The one thing football fans don’t want to hear

Australian football is in its best era yet, but now it’s being condemned over one thing that fans should instead be celebrating.

COMMENT

I blame Harry Kewell for the first time I ever “posted online”.

The year was 2010 and my Dad had declared that after the Socceroos’ success in 2006 - we would be “getting up for all the Aussie games” this year.

So, in the middle of the night of June 13, I stumbled out to the living room in slippers and a dressing gown to see what the fuss was all about.

Forget the 4-0 loss against Germany - what the bloody hell was this sport?

I watched as a young Mesut Ozil put on a masterclass to send a message to the rest of the tournament.

I watched fans in the crowd in near tears after Tim Cahill was red-carded to put him in doubt for the rest of the tournament.

And I watched afterwards, as a sad and sorry Harry Kewell told fans there was time to turn things around after staying on the bench for the game.

The Socceroos celebrate after winning the second leg of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Australia and Uruguay. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

The whole time, I was on the edge of the couch.

What WAS this?

Growing up in Sydney, the only sport that existed in my world was rugby league.

That and AFL - which - being in my family - only seemed like it was invented for the purposes of bagging.

But this soccer thing.

It was graceful, it was precise, it was passionate.

Fans in the stands were jumping, screaming, dancing - not because their team was winning or losing, but because they were part of something larger than life.

A festival of football.

Harry Kewell receives a red card at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

I needed to know more. But where?

My parents had no idea what football was beyond the World Cup.

The next day, much to my disappointment, none of my friends knew the score or even that the Cup was even on.

So naturally, I took to the big bulky living room and asked a flurry of questions to randoms on the internet.

My post was made to Yahoo Answers, a question-and-answer community-style platform that no longer exists.

“Will Harry Kewell be playing the next game?” I asked as my first question.

Then, some more hard-hitting questions, ranging somewhere from “Is Ronaldo the best player in the world” to “who is going to take out the tournament do you think?”

I can still remember the argument my parents had after my mum found out.

“She’s just asking people things about the World Cup,” she told my Dad as she calmed him down.

At the time, it seemed like the world was only just finding out what a Socceroo was - with international games on Australian shores few and far between.

The A-League had also only just started to get its footing, and as for a professional female footballer?

If you told me they existed at the time, I probably would have fallen to the ground.

Sam Kerr has inspired a generation. (Photo by IZHAR KHAN / AFP)

Football was very much an afterthought and for a person with soccer very much front of mind at the time - it was a hard pill to swallow.

In recent months, the Matildas crowd have gotten flack for being “too family-friendly” - and it’s the one thing football fans don’t want to hear.

When it comes to sports, especially soccer, don’t most of us discover our love for it alongside our families?

If anything, the more families that have the opportunity to go to games together, put on the green and gold and give the sport a go - the better.

Aussie football should be family-friendly.

Luckily for me, my Yahoo Answers experience was enough for me to immediately switch from playing netball to soccer and ignite a full-blown love for the sport of football, which has led to me watching, playing and reporting on the game since.

The Matildas are the best thing that’s happened to football in Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

But the greatest part is, in this era of Aussie football, undoubtedly its best yet, no young person with a new-found interest in the game will ever be at a loss.

Very much helped by the popularity of the Matildas - football is now everywhere.

It’s on our shores, stores, our screens.

You’re now hard-pressed to find a young person who can’t rattle off at least a few names of the Matildas squad or has even been to game themselves.

Now, when a young person like me rocks up the morning after a World Cup game, their mates don’t just know the score.

They’re jumping, dancing, screaming about the result - a part of the wonderful festival of football.