The Coon Dog
25-10-2007, 07:37 PM
Last season I promised my kids that if the Melbourne Victory hosted the A League Grand Final I would take them.
Media speculation was rife that tickets that went on sale to the general public would sell very quickly. With this in mind I decided to drive to work (I work in the CBD) & parked underneath Telstra Dome.
I got there at about 6.45am & was 15th in the queue. By the time 9am came around the queue had swelled to hundreds. I was glad I wasn’t anywhere near the tail of the queue.
After the first 9 people had been served (seemed to take ages to process each sale) the world filtered through that all seating had been sold out. NO!!
I remained in the queue & reluctantly purchased standing room. Little did I know how fortunate that would turn out to be?
The big day arrived & with it one of the hottest days on record. Temperatures that day nudged 44 C degrees. It was stinking hot. We had frozen some water bottles at home & took them with us. We were fortunate to get a free car park outside the Remand Centre.
It was only a 10 minute walk to the Stadium, but by the time we got there we had run out of water. Not only did we drink lots of it on our way, we poured it over each other. It was cool & refreshing, for all of 2 seconds.
We arrived at the ground at 3pm & had to wait for an hour before the gates opened. It was almost unbearable sitting in the heat, but we were at the front of the queue.
As soon as we got in we raced around to aisle 16. We thought we would all be standing for a very long time, but unbeknown to us, that area of the ground has a barrier at the rear of the seats & another barrier about a foot further back. The kids were able to sit on the rear barrier & dangle their feel between or rest them on the bars.
By the time the game started I had spent a small fortune in drinks & ice creams.
What a crowd! What an atmosphere! The place was as full as I have ever seen it, most people bedecked in blue, with a couple of bays of the red of the visiting Adelaide United supporters.
It’s hard to describe the feeling of the game but it went very quickly 1-0 to Melbourne. Then 2-0 shortly after. The Adelaide Captain Ross Aloisi was red carded half way through the first half. By half time it was 3-0 to the Victory with Archie Thompson already scoring a hat-trick!
Inside the ground there was euphoria amongst the Victory fans. With only 10 men, there was no Adelaide were ever going to emulate another famous team in red & overturn such a deficit.
Much of the second half was a blur & the Victory never took their foot off their opponent’s throats. Just prior to the final whistle Archie Thompson was substituted to a thunderous ovation, after all, he’d just scored 5 goals in a Grand Final!
Kristian Sarkies put the icing on the cake with a beautifully curled 6th goal.
It was amazing in the ground as the roof was partially opened & a small part of the ground was being soaked. Melbourne’s drought, like that of the Victory had burst.
Who else went & what were some of your memories?
Media speculation was rife that tickets that went on sale to the general public would sell very quickly. With this in mind I decided to drive to work (I work in the CBD) & parked underneath Telstra Dome.
I got there at about 6.45am & was 15th in the queue. By the time 9am came around the queue had swelled to hundreds. I was glad I wasn’t anywhere near the tail of the queue.
After the first 9 people had been served (seemed to take ages to process each sale) the world filtered through that all seating had been sold out. NO!!
I remained in the queue & reluctantly purchased standing room. Little did I know how fortunate that would turn out to be?
The big day arrived & with it one of the hottest days on record. Temperatures that day nudged 44 C degrees. It was stinking hot. We had frozen some water bottles at home & took them with us. We were fortunate to get a free car park outside the Remand Centre.
It was only a 10 minute walk to the Stadium, but by the time we got there we had run out of water. Not only did we drink lots of it on our way, we poured it over each other. It was cool & refreshing, for all of 2 seconds.
We arrived at the ground at 3pm & had to wait for an hour before the gates opened. It was almost unbearable sitting in the heat, but we were at the front of the queue.
As soon as we got in we raced around to aisle 16. We thought we would all be standing for a very long time, but unbeknown to us, that area of the ground has a barrier at the rear of the seats & another barrier about a foot further back. The kids were able to sit on the rear barrier & dangle their feel between or rest them on the bars.
By the time the game started I had spent a small fortune in drinks & ice creams.
What a crowd! What an atmosphere! The place was as full as I have ever seen it, most people bedecked in blue, with a couple of bays of the red of the visiting Adelaide United supporters.
It’s hard to describe the feeling of the game but it went very quickly 1-0 to Melbourne. Then 2-0 shortly after. The Adelaide Captain Ross Aloisi was red carded half way through the first half. By half time it was 3-0 to the Victory with Archie Thompson already scoring a hat-trick!
Inside the ground there was euphoria amongst the Victory fans. With only 10 men, there was no Adelaide were ever going to emulate another famous team in red & overturn such a deficit.
Much of the second half was a blur & the Victory never took their foot off their opponent’s throats. Just prior to the final whistle Archie Thompson was substituted to a thunderous ovation, after all, he’d just scored 5 goals in a Grand Final!
Kristian Sarkies put the icing on the cake with a beautifully curled 6th goal.
It was amazing in the ground as the roof was partially opened & a small part of the ground was being soaked. Melbourne’s drought, like that of the Victory had burst.
Who else went & what were some of your memories?