Rivals playing golf together? In Sydney derby week? The game’s gone

On May 19, 1996, professional wrestlers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash competed in the final matches of their contracts with the then-World Wrestling Federation at Madison Square Garden. The main event was a steel cage match between Nash and Shawn Michaels, the reigning WWF champion.

At the end, Hall entered the ring and embraced Michaels. Triple H followed him in, embracing Hall and then Nash. All four of them engaged in a group hug, then turned towards the crowd, their arms held aloft.

Western Sydney’s Brandon Borello clashes with Sydney FC veteran Alex Wilkinson at a derby last year.Credit: Getty

The card wasn’t televised, but a couple of fans snuck in a camcorder, and the vision they captured would send shockwaves through the industry.

Hall and Michaels were ‘babyfaces’, or the good guys, according to WWF’s storylines. Nash and Triple H were ‘heels’, or bad guys. They were all close friends outside the ring and were emotional because Hall and Nash were about to leave for World Championship Wrestling, a rival promotion. But by breaking character, this moment (later dubbed the ‘Curtain Call’) changed the course of professional wrestling forever.

The sight of supposedly feuding wrestlers mixing like that shattered the illusion of ‘kayfabe’, the unwritten rule that wrestlers maintain their in-ring personas in public, and blurred the lines between performance and reality. Fans already knew what they were seeing was scripted, but the mask had slipped, and the narrative structure upon which the WWF had been built on was broken.

Maybe it’s a long bow to draw, but it felt like something similar happened this week in Australian soccer.

Revealed: players on both sides of the A-League’s Sydney derby divide spend their free time together.Credit: Instagram

Earlier this week, it emerged via Instagram that players from both Sydney FC and the Western Sydney Wanderers played golf together. This would probably be fine at any other time – except this week, which is derby week. Come Saturday night at Allianz Stadium, we are to accept that these blokes hate each other, and everything their clubs stand for.

“Great day with the lads!!” read the caption from Tom Heaton, a professional golfer. And to be fair, as evidenced by the photo posted on his Instagram story, it looked like an absolute corker. Sydney FC’s English import Joe Lolley and Jordan Courtney-Perkins were tagged, along with Wanderers’ Swedish striker Marcus Antonsson, and Socceroo Luke Brattan, now of Macarthur FC.

Juan Mata was also there – and we wonder if he’d have gone golfing with, say, someone like Manchester City’s David Silva in derby week, back when he was playing for Manchester United. Or anyone from Arsenal when he played for Chelsea. At the very least, if he did, he probably would have gone to the ends of the earth to keep it secret.

In his defence, Courtney-Perkins said he didn’t know Antonsson and Mata would be there until he rocked up. Heaton, it turns out, had invited them to play – just as he does with Courtney-Perkins and Lolley from time to time.

“I spoke with a couple of people at training, and maybe the timing of it wasn’t ideal. That’s something I probably should have thought about,” Courtney-Perkins told this masthead.

A-League men and women players in Sydney yesterday ahead of this weekend’s Unite Round.Credit: Getty Images

“It’s a lack of judgement from me. At the end of the day, we all have our lives outside of football, and mine certainly involves a lot of golf. But that doesn’t change how I approach the game or my mentality going into the game.

“As soon as that whistle blows, I’m honoured to wear this jersey and I still hate the Wanderers.”

Alex Brosque, the Sydney FC legend who famously set up the season-opening derby week of 2016 by declaring “we hate every single one of them”, was a little more forthright when he spoke on SEN’s The Global Game this week.

“This game’s about the fans,” Brosque said.

“Imagine coming out one day, on the Tuesday: ‘Right, we’re playing the derby – we hate every single one of them.’ And on Wednesday I’m playing golf with Bridgey, Mark Bridge, on the other side.

Wanderers fans unveil their impressive tifo before the start of a Sydney derby in February 2023.Credit: Getty

“That’s me. I get it’s different. It was mostly the foreign boys, so their attachment to the derby isn’t as strong as ours, but they know what it’s like. They know what these games are like. I just think it’s not a good look, and they probably shouldn’t be doing it week of a derby.

“Unless those photos are from a month ago. Even still, don’t put them up this week.”

We understand there’s a bit of kayfabe going on here. We already know these players don’t actually hate each other. We know Brosque doesn’t really mean those words; we know he’s from western Sydney, and obviously doesn’t commit assault against ex-Wanderers on sight.

But we know what he’s getting at. That’s the attitude that makes derbies matter. We know it’s ‘only’ the A-League. But for some people, it’s everything.

On Saturday, thousands of otherwise ordinary people will take on entirely different personas for the night, amassing in either The Cove or the Red & Black Bloc to sing rather offensive things about those who live on the other side of the city for 90 minutes. They don’t really believe some of the things they say – or maybe some do – but they all do it regardless, for fun, for zero payment, while everyone else benefits. The players benefit from the edgy atmosphere they generate. So does the A-League, and the broadcasters.

Equally, players are of course entitled to hang out with whoever they like off the pitch. But they should know how it looks: as if they’re not taking this seriously enough. Playing golf with the enemy in derby week undermines the nature of the fixture they expect everyone else to buy into. It’s allowing the mask to slip. It’s taking a steel chair to the suspension of disbelief.

By all means, hit the fairways with the other mob if you really have to. If you’re a babyface, there’s no law that says your best mate can’t be a heel.

Just don’t get caught, or your entire industry may come crashing down.