Mariner stuff not worthy of a whole thread

[NoDiggity]

Anyone know what our walk-out song will be this year?

 

[BrisRecky]

With any luck this will be the walkout tune, apart from the derby game one , where nobody likes a bogan should be blasted

 

[Atomic]

Stick with Game of Thrones. I hate all this chopping and changing. How are we meant to build up tradition if we have a new song every season?
A good example is Everton... They walk out to a (now) obscure theme song to a '60's police series, Z-Cars. I reckon that picking and sticking with the theme to the most popular TV series the planet has ever known will pay dividens for us in the long run.

 

[Atomic]

I just listened to Recky's suggestion... bloody good alternative if we did change walkout songs

 

[Big Al]

Website has been updated as have all FFA websites including splitting corporate and fan stuff for the FFA

 

[pjennings]

It's 'wear your team colours' day at work today (given that I'm in Melbourne), so I'm here in my CCM Jersey and scarf. Man, wearing this stuff all day is just getting me so damn excited for next weekend.....it's all I can do to not break out into singing.

And way too many people are asking 'oh, who's your jersey? Who are they?'

FFS.....

Not many did it on our floor at work. One Bristol City, one SFC, one WSW, one CCM (me) and one West Tigers, no AFL, no Union.

 

[sydmariner]

Website has been updated as have all FFA websites including splitting corporate and fan stuff for the FFA

FFA launches fresh websites for football fans

Football in Australia has a brand new digital presence.

This week, Football Federation Australia (FFA) launched the first stage of its new digital network. Stage one of football’s new digital home includes two new websites – a fan hub at myfootball.com.au and a corporate site at ffa.com.au – while giving a complete makeover to its sites for the Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League and its Clubs, the Caltex Socceroos, Westfield Matildas, Pararoos, the Foxtel National Y-League, and the Westfield FFA Cup.

FFA’s Head of Commercial, Digital and Marketing, Luke Bould, said the new and rebranded websites are just the first part of a larger digital investment undertaken by FFA to ultimately provide a superior user experience for fans and participants of football.

“Right now people who play and follow football are getting information and services from a range of places,” said Bould.

“Our digital project will eventually bring everything together so that the individual experience will be much enhanced and seamless.”

“As the Australian Sports Commission’s figures show, football has the largest participation base of any sport in Australia and it’s growing all the time. When you add that to our fan base and bring everyone under one digital umbrella, working towards a single identity for each of our fans and participants, you have a very powerful network,” he said.

What’s new across the network?

• Fresh design with news, video, match centres, fixtures, results, ladders and fan engagement
• Greater flexibility for Clubs to ‘personalise’ their sites
• New hub sites which make it easier to find relevant information by separating the fan experience from FFA corporate information
• Rebrand of Hyundai A-League and Westfield W-League
• A greater emphasis on introducing new fans to the game
• More opportunities for partners to interact with fans

Brisbane Roar fans in full voice at a Hyundai A-League match.
FFA worked with Melbourne companies Codeware and Loud & Clear on the build.

The next stage of the program will embrace football’s great strength, its huge participation base, with improved websites for players, referees, coaches and club administrators, and a new competition management system to be delivered in December 2017.

Overall, the program will see football invest in its digital infrastructure to also deliver a new participant registration system, new apps, and new data infrastructure to better service its customers.

The aim is to refresh the Australian Football Family and create new insights that allow FFA and its partners to better service football’s seven million fans across Australia. Soon, FFA will also announce new partnerships that will enhance its content offering and also its commercial proposition in market.

“Our digital program is at the heart of our objective to convert more participants into fans,” added Bould.

“It’s a strategic investment by the game which will allow us to better connect our point of difference as the most played club sport in the country, to the clubs in our growing national leagues.”

 

[pjennings]

I used to sit with Hazel at the Bowling Club after the matches. Lovely lady.

Mariners' No.1 fan bleeds yellow and blue

MARINERS MAD: Hazel Smith with last year’s marquee signing Luis Garcia, a Spanish international who had previously played for Liverpool in the English Premier League.
by Alison Houston

NOTHING will keep Hazel Smith away from Central Coast Mariners' home games - not even her granddaughter's wedding; she's been warned.

Hazel, at 74, is proud to say she's a one-eyed Mariners fan, and hasn't missed them on home ground since the team's inception in 2004.

While the team that reached the grand final in their inaugural year has had a few tough seasons of recent, including a wooden spoon, Hazel's never given up hope or her season seat, and reckons they should make the finals this year with new coach, ex-Socceroo Paul Okon and his new signings.

A 1-0 pre-season win over Wellington Phoenix on September 12, just after we spoke, would have given her heart.

The 2017 season kicks off on Saturday, October 7 with a derby against the Newcastle Jets.

The local derbies are always passionate matches, Hazel said, especially with the Jets and Mariners now giving fans complimentary access to each other's grounds for the face-offs, meaning it should be a good turn-out of over 10,000.

Originally from Newcastle, Hazel's been living on the Central Coast for over 50 years and despite being involved in soccer all her life, following her dad (a Newcastle goalie himself in the 1920s) to her brother's matches, she said there's no divided loyalties - she'll be cheering for the Mariners all the way.

"They're still my team whether they win or lose," Hazel said.

"You don't stop backing them or going to games just because they're not on top."

But, unfortunately, others haven't felt the same, and Hazel is keen to get fans back behind the local boys.

"That's what we need - people to get behind the local team and stay there," Hazel said.

She said the introduction of overseas marquee players had made it tough on the locals, who couldn't match the deep pockets of the likes of Melbourne City, supported by England's Manchester City.

But she said they still boasted the largest number of players going on to play nationally for the Socceroos, and she's hopeful of a big turnaround with this year's signings of Dutch midfielders Tom Hiariej and Wout Brama and Spaniards Alan Baro (centre back) and striker Asdrubal.

"So long as we win a few games and we're competitive, I'll be happy. But we've got to aim for the finals, don't we?" she laughed.

Hazel has been at each of the Mariners' grand final tilts and admits "crying her eyes out" when they went down to Brisbane in a penalty shoot-out in 2011.

She'll also never forget the exhilaration of their premiership win over the Western Sydney Wanderers in 2013 in front of a crowd of over 40,000.

"I was too scared to believe we would win, just being there was exciting, but the win was the icing on the cake," she said.

And speaking of cake, when it comes to birthday cake, the Mariners had something special for Hazel, with one of their biggest fans being presented with the game coin to toss by the team's first coach, Laurie McKinna on her 70th birthday.

She holds season tickets for four generations of her own family, including her two-year-old great grandson, and urges others to get behind what she says is a real family-centred club, with a great spirit.

Full season membership includes all 13 home matches at Central Coast Stadium for as low as $16.15 per game, as well as entry to the derbies at Newcastle.

https://www.seniorsnews.com.au/news/mariners-no1-fan-calls-for-more-support/3224042/

 

[scottmac]

Just saw an article on TWG which asked the coaches and a few players who would mount the biggest title challenge.

Makes for interesting reading.

An informal and anonymous poll of coaches and leading players reveals a strong consensus that the Sky Blues will retain their title at season's end.

Respondents included the 10 A-League club coaches, Milos Ninkovic, Mark Milligan, Isaias, Roy O'Donovan, Adam Taggart, Brendon Santalab, Daniel De Silva, Eugene Galekovic, Massimo Maccarone and Andrew Durante.

Ten of the 18 respondents - who were not allowed to nominate their own clubs - said Graham Arnold's team would be the strongest championship threat.

"They were so excellent last year and it's hard to see them getting much worse," one rival coach told AAP.

"Sydney are the benchmark and its up to us to match them," another said.

Melbourne Victory, the beaten grand finalists, were nominated by four rivals.

The only other club to have received more than one nomination was Western Sydney.

While the Sky Blues are the runaway favourites, most agree they won't match their record points total due to the increased competitiveness at the bottom of the table.

The bottom three finishers from last season - Central Coast, Adelaide and Newcastle Jets - were judged to have strengthened considerably in the off-season and backed to increase their points haul in 2017-18.

The Mariners were given a nod as a potential championship winner in just Paul Okon's second season as a senior coach.

"I honestly think the premiership race, and the finals race, could both be as tight as they've ever been," one veteran player said.

"Arnie won't have it all his own way this year," a rival coach said.

The A-League kicks off on Friday night when Melbourne City host Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park.

WHO WILL WIN THE A-LEAGUE TITLE -- ACCORDING TO COACHES AND PLAYERS

9 - Sydney FC

4 - Melbourne Victory

2 - Western Sydney Wanderers

1 - Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne City, Perth Glory

0 - Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar, Newcastle Jets, Wellington Phoenix

* A-League coaches and players were asked which club, other than their own, would mount the biggest title challenge. Two newcomers declined to offer a prediction

 

[Big Al]

Impossible sell: How you lure to Oz from Europa
https://www.foxsports.com.au/footba...n/news-story/c82f76b75b5d93f5bcf6268a430f9eab

Another article on recruiting Wout. We've already heard most of it but contains a little from Wout

 

[aussiem]

Any coaches going to Western Sydney game 14/10

 

[pjennings]

Okon, Jolic and Nash should all be going.

 

[sydmariner]

Any coaches going to Western Sydney game 14/10

I'm not sure but if you have pre-purchased a ticket online it should include free public transport to/from olympic park station

 

[Shaun Mielekamp]

Hey guys, I am keen to find out how exactly we can find a way to ambush market the way that WSW has done here?

 

[TedShot]

Hey Shaun, with some very good marketing segmentation through google ads. My assumption would be that you guys can knock together a google ads account, create the banners in photoshop that you want displayed as well as the url you want linked to. Then filling out the audience targeting as accurately as possible with regards to location and interests. It's incredible how much Google knows.

Not sure how worth it it is to target fan forums, don't think anyone here is going to be switching to them. Could be worth doing through Facebook though and drumming up interest there - it is a very similar set up in terms of ease of campaign execution - and you could target people based on interest in football, located on central coast/north shore etc with some solid deals. I know once I attended one I was hooked.

 

[nebakke]

Hey guys, I am keen to find out how exactly we can find a way to ambush market the way that WSW has done here?

View attachment 1008

I think there's some targeted stuff you can do, but ultimately, it's down to the way Google Ads work.. Off the top of my head it's dependent on the setup tier and what you pay... Basically those ads showed up because you have recently looked at something through one of the multiple google-related avenues in your life, which relates to WSW - if you have an android phone, it could be down to you having been to Parramatta.

I work for a company that invests pretty heavily in Google Ads - as a result, the mere fact that I show up to work every day, ensures a HEAVY advertising presence from my employer, on every website I look at... Well that and the fact that I naturally visit related websites in Chrome

 

[Rowdy]

Hey guys, I am keen to find out how exactly we can find a way to ambush market the way that WSW has done here?

Hey Shaun, try hitting Adz up via PM on here.

As the CEO of CCMFans.NET he may be able to give you some additional insight.

 

[adz]

Yeah they are Google ads and shown automatically based on keywords on the page, personal browsing history, and etc.

I've been told about this one (complaints!) and as far as I can see the only way to block specific ads is by actually seeing them and getting the link to say don't allow this one on the page any more. No matter how long I sit here hitting refresh, or doing google searches for WSW, I haven't been able to get these to pop up.

On the positive side - WSW are technically funding a CCMFC supporter site....

 

[Paolo]

Hey guys, I am keen to find out how exactly we can find a way to ambush market the way that WSW has done here?

View attachment 1008

You get in touch with a local coast based digital marketing agency...like the one this forum member works at

 

[Rowdy]

You get in touch with a local coast based digital marketing agency...like the one this forum member works at

Keensy to the rescue !!