I must say I sit here a bit shocked this morning. Staggered by what’s going to take place in this town tonight.
At 7pm the A-League is going to resume the abandoned Melbourne Derby, the game that saw one of the most shameful episodes in our sporting capital’s history.
The pitch invasion and the violence of hooligan fans that disturbed and disgusted in equal parts.
That night in December sent shockwaves through the sporting culture of this city.
I was in a hotel room in Brisbane watching after being alerted to what was transpiring. It was sickening.
It came in the immediate aftermath of the glow created for football by the performance of the Socceroos in the World Cup.
It came at a venue that had hosted tens of thousands of fans early on a Sunday morning to watch a game together on the big screen.
Soccer was asking the question what is holding the sport back in this country when it shows that capacity to unite and inspire.
What happened at AAMI Park on December 18 made such ponderances a rhetorical question.
It didn’t happen in isolation.
Some of the most prominent voices in the sport had created an atmosphere of volatility over the governing body's decision to sell the A-League Grand Final to Sydney.
That ginned up environment produced the worst imaginable hooliganism.
Some football authorities tried to wash their hands of the hardcore element that exists within the fan base, but it wasn’t a random infiltration.
It came from the darkest corners of football in this country.
That militant group that thinks they own the game and would hold it hostage.
Football has never known how to confront that element. Eventually they were indulged and disastrously empowered.
Melbourne Victory was punished severely financially.
A 10-point competition penalty sits above them like the Sword of Damocles, but they have been incredibly lucky to have been allowed to play in front of home crowds in the ensuing months.
Those crowd numbers have collapsed as sports fans turned their backs on the team and the competition.
I’ve had this experience firsthand. I’d promised my son I’d take him to a Victory game after Christmas.
Like many others I’m sure, there’s no way I’m taking my family in light of what transpired.
That Derby will have a long and shameful legacy for football in this city.
It is nothing short of appalling that it will be reprised tonight absurdly resuming in the 22nd minute with City leading Victory 1-0.
The game should have been forfeited by Victory in the sanctions that were issued.
The Australian Professional Leagues should be doing all it can to remove the stain of those events, not actively revisiting them.
It makes me wonder about the judgment of all involved running that competition.
And it sure as hell suggests Victory has lost touch with the mood of the town that for a long time invested so much pride in their endeavours and successes.
I’m quite appalled by what is going to transpire tonight.
How on earth could you seek to complete a game that ended like this?
A small but distinct window still exist to call this off, rather than go ahead with what amounts to a disgrace.
An affront to the sporting culture of Melbourne.