Western Sydney Wanderers – carrying the flag for the west with Matt “ Duck Man ” Austin
The Western Sydney Wanderers burst onto the Australian football landscape on 4 April 2012 after the Football Federation of Australia decided to provide the fans the team that they were devoid of in the national competition . The area had the largest growth in Australia at the time .
Fast forward 11 years and the Wanderers , who are the pride of the west , have had immeasurable success with the A League Minor Premiership in their first season , an Asian Cup victory against all odds and plenty of grand final appearances . The last two seasons has seen
Wanderers ’ players celebrate a goal .
Credit : A Leagues . them return to the newly named and revamped Comm Bank stadium in the heart of downtown Parramatta .
Their training base is well established out at the Wanderers Football Park complex at Blacktown . It has top notch facilities and gives all their men ’ s , women ’ s , youth and academy sides the best
opportunity to excel in the world of elite high-performance football in the national competitions .
The club has bought in Marko Rudan , the former robust centre back who started his career only a stone ’ s throw up the road for Sydney United . He has a 17-year professional career as a player that gave him the skill base required to make an impact as a coach .
He developed and fine-tuned the skills to bring out the best in the team from the west . He tasted success as a coach helping Sydney Utd win two NSW NPL premierships and win two Australia cups . He ‘ gets ’ the west and what the Wanderers are about , what the fans want and expect of their club .
Last season he took the club to within a hair ’ s breadth of 2nd place , and that ultimately led to them getting dispatched by local derby rivals Sydney FC . The Wanderers have again this season come out firing and shown a strong presence on the park with players such as Brendan Borello and Josh Brillante , Jack Clisby and star import Marcello laying the groundwork for the side .
They have been a formidable team and currently sit in 6th place on the A League ladder but have recently gone through a poor run of results which has seen them slip from 2nd place with one win , one draw and three losses in the last five games .
It is inevitable that the Wanderers will turn their form around this season with Rudan as the custodian of the club and incredibly talented youngsters such as Nicolas Milanovic , Marcus Younis , Valentino Yuel and Lachlan Brook – the latter contributing with seven goals and one assist in 15 matches so far .
The Wanderers can expect a tough run into the finals after losing 1-0 to the current champions , the Central Coast Mariners . However , they are nicely positioned with three home matches out of five in the next few weeks , including the Sydney derby against Sydney FC , a home
RBB fans in full swing . Credit : A Leagues .
game against Western United and then home against the Roar taking them past Easter .
They have road trips to Adelaide and Perth , followed by two away local derbies to Macarthur and Sydney . The football Gods may just look down upon Mark Rudan and his team of battle-hardened players and give them the chance to showcase their skills in the big dance .
The competition is still wide open and closer than it has ever been . This may well be the year that the Wanderers get their day in the sun and get to hold aloft the treasured A League champions trophy .
Dream big and believe Wanderers fans .
Greg McCallum – NRL whistleblowing legend
with Matt “ Duck Man ” Austin
Every time you sit at home , at games or at the pub , there ’ s usually some armchair expert ripping it into the referees . That ’ s a forward pass ref or you ’ re blind . Few ever pick up the whistle and get out there and showcase their expert skills for everyone to analyse !
Greg McCallum was one of the few referees who not only got out there on the field , but absolutely excelled and dominated the refereeing world . At the end of his career once the final whistle was blown Greg had amassed a huge 241 NSW and ARL 1s grade rugby league games and in the same period amassed three consecutive 1st grade grand finals , plus six lower grade grand finals .
He was up there with the absolute best .
Greg said that he had a good apprenticeship and that the referees used to believe they were professional because
Greg McCallum sinbinning Allan Langer . Credit : Greg McCallum .
they tried hard . He was a schoolteacher and the referees used to have to make a lot of sacrifices . They had to work their way up through grade from junior reps and lower grades and move their way into 1st grade . There was a lot of competition for the referees , and they had to get as much experience as they could including through schoolboy refereeing .
Greg liked to call players by the numbers so that there was a level of respect for the match officials and players . When Greg was coaching referees , he liked to instil into the referees that they should call player numbers and not names .
The players were very respectful with the referees and the referees used to use the five-minute sinbin when there was a fair bit of dissent with the refs . Players badgered referees to try to influence their decisions , and it the refs could not keep the players in their place they may end up having a stint in reserve grade .
Greg has come across 2000 + referees and said they all bring credit to the game and to refereeing . He started refereeing in the Manly district in the late 70s and early 80s . He made his first-grade debut back in 1983 between Wests and Cronulla at Lidcombe Oval .
Terry Lamb played in his very first game for Wests that day . He came across many amazing referees such as Greg Hartley and Bill Harrigan , who both ironically had the nickname Hollywood , which the author believes was for their love of getting on the camera !
When Bill Harrigan came into the referees ’ ranks in 1986 , he changed everything about what the referees did . His fitness level was far above that of existing referees . He focused on sprint training and fitness training and was flogged by his father-in-law at the end of 1986 and start of 1987 .
Greg was beating Bill Harrigan in sprints and was never dropped from 1987 until the end of his career in 1994 . That off season was the turning point and changed his refereeing career altogether from the high-level sprint training he did .
His biggest highlights were refereeing three grand finals in a row and retiring on the top of his game .
He was the first Australian referee to
Greg and other referees with the Windfield Cup . Credit : Greg McCallum . ref at the old Wembley Stadium , his first origin game and first grade debut were also highlights . His funniest moment was in the 3rd origin game in 1993 when there was a big punch up between Paul Harragon , Marty Bella , Ben Elias and Steve Walters .
They were all sinbinned and returned five minutes later . Steve Walters got to the scrum 1st and Boxhead yelled out to Benny , ‘ hurry up Benny I ’ ve got a test match to play next week .’
That was also one of the toughest games that Greg has refereed .
Ironically , Terry Lamb played in his first game as a 1st grade referee and in his last game in the 1994 NRL Grand Final for Canterbury .
What a career !
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