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NPL 2025

Beretta said:
As much as you'd think the Croat teams have some "United" front in Melbourne, it's far from the case.

They dont like each other much and all want to out-do each other.

Back in the NSL era, a lot of the Melbourne Knights board / fans went to St Albans Dinamo cause of a massive falling out.
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Not The Case. There is a friendly rivalry of course but for the MAIN 3 clubs you will see North fans at Churchill, Knights fans at Elcho Park and St Albans fans at Somers St every week. Compare that to the Greek clubs and Macedonian clubs and Italian clubs when they were big it's a whole different story
 
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Beretta said:
i'm not sure how tied up they are by the mother clubs in croatia to be honest
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Croats who settled in St Albans originally support St Albans whether they support Dinamo or Hajduk. The Original badge featured in throwback merchandise this year is Identical to the current Hajduk badge despite the club being Dinamo Soccer Club.
 
3021 said:
Not The Case. There is a friendly rivalry of course but for the MAIN 3 clubs you will see North fans at Churchill, Knights fans at Elcho Park and St Albans fans at Somers St every week. Compare that to the Greek clubs and Macedonian clubs and Italian clubs when they were big it's a whole different story
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Perhaps thats the case now and the bridge has been mended, but back in the day they didnt get along so well.

I'm in melbourne tonight, i'll be watching Melbourne Knights vs Oakleigh Cannons.

is it 50 years of St.Albans Dinamo tomorrow night?
 
3021 said:
Not The Case. There is a friendly rivalry of course but for the MAIN 3 clubs you will see North fans at Churchill, Knights fans at Elcho Park and St Albans fans at Somers St every week. Compare that to the Greek clubs and Macedonian clubs and Italian clubs when they were big it's a whole different story
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Not always the case with Greek clubs mate, at least in Melbourne... Most have very good relationships and you'll see Northote City, Box Hill, Yarraville etc etc fans at both Hellas and Bergers games (although rare for Hellas and Bergers fans to go to each others). The only club EVERYONE hates is Oakleigh ... but so do all the other ethnicities :P
 
And again, at the risk of copping it, and people can believe what they want.. but I just want to state for the record again, the situation Italian clubs are in in Melbourne is not representative of Italian clubs nationally. The likes of Marconi and Adelaide city are some of the healthiest clubs outside the a league in their respective cities. I don’t claim Marconi gets crowds like Preston or is capable of the sort of support Sydney united had at the Australia cup final, but this view that Italian clubs are like Avondale, the current Brunswick juventus or Werribee city is one seen through the lense of Melbourne. I’m not one who thinks crowd numbers are the only metric with which a club should be judged but on a good day Marconi is still capable of getting a couple thousand people through the turnstiles and have one of the best set ups off the field in the country. The situation with Melb Italian clubs is complicated and there are a number of factors. Brunswick juventus being run poorly, the mergers and de mergers diluting the history and through lines, the aforementioned infighting and dislike between different clubs, the success of the afl in capturing a Italian Australians in Melbourne, Melbourne victory scooping up anyone who was left. Also many Italians clubs in Melbourne have affiliations with particular regions of Italy, many of said also have strong rivalries and a disdain for each other. None of these factors are as pronounced in Sydney.
 
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Glenardo said:
And again, at the risk of copping it, and people can believe what they want.. but I just want to state for the record again, the situation Italian clubs are in in Melbourne is not representative of Italian clubs nationally. The likes of Marconi and Adelaide city are some of the healthiest clubs outside the a league in their respective cities. I don’t claim Marconi gets crowds like Preston or is capable of the sort of support Sydney united had at the Australia cup final, but this view that Italian clubs are like Avondale, the current Brunswick juventus or Werribee city is one seen through the lense of Melbourne. I’m not one who thinks crowd numbers arethe only metric with which a club should be judged but only a good day Marconi is still capable of getting a couple thousand people through the turnstiles and have one of the best set ups off the field in the country. The situation with Melb Italian clubs is complicated and there are a number of factors. Brunswick juventus being run poorly, the mergers and de mergers diluting the history and through lines, the aforementioned infighting and dislike between different clubs, the success of the afl in capturing a Italian Australians in Melbourne, Melbourne victory scooping up anyone who was left. Also many Italians clubs in Melbourne have affiliations with particular regions of Italy, many of said also have strong rivalries and a disdain for each other. None of these factors are as pronounced in Sydney.
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Once upon a time ... Im talking decades ago, Brunswick Juve were a force.. when they exited the NSL the mergers/demergers destroyed any chance of a representative Italian club... For the Greek, Cro, North Maco clubs this didnt happen to the same extent, the "big" clubs remained big even when they dropped ...
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Once upon a time ... Im talking decades ago, Brunswick Juve were a force.. when they exited the NSL the mergers/demergers destroyed any chance of a representative Italian club... For the Greek, Cro, North Maco clubs this didnt happen to the same extent, the "big" clubs remained big even when they dropped ...
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Their strongest era was actually pre nsl, the club elected not to join the national league, that was the beginning of the change in fortunes imo. Their name sake club in Adelaide city took a different path and had a very different trajectory as a result
 
Glenardo said:
And again, at the risk of copping it, and people can believe what they want.. but I just want to state for the record again, the situation Italian clubs are in in Melbourne is not representative of Italian clubs nationally. The likes of Marconi and Adelaide city are some of the healthiest clubs outside the a league in their respective cities. I don’t claim Marconi gets crowds like Preston or is capable of the sort of support Sydney united had at the Australia cup final, but this view that Italian clubs are like Avondale, the current Brunswick juventus or Werribee city is one seen through the lense of Melbourne. I’m not one who thinks crowd numbers are the only metric with which a club should be judged but on a good day Marconi is still capable of getting a couple thousand people through the turnstiles and have one of the best set ups off the field in the country. The situation with Melb Italian clubs is complicated and there are a number of factors. Brunswick juventus being run poorly, the mergers and de mergers diluting the history and through lines, the aforementioned infighting and dislike between different clubs, the success of the afl in capturing a Italian Australians in Melbourne, Melbourne victory scooping up anyone who was left. Also many Italians clubs in Melbourne have affiliations with particular regions of Italy, many of said also have strong rivalries and a disdain for each other. None of these factors are as pronounced in Sydney.
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On the 3XY (Radio Hellas) show here in Melbourne, the host, Peter Kotsiris said "Italians are lost to soccer".

I suspect he was looking at it from a Melbourne lense, and if so, he is right to a large extent. They appear to love Australian Rules more than other Southern Europeans. And have NEVER had a big club to unite behind (Brunswick Juventus were too parochial for most Italians to get behind).
 
Marconi v Melbourne city in the round of 16 in the cup in 2019. Official attendance was just under 2,000 on a Wednesday night. No one can claim attendance that there were other nationalities or away fans boosting that figure. I think you’ll find that’s pretty much on par with the sorts of crowds Greek, Croatian etc ex nsl clubs have gotten at that stage of the comp v interstate opposition. (I won’t bore you with the stats but trust me i checked and everyone else on here can too if they like) You’ll also notice that’s it’s not hugely different to the sorts of crowds you’ll see at a big npl game, including all Italian clashes. I feel as though I’ve got to be on here advocating because there are relatively few others online doing so
 

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Son of Sam said:
On the 3XY (Radio Hellas) show here in Melbourne, the host, Peter Kotsiris said "Italians are lost to soccer".

I suspect he was looking at it from a Melbourne lense, and if so, he is right to a large extent. They appear to love Australian Rules more than other Southern Europeans. And have NEVER had a big club to unite behind (Brunswick Juventus were too parochial for most Italians to get behind).
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There are many Italians in Melbourne who follow both, lots of Melbourne victory fans have Italian heritage, but also as I say, in Melbourne more so than in other places, assimilation for young men meant adopting afl and many of the afls biggest clubs hail from areas in which Italians lived. The historical link to clubs like Brunswick juventus was broken
 
Glenardo said:
Marconi v Melbourne city in the round of 16 in the cup in 2019. Official attendance was just under 2,000 on a Wednesday night. No one can claim attendance that there were other nationalities or away fans boosting that figure. I think you’ll find that’s pretty much on par with the sorts of crowds Greek, Croatian etc ex nsl clubs have gotten at that stage of the comp v interstate opposition. (I won’t bore you with the stats but trust me i checked and everyone else on here can too if they like) You’ll also notice that’s it’s not hugely different to the sorts of crowds you’ll see at a big npl game, including all Italian clashes. I feel as though I’ve got to be on here advocating because there are relatively few others online doing so
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Italian derby a few years back, mid winter..again, can’t claim it was being boosted by other nationalities
 

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