A group of Bendigo FC supporters are bringing the active support back to the regional echelons of Victoria, adding their own spin onto the existing charm of local football.
If you’ve travelled up to Tom Flood Sports Centre for an NPL 1 clash involving Bendigo FC this season, chances are you’ve observed a small but vocal band of passionate supporters hoping to spur their team on to victory.
Whilst they’ve gone unnamed – for the meantime anyway – they most certainly haven’t gone unnoticed, with their bellowing tunes and vibrant displays the cornerstone of the young clubs match day routine.
Inaugural member of the Bendigo FC support group Wayne Unwin had a chat with the Corner Flag about everything from its inception right through to their plans for world domination, or something vaguely similar.
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The Beginning
Unwin and his fellow supporters saw the club’s acceptance into the National Premier League as an opportunity to get behind a team representing their region in an elite state competition.
“We more or less came together a few weeks before the season started,” Unwin recalls.
“We found out we were getting an NPL team, but no name or structure had been released yet. FC Bendigo finally made a Facebook page announcing who they are and a few of us mentioned it would be good to get some sort of support happening and then it all snowballed from there. “
With the group in its first season of existence, Unwin believes the current focus is on participation and encouragement, with hopes to gradually increase attendees.
“Organisation at the moment is pretty casual. We all turn up and make it up as we go along,” he says.
“Most of the guys are mid-early teenagers and young kids, mixed in with a few older guys like myself. We haven’t named ourselves or anything like that. My general idea is to be recognised as FC Bendigo people.
“At the moment it’s just about developing culture and getting basics right in terms of chanting.
“Numbers have changed each week so once we get a more stable base and work out who’s really keen we can start organising banner and tifo sessions and things like that.”
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Chants and Culture
The group currently adopts well known A-league and international club chants with their own unique spin, out of familiarity and convenience for new members, while graphic displays provide a creative insight into Bendigo’s history.
“If anyone heard us at the moment they would recognise most of our chants from the A-league. We’ve re-written most of them with all new words, but as we are starting out it’s easiest to get guys going to tunes they have heard on television before,” Unwin explains.
“Eventually we want our own sound. We don’t want to become a Northern Terrace, Yarraside, RBB or Cove clone.
“We are working on some originals, but they will be phased in over time. We just need to try and get the basics right for now and create some sort of atmosphere so others want to join in.
“In terms of visuals, we are working around a Chinese theme to start us off. Bendigo has a big Chinese history from the gold rush days.
“It’s a bit unique and can help separate us from others and give us a bit of an identity. That’s where the banner’s Chinese skull and ‘Born and Raised’ slogan comes from. The town was born and now it’s being raised again with FC Bendigo.
“It’s all baby steps. I expect us to look and sound a lot different this time next year.”
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Player Pathways
Unwin believes Bendigo FC’s main strength is its representation of a distinct regional area, able to unite a whole footballing community.
Furthermore, it presents a pathway for juniors to actively pursue a passion for the sport, with the opportunity to play for the club at an elite level with possibilities of aiming higher.
“One of the big pluses for our team is it represents a large community. FCB was born out of our amateur league (BASL), so it really represents everyone. It’s a huge advantage.
“In terms of juniors, there’s already a huge football community. There’s also a lot of football fans, we’ve just never had anything to bring it all together. Lots of people have their A-league or international league team, but they are isolated. The NPL gives us a chance to bring all that together.
“There’s a big buzz in the juniors. If a kid had any idea of furthering their career, they would have to eventually leave because there’s only so far they can go here. We now have a team kids can aim for. If they missed out on selection this season they have the incentive to work hard and try again next year.”
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Breaking Barriers
Unwin explains that the group’s current difficulty is a lack of confidence to chant, due to regional places not having a historical knowledge of football fan culture.
“The biggest issue we have is shyness. There’s not really a singing and chanting culture in Australia, especially in country areas. Only a handful of us have been involved in active areas at A-league matches. The other guys love the idea of it but then get shy when it comes game time.
“Each week I can see them get a little more confident and we break another one down to come out of their shell. The more guys that start chanting the easier it gets because the shyer ones don’t feel as exposed.
“The other major challenge we face is getting people to realise it’s okay to be passionate about their local team. Most people have their professional team they support but when it comes to their local team it’s just a social event and nothing more.
“Your professional team is still just 11 guys playing football. A person invests the emotion in to that team and suddenly it has greater importance. Our challenge is to show people it’s not strange to actually be passionate about their local community.
“After all, this is our local community, yet people are more passionate about a club they have never attended, or have any link to.
“I don’t think everyone here realises how unique FC Bendigo is to Bendigo. We have the potential to play an A-league team in the FFA Cup, a meaningful match in a national competition and not just some exhibition match.
”If we can start showing passion at games, people will hopefully start to ask why we are so passionate.
“Hopefully we can open peoples eyes to the potential that FC Bendigo brings to Bendigo.
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The Future
Unwin harbours grand ambitions for the supporter group.
“I would like us to aim to become one of the best supported teams in the NPL in Australia.
“A lot of people will laugh at the thought, but there really is a lot of potential here. It won’t happen overnight and will be a lot of hard work, but maybe 10 years from now, if we can put the culture in place, who knows?
“At the moment we are made up mainly by teenagers and younger kids, but years from now those teenagers will be adults and those kids will be late teenagers. If we can develop a supporter culture now then it will seem normal to those young kids coming through.
“We are one team to 100,000 people, and that team represents so many other individual clubs within the region.
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Capo?
But don’t go calling Wayne the capo just yet.
“I don’t really look at myself as the official capo, more just a guy that’s trying to get people going. We don’t have a leadership structure and don’t really want one, especially at this stage, not officially anyway,”
“A lot of the guys are young and the easiest way to scare them off would be to start going disciplinarian on them. We want to develop a culture. Over time they will know how to read the game and know what chants suit what occasions and it will just become automatic.
Wayne can be spotted at every Bendigo FC home game, shrouded in a mystique veil of yellow and blue. If you’re a local, there’s no better time than now to get up and support your side, with a marquee match up against A-League club Melbourne City up next before a league clash against Bulleen Lions the week following.
Tuesday 2nd September, 6:30pm: Bendigo FC v Melbourne City at Epsom Reserve
Saturday 6th September, 6:00pm: Bendigo FC v FC Bulleen Lions at Tom Flood Sports Centre