Brad Olds

Why Blue?

My name’s Brad Olds. I was born and bred in Broken Hill, a small outback city in western New South Wales. I actually moved from Broken Hill when I was 18, in 1982, to Wollongong on the east coast of Australia. I was offered a job as a Mechanical Engineer Trainee at BHP. After completing my time I moved in to the supply field and became involved with computer systems. I am currently the System Administrator for a UNIX based warehousing system using RF technology and laser-scanning devices, (interesting work actually).

I first began following English soccer (or football, if you like) in 1975 when I watched West Ham beat Fulham 2-0 in the F.A. Cup Final. I was still playing Aussie Rules footy at the time and all of my mates followed one VFL (Victorian Football League) team or another so I didn’t really get deeply involved with the support of any one particular team. The following year I went to high school and met a few new mates that followed Manchester United (only because they made it to the Cup Final that year). So I, always ready for a bit of friendly rivalry, decided to tentatively start following the Blues. It wasn’t until I saw them thrash Spurs 5-0 (Booth, Tueart, Barnes, Hartford and Kidd were the scorers) that I finally bit the bullet and decided that this was definitely the team I wanted to support.

Twenty years later, and no more being on the right end of a 5-0 thrashing (in the top division anyway), although we did have some good results when we were in the old second division. I do remember the Blues putting 4 past Palace in an F.A. Cup game (1981, I think?). Well, I’ve stuck with City through thick and thin and copped all the flak from all the Liverpool-Manchester-United-Blackburn-Rovers supporters who change sides depending on who’s leading the table in the current year (or the current week) but I still believe I’m supporting the best club in the world.

There’s actually a song written by a popular Australian musician that basically describes our current situation. The name of the song is “True Blue” by John Williamson and a couple of the lines go something like this:

“So you’ve knocked off for a smoko,
but you’ll be back later on.”

Let’s not hope it’s too late. 🙂

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #262 on