion travelled with this group on overseas tours including the 2007 Asian Cup to Thialand and the 2009 World Cup Qualifier played in Japan.

Overall though, my perspective is one of the "bigger picture" for Australian and English football (thought the focus on overwhelmingly on Australian football given that's where I live) and this is underpinned through having an interest and hence degree-level qualifications in International Relations, Politics, Marketing and Supply Chain Management as degree Majors