Opinion: Shane Derham looks at derby day in Melbourne ..

A Day in the Life!

Friday was no ordinary Friday for me. For today was Derby Day, and I don't mean the annual running of the Horses at Flemington. Melbourne Town finally has a local derby in the A-League to call their own. But this is not the first local derby in the A-League (Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets, Central Coast Mariners v Sydney FC), but if you believe the Melbourne Media, this is the only one that truly exists and counts.

As I finished my normal job which pays the bills for the day and decided to walk down to Federation Square to meet a friend, who in his ultimate wisdom is a Melbourne Victory supporter. After a telephone call and a conversation of "I'm running late and probably won't make it to said establishment" I thought to myself it's a lovely evening for a walk, so rather than catching the tram to Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, I thought I'd walk along the muddy, brown and sometimes smelly vein of this city.

But alas, as I walk, I didn't really get the feeling that the biggest game in town was about to kick off in an hour's time. As I arrived into Swan St, I started to get the sense that a Red and White team was taking on a Navy Blue side tonight. Flags were being waved from windows of cars, and as I stood at the stairs leading up to the Stadium where the sold out sign was up, the Red and White Unite arrived, but in a very small number. After standing around for a while, watching the Heart fans and Victory fans shout explicits at each other, I thought to myself, "Nothing really happening here, I'm going inside."

I found my seat, not a bad seat, sitting just to the right of the Victory bench on the first level, with the Heart Supporters to the right and the Victory to the left. With 15 minutes still before kick off, the stadium was not even half full. This could end up being a disaster for the A-League if by putting it back a week because the AFL is stuck in the 70's still by having replayed Grand Finals. Australians and especially Melbournians are notorious for late arrivals, so no real surprises there.

The whistle is finally blown, and from the outset Melbourne Victory can't break the Heart's tough line of defence. Aziz Behich is all over Robbie Kruse on our side of the ground and boy doesn't Behich let him know as he stood over the top of a fallen Kruse.

The crowd is settling into the game when all of a sudden, Alex Terra breaks away on the right hand side. He beats his man and crosses the ball with two Heart players in the centre and all of a sudden who gets a head to it, John Aloisi puts the ball in the back of the net, and surprisingly the crowd is a lot louder than I thought. Looking to the right, the Heart fans are going mad as cut snakes, while the Victory fans look like they just found out their favourite dog has just passed away.

All of a sudden, an Italian Heart fan in the next bay starts mouthing off after the goal. A grey haired Scottish Victory fan didn't appreciate his words of wisdom and fires back a barb that can't be quoted hear. This verbal stoush continues for the rest of the match between the two, which keeps everyone around them entertained when life on the pitch dies down.

A free kick is given right in front of me, which Kevin Muscat takes very quickly, a signature of the Victory since day dot of the A-League to which he finds Robbie Kruse on the near post. Kruse has swapped over to the left hand side after being shown up by Behich but Kruse does what strikers are paid to do, and levels the game up, and all of a sudden the mood changes in the stadium. Half time comes to the cheers of the crowd.

I head up to the press box to grab some food and see what everyone thought of the first half. I happen to run into ex-Central Coast player, Dean Heffernan, who was suspended after being red carded against the Brisbane Roar. We have a chat about the first half and I asked him what he thought about the AFL over the past month. Like me, he couldn't understand how obsessed everyone is and being a fellow New South Welshman, it's something you don't understand until you live in Melbourne.

I go back to my seat and the Scotsman and the Italian are still going at it. After a couple of minutes, I was thirsty and still hungry so I went got a coke and chips thinking, nothing surely will happen. Suddenly, as I was walking back to my seat the crowd goes up. No! As I run to see the pitch I see the Heart fans on their feet and Alex Terra high fiving the Yarraside fans. You have got to be kidding me! Heart go 2 - 1 and might have scored the winner and I missed it. I waited for the replay and it was a great cross by Worm to a free Terra on the far post.

The flow of the game has all been one-way traffic and the Heart have dominated the Victory. Suddenly the stadium tone change, Aziz Behich, how had an outstanding match went into a tackle a little too aggressive for someone already with a yellow card, finds himself in a sticky situation. The referee has no other option but to issue a second yellow, followed by the red.

There was a genuine feeling that there was another goal in the match before the final whistle was blown. The Victory had the best chance with Carlos Hernandez getting the perfect ball, but as his luck has it, it went well and truly too high over the goal, the kid just can't buy a goal.

The crowd figure goes up with just over 25,000. I look around the stadium and thought to myself, "Where are they going to fit the other 6,000 people?"

90 minutes is up as 5 minutes comes up on the board, 5 minutes! Where did they get 5 minutes from? The Scotsman and Italian are still going at it hammer and thong. The game patters out and the referee blows the final whistle. Surprisingly, there are a lot more Melbourne Heart fans here than I thought, as they stand up and set off a wave of noise through the stadium.

The derby lives up to the expectation of what it should. Fierce tackles by both sides, arguments in the crowd by fans and already a legitimate hatred only after 90 minutes of football being played.

By Shane Derham 12 October, 2010