As Western Sydney Wanderers fan Ian “Dicko” Dickson explains, when the red and black host Sydney FC on October 8 at ANZ Stadium in Round 1 of the new Hyundai A-League season, it will elevate the city derby to an even greater level.
I think a journalist said it in our first season: the Wanderers have managed to do for Western Sydney what generations of politicians have failed to do. That is to unite the West and to give us a shining beacon to rally around and be proud of.
The Sydney Derby is on sale right now with tickets available here
The West has such a diverse population: it really is a melting pot of cultures from all over the world. When the Wanderers came along it was so obvious that it was too long in the making.
There’s no club in Australia that deserved to be created more than the Western Sydney Wanderers and I think that’s been backed up: we’re just the most passionate group of fans.
The fans are the one constant that define the club. Over the past four seasons we’ve proved ourselves to be the most passionate, the most loyal and the most vibrant of any code in Australia, and that’s just a fantastic thing to belong to.
I’ve been there for some huge moments with this club – obviously being in Riyadh for the Champions League Final was incredible – but my big moment of realisation that this was a special club was that away game in Gosford in Season 1.
We won on a rainy night when Haliti scored the winning goal and at that point, it felt like a proper club with proper fans and real guts.
Out of all the moments I’ve had, that was the one that made me believe this was a very, very special club. Even thinking about it now, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up.
The Derby at ANZ Stadium is going to be huge. It’ll be interesting to see if we can break the Hyundai A-League record.
I think it’ll be very special. It’s a fitting venue for what has become one of the bucket-list sporting events for Australia.
