Brisbane Roar chief operating officer Zac Anderson sat down with aleagues.com.au to explain how the club has used “old-school” strategies to form deeper connections within the local community throughout a whirlwind pre-season.
One year ago, Brisbane Roar approached a new Isuzu UTE A-League campaign having played just one pre-season game against local opposition, and six in total.
This time around, things couldn’t look more different.
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2025-26 KIT RELEASE! Every team’s new jerseys for the 2025-26 season
Under a new coaching staff and with a mandate from the executive level to prioritise community connection, the Roar approach the 2025-26 term having played seven games against Queensland opponents in a 13-week, 14-game pre-season schedule, in which players and coaches alike have visited dozens of schools and clubs in Brisbane, holding training clinics and signing autographs aplenty.
Brisbane finished 12th on the Isuzu UTE A-League table in 2024-25 and haven’t made the Finals Series in four seasons; on-field improvement is a non-negotiable for new head coach Michael Valkanis if the club has any hope of recapturing the interest of the tens of thousands of dormant Roar fans who need but a whiff of a tilt at finals football to start returning to games in their droves.
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But if fostering team culture and creating a high-performance environment are two key pillars of Brisbane’s rebuild, Roar chief operating officer Zac Anderson says community connection is the third. The club have left no stone unturned in making that a reality since their exit from the Australia Cup in the play-off phase in July.
“When we lost that game away to Wellington in Darwin, we sat down as a technical and an administration, and said: We want to utilise this pre-season as the old-fashioned A-League,” Anderson told aleagues.com.au.
“What we did back in the day to really connect with community was every single week, going to local clubs, no matter who they are, being strategic about who we go and play, and making sure that we’re visible every single week.
“We had 13 weeks in pre-season, so we thought: how many local clubs can we get to? How many local clubs can we help and support?
“We’ve gone to seven or eight (Queensland) clubs. And for me, that’s been more important than actually playing the five A-League matches that we played.
“As much as it’s important for us to be visible, it’s also important for us to show them love.
“We’ve gone back to what the A-League did really well, and that was going to local clubs, not having an ego, showing them that we want to connect. We want the young boys and girls to actually know who these players are.”
2025-26 KIT RELEASE! Every team’s new jerseys for the 2025-26 season
Brisbane Roar’s 2025-26 pre-season schedule
- July 16: Brisbane Roar 9-0 Caboolture FC – Moreton Bay Central Sports Complex
- July 29: Brisbane Roar 1-0 v St George Willawong – Nudgee Recreation Reserve
- August 3: Brisbane Roar 2-2 Auckland FC – Imperial Corp Stadium
- August 9: Newcastle Jets 1-3 Brisbane Roar – Oakes Oval (NSW)
- August 19: Brisbane Roar 7-0 v Moreton City – South Pine Sports Complex
- August 24: Brisbane Roar 2-0 Central Coast Mariners – Sunshine Coast Stadium
- August 26: Brisbane Roar 1-0 Peninsula Power – AJ Kelly Park
- September 6: Brisbane Roar 1-0 Sydney FC (behind closed doors – Gold Coast)
- September 13: Western Sydney 2-1 Brisbane Roar (behind closed doors – NSW)
- September 20: Brisbane Roar 8-0 Olympic FC – Leyshon Park
- September 20: Brisbane Roar 2-0 QLD NPL All Stars – Perry Park
- September 24: Brisbane Roar 1-0 QLD NPL All Stars – AJ Kelly Park
- October 2: Brisbane Roar 1-0 Solomon Islands U23’s – National Stadium, Honiara
- October 4: Brisbane Roar 1-1 Solomon Islands – National Stadium, Honiara
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Brisbane have played pre-season friendlies in Nudgee, Brendale, Kippa-Ring, Yeronga and Bowen Hills in central Brisbane, in between away trips to New South Wales to face Newcastle Jets, a behind-closed-doors friendly against Sydney FC and short trips north to Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast
Before each and every friendly fixture, the Roar have held training clinics and visited local clubs and schools. They’ve mandated two to three community appearances from the playing group every week. They set up membership tents at Football Queensland’s grand finals, and even entered the club mascot Roary into the 2025 Bridge to Brisbane fun run.
HOW TO WATCH: Brisbane Roar set for ‘incredible’ pre-season Solomon Islands fixture
When the Roar faced Central Coast Mariners on the Sunshine Coast in August, just under 7,000 fans packed into Sunshine Coast Stadium as the Roar triumphed 2-0. It was the standout moment of pre-season so far for a club that averaged an attendance of 5,463 across 12 home games in 2024-25.
“Last pre-season, the coaching staff that we had on board did not want to play NPL teams,” Anderson said.
“They made it very, very clear to us that they had no interest in playing NPL teams. And we actually ended up, I believe, playing internal matches, probably seven or eight weeks in a row, only playing one A-League opposition and maybe one or two NPL clubs last pre-season, which evidently underdid us going into the A-League season.
“That was my mistake as an administrator, as leader, to allow my technical staff to dictate the pre-season.
“Going through the season we had and going into an off-season with a lot of change, my conversation with Michael Valkanis was, ‘This is the mandate from the club: we are going to play every single week and get out in the community’. And the beautiful thing about Michael was that he was completely on the same page.
“To get the results that we’ve gotten, you’ve got to have technical staff that are on the same page, and Michael has been absolutely brilliant with his coaching staff to be at these community clubs, two or three hours before kick off. engaging, taking training sessions, signing autographs, doing all the things that are really important to do.
“This strategy, or this change, has been mandated, but we’ve also had buy-in. And I think that’s been, the formula of success of this pre-season, is that from a club and from a technical staff, everyone has bought into the vision.”
Off the field, no single day of the pre-season exemplified the power of the club’s community connection efforts better than the day Hosine Bility visited the Islamic College of Brisbane.
The Australian youth international’s visit came just one day after a bomb scare at the college, yet, just 24 hours later, there were smiles all round as kids ripped pages out of their diaries for Bility to sign, and clamoured for photos with the Roar centre-back.
The ICB runs a Futsal Excellence Program and, as such, the college is home to many gifted young footballers. For them, a visit from a Muslim professional footballer meant the world.
HOW TO WATCH: Brisbane Roar set for ‘incredible’ pre-season Solomon Islands fixture
“Hos (Bility) is of Muslim faith, he’s come to the club with this burning desire to connect,” Anderson said.
“To take him out to an Islamic school and for him to be able to tell his story and connect with kids of a similar faith was really, really, really beautiful. And the pictures spoke volumes. For us as a club, we have to be servicing not just a small demographic. We’re the only professional team here in the state. So we’ve got a big responsibility.
“That was an example of a player who is an incredible footballer, but he’s also a wonderful human and he’s got so much to give off the park. He has the ability to connect.
“I think about my own journey as a young footballer looking up to my own football idols or heroes. They weren’t always David Beckham or Cristiano Ronaldo. They were the guys at my local football club.
“The beautiful thing about that story with Hos is that he was able to go to a community that he could really relate to, and connect in his own unique, authentic way.”
FULL FIXTURES: Every match of the Isuzu UTE A-League 25-26 season here
DERBY DATES: The matches to circle in your calendar now
FIRST 5 FIXTURES: Your Isuzu UTE A-League team’s start to the 2025-26 season
With less than three weeks to go until the start of the Isuzu UTE A-League 2025-26 season, Valkanis and his Roar squad have departed for the Solomon Islands where they’ll face the nation’s Under-23 and senior international team on October 2 and 4 respectively before returning to Brisbane, where preparations for a Round 1 clash with Macarthur Bulls at Suncorp Stadium will ramp up.
The Roar begin the 2025-26 campaign with three of their first four games at home; Anderson hopes to see the club attract strong home crowds through the opening month of the season after its “old-fashioned” approach to pre-season, but is fully aware that it’s up to the team from the very first day of the season to captivate the local audience and push to reach the Finals Series for the first time since 2021.
“Once the first ball is kicked on October 17, we will look back as an administration and a whole of club and say we’re very proud of the hard work that we’ve been able to do over the last 13 weeks,” he said.
“And then it’s really up to the men, and to the women from November 1, to do their best on the pitch, and hopefully those results will expedite the success of the club moving forward.
“But I definitely think that what we’ve been able to achieve today will set us up for a great season.
“We all know our supporter base loves that club, because we wouldn’t have got 5-7,000 people to our games last year if they didn’t love the football club, and we know that they have gone through a difficult moment, and they deserve finals football.
“For us as a football club, not being in finals is a massive failure, and we need to be back in that top six, year-on-year consistently and give back to the supporters who pour their hard-earned money into every week to go and support.
“We need to be a top six club, and that’s what’s been the focus over this pre-season: to change that mentality, so that our supporters know that that’s our ambition, and that’s what we’re working towards.
“Queenslanders want to support winners. Over this pre-season, we haven’t won every game but we’ve won the majority; we’re starting to change the way we think about the way we play the game.
“As a club, internally here, we talk about being a big club, and over the last couple of years, the mindset of the times hasn’t been that. So it’s been a big shift in the way that we’ve thought about ourselves, and I think that’s been translated pre-season to the results as well.”
Brisbane Roar begin the 2025-26 campaign against Macarthur Bulls at Suncorp Stadium on Friday, October 17. Click here to get your tickets!
CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS TO BRISBANE ROAR v MACARTHUR IN ROUND 1!
Brisbane Roar first five fixtures – Isuzu UTE A-League 2025-26 season
- Round 1: Brisbane Roar v Macarthur Bulls – Friday 17 October, Suncorp Stadium at 9:05pm AEDT (8:05pm local)
- Round 2: Wellington Phoenix v Brisbane Roar – Sunday 26 October, Sky Stadium at 1:00pm AEDT (3:00pm local)
- Round 3: Brisbane Roar v Melbourne City – Friday 31 October, Suncorp Stadium at 7:35pm AEDT (6:35pm local)
- Round 4: Brisbane Roar v Newcastle Jets – TBC
- Round 5: Auckland FC v Brisbane Roar – Sunday 23 November, Go Media Stadium at 1:00pm AEDT (3:00pm local)
READ MORE
FULL FIXTURES: Every match of the Isuzu UTE A-League 25-26 season here
DERBY DATES: The matches to circle in your calendar now
FIRST 5 FIXTURES: Your Isuzu UTE A-League team’s start to the 2025-26 season
FINALS SERIES: 2025-26 structure and dates
TRANSFER CENTRE: Your club’s ins/outs ahead of the upcoming season
