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Roar break Victory hearts with last-minute winner
Thomas Broich comes good to keep Brisbane Roar in the A-League finals and send Melbourne Victory crashing out.
PT1M30S 620 349Do Brisbane Roar know how big they could be, or should be? Having survived another epic finals match, they've moved to within one game of a fourth grand final appearance in six seasons.
Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC like to claim they set the benchmarks, but they'd kill for a record like that. And yet the Roar remain largely on the fringe of the conversation, especially in their hometown where they're firmly entrenched in the shadows of the Broncos. Why?
Good football, good players, great success. But still the Roar, as a club, are only scratching at the surface of their potential.
Four owners in a decade - including Football Federation Australia in a caretaker capacity - hasn't helped. The acrimonious split with their founding fathers - the Dutch migrants who formed the club in 1958 (as Hollandia) - was particularly damaging.
Giving thanks: Roar players celebrate their victory with fans. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
Insecurity, insolvency and indifference have all plagued the Roar during the A-League era, but the team has managed to thrive regardless. The 36-game unbeaten record under Ange Postecoglou may never be broken. Good football, good players, great success. But still the Roar, as a club, are only scratching at the surface of their potential.
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Some dismiss their travails as the price you pay for being in a rugby league town. No one disputes the Broncos are a commercial juggernaut, but let's get one thing clear. The football community in Brisbane is by far the biggest of any code, and - thanks to the British migrants who worked the coal mines of Ipswich in the 1880s - there's a long and proud history. And if you regard the Roar as Queensland's club, rather than simply Brisbane's, then the sky's the limit.
With more than 70,000 registered players across the state, only NSW has a bigger participation base.
King of the North: Jade North celebrates the win over Melbourne Victory. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
We've seen that potential in three grand finals, when Suncorp Stadium has been filled to bursting. But from the highs there have been too many lows. Just nine months ago the owners - the Bakrie Group - put the club on the market. There were no takers, at least at the right price. During a tumultuous off-season players and coaches were unpaid, a long list of creditors lined up, there were threats of winding up orders, and coach John Aloisi spent half his time driving around Brisbane trying to bludge a training field.
And that's not the first time the club has teetered on the edge.
It's not unusual for an A-League club to have a near-death experience. The mystery is why Brisbane? A one-team town, a fantastic stadium, a huge community underneath, a record of sustained achievement.
Fanatical: Roar fans show their support during the A-League elimination final match between the Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory at Suncorp Stadium. Photo: Bradley Kanaris
And yet when the license was on the market less than 12 months ago - probably for a bargain-basement $10 million - it was effectively passed in at auction. Maybe, just maybe, that's going to prove to be a blessing in disguise.
The Bakrie Group - the Indonesian conglomerate which owns the Roar - found the money to keep the business going despite their own issues. Last year, the parent company was reportedly $8 billion in debt.
But the co-chairman, Nirwan Bakrie, has always been a football fanatic, and when push came to shove he decided to keep the Roar. Some claim Bakrie has never watched a Roar match. Others tell you his speciality is to watch from the stands, incognito. What we can say is he's used his money not only to pay off the creditors, but to invest in longer-term strategies like the new $9 million training complex planned for Logan. Finally, there seems to be hope.
"He [Nirwan Bakrie] has personal resources that he can use for his hobby of football," his Roar emissary, Demis Djamaoeddin, has been quoted as saying. That passion is admirable, and essential, but just as important is a masterplan to start capitalising on the Roar's enormous potential. There are signs that's happening at last.
In the meantime, Thomas Broich's dramatic late winner against Melbourne Victory confirmed a few salient points. That the German maestro isn't finished yet, that the Roar have a winning culture other clubs can only envy, that Aloisi has evolved impressively as a coach, that a fourth championship in six seasons is by no means out of the question and that Western Sydney Wanderers are on notice next weekend.
Brisbane Roar are a big club by any measure. Their challenge is to start believing it.