Etihad Coming Home: THIS time starring the Sydney Blues!

Regular readers of the blog (all 28 of you) will remember our unsuccessful foray into last year's Etihad Coming Home competition, which offered overseas City fans the opportunity to fly back to Manchester to watch the Derby.

But this year, we've gone one better, and made through to the final ten. Public voting will open next month, and don't worry, we'll definitely let you know when it opens, and we'll hound you for your vote then. In the meantime, check out our entry below, and don't forget to visit us on Facebook (facebook.com/LessonInPride) or Twitter (twitter.com/LessonInPride).

"Being a blue is like nothing else.
There's something intangible. Something you can't describe.
You ride every emotion.
The incredible highs. The wonder goals that have you out of your seat and hugging strangers.
The devastating lows. That almost bring you to tears and ruin your week.
Even from 10000 miles away, we support the club like those that live on City's doorstep.
But it just not the same as being there…which is why Gav and I would like to come home…

The Sydney supporters club started off with very humble beginnings, in fact three years ago it was a couple of blokes having a couple of beers in a random pub in Sydney, pleading with the bar staff to turn one of the TVs on to the City game — even if was the one in the corner with no sound.

Through hard work over many months, and by simply turning out at the same venue each week, we began to increase our following.

Two became three. Three became five, and five became ten. Soon, big matches such as the Derby were attracting upwards of forty fans. Some Australian, some ex-pats, some Mancs on holiday, but all part of the City family. We've even managed to get some 'big name' City fans to come down, such as broadcaster Simon Hill and ex- City 'star' Spencer Prior.

Despite being half a world away, we try to bring a little bit of Eastlands to Sydney. Every goal, every missed chance, every injury-time loss — we feel it too.

The Sydney Blues have been recognised on several occasions by the club. We featured had our story published in the Match Programme, we've been on the Official Site in a story about 'Far Away Blues', and our home pub was named as a 'Heart of the City' — one of just eight international venues to be named a safe-havens where City fans can watch matches with like-minded fans wherever they are in the world.

Watching the match on a pub TV is only half the story. We aim to be a proactive supporters club, and spread the Blue Gospel through anyway we can, whether that be through our blog, Facebook, Twitter, or anyway we possibly can. We've been interviewed by FourFourTwo, and appeared on BBC radio — although whether that happens again is unclear, after expressing my disappointment a little too colourfully after losing to Stoke…

We've both made the pilgrimage to Eastlands on previous occasions, but to Come Home with Etihad would be the fulfillment of a dream that's been discussed and poured over many times at Cheers Bar over the past few years."

Over the coming weeks, we'll post some new videos and reasons why we think we we should Come Home to Manchester. But in the meantime, it's a thrill and an honour to even be considered for the prize. Fingers crossed!

FourFourTwo Season Preview... Starring Us!

As previously posted here, we were asked to provide our thoughts on the season ahead by FourFourTwo magazine. And here's the result! Hopefully it appears in Australian newsagents soon. It looks a good read — even without my input!

Liverpool and Arsenal Matches on Free-To-Air...

Australian broadcaster OneHD has struck a deal with both Liverpool and Arsenal to show content from the club's television stations — including replayed matches. Which is fantastic news for City fans four times a season, and means you can can a repeat of the City win on usually the Tuesday.

The first of these matches is 10pm Tuesday 24 August, where you can see Manchester City take on the Dippers.

Home and Away Kits Available to Order (Australia only)

This season's home kit is now available to pre-order, and as a result, we will be placing our own order for both the Home and Away kit.

We'd prefer PayPal, as it's just a lot easier to keep track of, but you can drop us a bank transfer if need be. To ensure that they arrive as quickly as possible — hopefully before the first match of the season — we will be placing the order as soon as the home kit is available for general purchase.

Please ensure you know your size, and inform me of it. I can't refund or exchange, I'm sorry.

All orders must be made and paid for by midnight Friday 6 August.

The cost for the kits is listed at £45 for short sleeve, and £50 for long sleeve. Thus, they will be priced at $80 and $90 respectively, inclusive of all postage and handling.

To order a shirt, please head to the Lesson In Pride Shop.

Where The Bloody Hell Are Ya?

There's a great new little app just launched on the Manchester City site - Be a Part Of It | http://bepartofit.mcfc.co.uk/fans/map

Here you can register and see where your local fans are - seems pretty cool! We'd love to see a few more Aussie faces on there, people keep coming out of the woodwork, and we're always happy to have new members.  Jump on, add your details and we'll keep an eye on it.

If anyone is coming out to Australia backpacking, then why not drop us a line while you're in town and watch a City game with us?  If there's no games on, we're always available for a few of those little beers they're so keen on out here.

So... Where the Bloody Hell are Ya?



Though it must be said, LessonInPride prefers The Chaser's version. (Not suitable for those offended by four letter words, or Germans!)

Lesson In Pride Turns One!

You may have noticed a few cosmetic changes to the site, and we will be doing some more over the next few days. This is in celebration of the first anniversary of the blog. I certainly didn't think I could be bothered to keep it going for that long!

The site was originally named "Sydney Blues", and was to be a way for City fans from right around the country to keep up with the news locally. However, as we discovered more and more of our readership was from the United Kingdom, we took on the name "Lesson In Pride" and became a more general City blog, whilst trying to retain that local flavour.

Not only has it been a successful year for Manchester City, it's been a great one for us off the pitch too. We've had mentions on the club site, we've been involved in a couple of successful tournaments, and of course it was a great honour to be presented with the "Heart of the City" award by the club. But probably the highlight has been meeting so many new City fans from home and abroad, some of who has become good mates outside of organised meet-ups.

Hopefully we can continue to grow on the back of the Blues' most successful season in the Premier League — and with the Ashes coming to Sydney in the new year we can probably expect a new wave of ex-pat Mancs as well.

A massive thanks to all of those who read and contribute regularly.

MCFC Australia HQ Launches

www.mcfcaustraliahq.com


After a couple of years in the wilderness MCFC Australia is back online.

The site will be a one stop site directing fellow fans in Australia to find their local MCFC pub and join in the banter on dedicated social media groups. As the site will not be regularly updated I do advise that you check the local sites/blogs of each state branch and join up to your local Facebook group.

With only a handful of Australian footballers to grace the fields of Maine Rd and Eastlands I think Danny Tiatto has to be the face of the MCFC Australia HQ and he will be forever remembered for his no nonsense attitude on and off the pitch, thank you Danny.

Please help spread the word of this site.

City 'til we die,
Adam

Etihad Coming Home comp — Not starring the Sydney Blues

The finalists for the Etihad Coming Home comp have been announced, and as expected, we were not on the shortlist. Quite simply, we left everything too late, and were banking on being accepted right at the end, when most of the entries would have been submitted. I blame Gav for never being available to shoot the bits in front of the Opera House... ;)

If you haven't already seen it, here is the (unsuccessful) entry:

It's a little bit disappointing when you go to such an effort of filming a whole match (twice), then having to sit through the resulting footage for the couple of clips you need, as well as shooting other bits and working on a script and all the rest of that — only to be denied by someone with a sob-story, a photo, and a few paragraphs that would have taken fifteen minutes tops.

So who do we get behind? My vote's going to Paul Dallavalle from Melbourne — a true blue who was committed enough to come up for the Australian Blues Weekend. Best of luck Paul.

Heart of the City — yep, it's us alright!

Just got confirmation on the email:

Congratulations you have won the Heart of the City competition for Cheers Bar, Sydney!
We loved your entry and a plaque is now being produced for you.
I’d like to arrange delivery to you and discuss the presentation to the bar.
The announcement that you have won will go on the site tomorrow.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon and well done again.

Thanks,
Someone at Manchester City Football Club

I'm stoked — but as I mentioned in the earlier post, it's more about thanking the team at Cheers for their continued hospitality. So well done all round, as commiserations to the Perth crew, who would have been worthy recipients.

"What we're trying to achieve here..."

Sorry for the Mark Hughes quote to kick things off, but obviously (shit, there's another one) the start of the Australian Blues weekend is nearly upon us.

Although there is no doubt it will be a fantastic few days of football, drinking, and drinking, there is another reason we are running the weekend — to work out how both Sydney and Perth can get bigger and better.

I've listed a few items on the agenda that we would like to discuss. And hopefully, we can use the vast experience of the Perth lads to increase our presence in Sydney. We'll come back in a week or so and post the findings from the talks!

• Make the weekend a regular occurance. Alternating yearly between the eastern and the western seaboard.
• Improving dialogue between our supporter clubs, and exchanging contact details. And making these available for everyone.
  
• Using our collective experience to help grow Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. There are plenty of Blues there, we know there are — but the hardest part is getting them all in the one place at the one time!
  
• Official Supporters' Club status for Sydney — is it feasible? is it worth it? We will have to have an executive and a monthly meeting if this is the case. A proper meeting, with minutes and everything, not just beers at trivia!
• A one-stop website that the first-time fan can stumble upon and find all the information they need for the area they live — who to contact, where to watch games, how to get involved.
• Should we consider one identity and badge for all Australian branches?
• Lesson in Pride is currently the only Australian-based City blog. Do we allow contributions and post information from other states and other branches?
  
• And any other idea to find more Blues, and what more can we do to continue to grow.

We'll probably just get pissed and all of this will be forgotten, but we hope to have some answers to our questions by the weekend's conclusion.

We hope to see you there.

The Heart of the City... surely it's us?

City were nice enough to make a competition that suits us down to a tee!

It's called the "Heart of the City", and they want to know which is the best place to watch the Blues in Australia. And I reckon it's a two horse race between us and the fine folk at Perth's Kangaroo Arms.

Check out the details here.

We're putting the call out to City fans Down Under to tell us where Australia's Heart of the City is.

If you're based in one of Australia's big cities and you gather with your mates at a bar or a social club to watch the Blues in action, we want to hear from you!

The club, in partnership with Umbro, are producing 20 "Heart of the City" plaques which will be sent out to places where Blues fans congregate in cities all around the world.

So far the NRG bar in Abu Dhabi and the Mad Hatter in New York City are proudly displaying their blue moon-themed plaque. Now we want City fans in Australia to tell us all about where they watch the Blues while sampling the old amber nectar and why their watering hole deserves the next one.

It could be in the sub-tropical climes of Brisbane, overlooking Sydney's world-famous Bondi beach or on the shores of the Indian Ocean in Perth.

If you and your friends have a favourite place where you regularly gather to watch City games in Australia, drop us a line. Email any details, stories and photos of your suggested Heart of the City to mcfc@mcfc.co.uk.

We've got enough photos, video, and anecdotes to give this competition a shake — it would be a nice gift for Gerard and the team at Cheers who really do look after us.

City fans spotted at Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory - can you help?

A couple of the Sydney Blues decided there'd be no better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a bout of live football... and the Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory game definitely did not disappoint.

At a drizzly Sydney Football Stadium (probably accounting for the slightly disappointing crowd of just over 25k) the stage was set for one of the most important games of the year. If Sydney could overcome Melbourne then they would lift the 'Minor Premiership' (ie finish top of the league before the A-League finals series starts) and not only put one over their Victorian rivals, but also put them in the box seat for an assault on the A-League crown itself.

Sydney FC Vs. Melbourne Victory is always a bit tasty and whilst 'soccer' isn't the most watched code of 'football' over in Oz, the fans are surprisingly passionate. To this end there always are plenty of flares, fighting (in this case inside the stadium with the Police!), singing, dancing, scarves and yesterday was no disappointment. Not that I condone a bit of a ruck with the fuzz, but watching the idiots getting pepper-sprayed, tasered and kicked out along with a cameraman slipping in the mud is all part of the fun.

As for the game itself, Sydney played well and sealed victory with a cracker of a goal from Jean Aloisi just after half time to take the game and the Premiership plate 2-0. Also on the scoresheet this weekend was a certain Terry Cooke for North Queensland Fury (also the club currently hosting Robbie Fowler until his falling out with the manager a couple of weeks ago).

Intriguingly, spotted from our vantage point was this season's Third kit, belonging to a City fan that we have yet to meet in our travels and travails around Sydney. Furthermore, on viewing this blog post again we've noticed directly behind him is a chap in this season's Home shirt. Surely, if you live in Sydney and are a Blue, you know about the Sydney Blues, right?

These people were sat in Bay 38. We'd like you to get in touch if you could, so we can ask "Where the bloody hell are ya?"

If you know who of either of the mystery duo are - please get in touch or leave a comment below!

Song For A Future Generation?

We've recently been tinkering with the blog and introducing a few changes... but this next one is likely to be one of the biggest.

When we discussed the idea of setting up the blog, it was simply designed to act as a tool to connect and introduce other Manchester City fans in Sydney (and to a lesser extent, all around the country). Originally, there was not going to be a large focus on news or match reports, as there are other blogs out there that do it much better than here.

Analysing the visits to the site reveals that the amount of people who find the blog from North America and the United Kingdom is about two-thirds of the number that visit from here in Australia. We do have a lot of visitors from overseas, and using the name Sydney Blues in somewhat insular. We are also going to grant access to those fans in Melbourne and Brisbane so they can also post their news.

Very shortly the official name of the blog will change to Lesson In Pride. This was chosen for a number of reasons, predominately because it features in one of our best songs, but also because as any City fan in Australia can attest, following the Blues from 10000 miles away surrounded by Rag glory hunters really is a lesson in pride.

One of the main frustrations is that the blog name, the twitter account, and the domain name (mcfcaus) don't match. As a result, the address of the blog will eventually move to lessoninpride.blogspot.com, with a look to our own domain. The content and layout will stay exactly the same... just renamed. The focus is still very much on events in Sydney, with a smattering of news from back in England. This won't change.

If you have any questions or concerns, get in touch with us in the usual ways. It'd be good to hear your feedback.

Where's the heart of your City? Sydney, of course!

Here's the latest promotion from the official site:

We are the Heart of the City and our fans and our players are at the heart of the club.

To celebrate the fans of MCFC that are based around the world we want to discover those places at the heart of different world cities where supporters congregate to connect with the club. These are special places where on matchdays, the team are cheered on by fans as they would if they were at the stadium. They act as community outposts, where City supporters abroad or on holiday can still connect with their beloved Blues.

To recognise this we, in partnership with Umbro, will be producing 20 limited edition ‘Heart of the City’ fan plaques which we will send out to different bars/social clubs who we feel are the heart of their city.

Following the inaugural ‘Heart of the City’ plaque that was presented to the NRG bar in Abu Dhabi during the club’s tour of the Emirate last November, the next destination we need suggestions for is the USA, specifically the East Coast.

If you and your friends have a favourite place where you regularly gather to watch City games in this part of the world, we want to hear from you. Email any details, stories and photos of your suggested Heart of the City to mcfc@mcfc.co.uk

How fantastic would one of these look in the Cheers Bar? We'll let you know if we're successful.

Manchester City special on ONE HD

Just a heads-up that there will be a Manchester City special on digital free-to-air station ONE HD on Monday night, "Manchester City's Greatest Goals". What better way to get in the mood for the Carling Cup match this week?

I hope to set up the PC to record and upload it, but if not, make sure you tune into it anyway.

The Magic Of The FA Cup
10:00 PM Monday 4th January
Manchester City's Greatest Goals

Manchester City is primed for success after appointing Italian legend Roberto Mancini as coach. To celebrate, ONE's Beautiful Game Monday puts the spotlight on Man City with this week's look back into the archives for their Greatest Goals.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas and a Happy Blue Year from everyone at the Sydney Blues.

Breaking News: City v Rags in Carling Cup Semi!

Oh my lord this is going to be truly massive, Manchester City will face arch-rivals Manchester United in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup!

At this stage, the games will be played on January 6 at Eastlands, and two weeks later at Vermin Towers on the 19th.

You can rest assured we will be showing the both legs live at Cheers. Four Derby Days in the one season... I don't know if my heart (or my hand) will be able to take it!

Bring it on you Rag bastards!

A new way to connect with the Sydney Blues

Our mascot, Blue Roo, is now on Facebook! You can now visit the Sydney Blues on by going to facebook.com/sydneyblues

From there, you can visit the Sydney Blues group, see upcoming events, and photos from nights out. It's just a much simpler way of grouping everything under the one banner.

Add him as a friend today!

Carling Cup Quarter Final on TV

Just a reminder to all City fans that the Carling Cup fixture will be broadcast live in Australia on Thursday morning. Tune into Fox Sports 2 or 2HD from 6:45am for the clash.

Unfortunately, Cheers Bar is shut between the hours of 6-9am when the match is on, so watch it in the comfort of your own lounge room, as City look to break our semi-final curse.

Come on you Blues!

Sydney Blues in the Scunthorpe programme

The September website article about us was also in the match programme for the Carling Cup match against Scunthorpe. We were able to get our hands on a copy.