Accidentally Ordinary
I had not planned to be at Village Green on Saturday night.
I had been at an event at Sydney Showground earlier in the day and left a little earlier than I expected. Looking at my trip home, I realised I could get to UNSW in time to watch their NPL Women’s game against Hills United. It was free, easy enough to get to and I had been looking for another opportunity to watch some NPL Women’s football before the season finished.
There was one other reason. During the week, my local barista had told me UNSW were worth watching. He coaches football, so there was a little more behind the recommendation than somebody simply telling me their team was good. UNSW were near the top of the table and, according to him, Hills would give them a decent game.
That was enough. I changed direction and went to football.
I had only been at Village Green the previous weekend for an NPL Men’s game, so there was very little discovery involved when I arrived. The university was still busy on a Saturday night. People were playing on the basketball courts, others were walking around campus and food deliveries were coming and going. Somewhere nearby there seemed to be a concert, with thumping music occasionally making its way across to the football ground.
The football looked much the same too. Same pitch, same lights, same comfortable little grandstand and the same unusually good scoreboard for a suburban ground.
There were differences. The temporary fencing from the men’s game was gone and there was no admission charge. The crowd was smaller, perhaps around a hundred people by my estimate, and more reserved. There seemed to be very few Hills supporters. A junior women’s game had apparently been played earlier, and some of those players had stayed around to watch the senior team.
I arrived as the players were coming onto the field.
Within about ten minutes, I had accidentally become a UNSW supporter.
There was no particular moment when I made the decision. I was standing at UNSW, they were playing slightly better and spending more time in the Hills half.
More than anything, though, the game was simply good. It was cleaner, quicker and more free-flowing than the NPL Women’s match I had watched two nights earlier, with both teams moving the ball quickly and creating chances.
By then I was clapping when UNSW did something well and hoping one of their shots would finally go in.
It was slightly ridiculous. I am a Manly United supporter and had arrived completely neutral. Apparently being on their university campus and watching them play good football for ten minutes was enough to secure my temporary allegiance.
For all the chances, the first half finished 0–0.
The second half continued in much the same way, with UNSW gradually putting Hills under more pressure without finding a goal.
Then, in the 80th minute, Hills went quickly in the other direction and won a penalty.
They scored.
By now my temporary support had been in place for most of the evening, so I was no longer watching the result with complete neutrality. UNSW were chasing the premiership, something I had known before arriving, and I could hear the commentary nearby talking about what the result could mean.
UNSW kept pushing.
With the game almost finished, another ball went into the Hills penalty area. It bounced around before a UNSW player got a shot away, the ball deflected off a Hills player and went over the goalkeeper.
An own goal. An equaliser, less than a minute left.
There was still enough stoppage time for UNSW to try to find a winner, but they could not. It finished 1–1.
Around us, people had continued playing basketball and moving around the university while music from somewhere else on campus thumped in the background.
Even my reasons for being there had been ordinary. A knowledgeable football barista had said it would be a good game, and the timeslot worked for me.
He had been right about the football.
I left fairly quickly because an NRL game was finishing at Allianz Stadium and I wanted to be on the train before that crowd started heading home.
My brief spell as a UNSW supporter ended somewhere around the same time.
