President Neil Ballment, Vice President John Lang, and Secretary Rod Goldsworthy recently sat down for a meeting with Roar COO Zac Anderson. It has been a while since we have had the opportunity to raise issues that have come up in our socials and other social media. – Our meetings are always full of information, some of which we can share and some we understand need to be held back due to commercial confidence or timeframe for future announcements.
1) STADIUMS –
The men will again play games at Suncorp with a couple possibly to be held at Perry Park. Due to other events being held on Suncorp. e.g. The first Bye occurs because Suncorp is not available.
The Roar Women will play all games at Perry Park this season. We discussed issues that the club is well aware of regarding food & beverage service, and a lot of work is going on in the background by the Club to have that problem sorted out.
Brisbane Roar continues to work toward having their own stadium in the future, hopefully at Perry Park.
2) BRENDALE – This venue is still not ready for use, with work going on with the building services to make it fit for purpose. Roar does have control of the facility although there still seem to be some restrictions with the Moreton City Council. We hope to have word in the next few weeks that it is ready to go, together with some exciting news regarding future events there.
We anticipate that there will be big news in upcoming months regarding the Brendale facility, which we believe most fans will be happy with.
3) KIT & Supporters Gear:-
A) The kit designs were released online at the usual APL Launch over which the Club has no control.
B) Kaz and Zac have travelled to China a number of times in recent months to sort out the new strip. Roar have gone with Cikers as the Club supplier so that the Club can have more control over production and supply of the final product.
C) There have been questions regarding the design, especially where it looks like logo’s are too high. Zac advises that the APL supplies a template which all clubs must follow as to what areas and sizes of sponsor material etc may be printed in.
D) Yesterday the club locked in the final strip sponsors, every available spot is now sponsored for both the Men and the Women’s teams.
E) This season for the first time we will see the Women wearing special women’s cut strips instead of having to wear the men’s style gear, especially the shorts.
F) A Lot of work has gone into this season’s kit, including a nod to the past on the away kit, with the original Lion in the background of the shirt print. Chad Gibson a previous Roar Captain and Zac have been working on this for 6 months and will now turn their thoughts to next season.
G) There will be some special strips for special events again this season.
H) A store is being set up and is almost ready, which will see a quick turnaround in orders. It is anticipated that the Home and Away kit will be available before the start of the season. The 3rd strip will probably be released in time for Christmas. There will also be some other merchandise available at a lesser price so families can afford to be in some Roar facsimile gear. Roar merchandise will also be available from the Stadium. It is encouraging to know that because Kaz and Zac renegotiated terms with FA and the APL, the Club will have much more control over the production and supply of Roar kit and merchandise and that there will be a much greater return to the Club of sales of merchandise and kit.
4) KIT LAUNCH – FAN DAY:-
We discussed the Kit Launch and Fan Fun Day. The date for this is almost locked in, however, we are unable to announce this until final details are available. So be prepared for short notice to head to a special event to present the Kits and players to the fans. – Stay tuned for some special announcements for this event.
5) SWIFTY STYLE ROAR WRISTBANDS:- Some work has been happening within the RSF committee to introduce some Swifty Style Roar wristbands which will be available at special events.
6) RAFFLE SHIRTS:- The club has again offered a couple of shirts for the RSF to raffle. Confirmation regarding which shirts will be raffled is still to come, but at this stage, we anticipate one Men’s and one Women’s strip of the Home design tickets on sale very soon.
7) OPEN TRAINING SESSION FOR THE MEN AND WOMEN:- We have discussed this before and are pushing for this to happen. It will be a chance for fans to get along and support the team, possibly grab some gear, plus some signatures, and interact with the players. – We have proposed a date which we anticipate will be before the first Home Game, and we hope to hear something concrete shortly.
8) FAN FORUM:– We discussed the possibility of the Club producing some more live updates like Kaz did when he and Zac first took over the administration of the club. With the lack of attendance at face to face Fan Forums in the past, the RSF won’t be doing one this season however we will be working with the club to do a Facebook live streaming event, with interaction from the fans.
9) DEN MARCH:- The Den will again be supported by the Club to do their march down Caxton Street which the RSF will continue to support and promote it. The Club has sponsorship from the LA as well.
10) MEMBERSHIP:- Membership numbers continue to tick along with numbers being similar to last season. Women’s membership numbers are down a little, which is understandable following the successful promotion after the Women’s World Cup and free membership being offered last season but the Club is generally happy with the response.
11) RUMOURS OF A MERGER WITH SOUTH MELBOURNE:- We raised this issue with the Club. We were advised quite emphatically that there has been no contact with South Melbourne and no discussion about any merger. The Club however is building links with the other Bakrie-owned clubs overseas and this has led to the signing of Rafael who plays internationally for Indonesia. The RSF have long pushed for a preseason comp here in Queensland between other Bakrie owed clubs and we are hopeful that this may be something that can be arranged in the future
12) WOMEN’S TEAM:- The women are back in training at QSAC having their first training run earlier this week. There have been several changes to the playing roster with a mix of some international players as well as up-and-coming NPL players. There are currently 2 Matildas playing with new captain Tameka Yallop and Sharn Frier, with a view to getting more players recognised and making the Matildas in the future.
13) MEN’S TEAM:- Pre season has been tough this year, with southern clubs not being prepared to travel to Queensland as most clubs are running a tight budget. However, the Roar men are heading to Mildura to play a friendly against Adelaide United next weekend. The Club is happy with the new mix of players including Rafael and Niecer announced near the end of the transfer window. The other 2 players Jacob Brazete and Pearson Kasawaya being transferred from Sydney. Both players have been on the Roar Radar for a while and the club expects good things of the 4 new recruits.
Rafael plans to lock himself into the Indonesian team who are hoping to make the 2026 Men’s World Cup for the first time since 1938 when they competed as Dutch East Indies.
Thank you to Zac for his time, and we look forward to seeing things come to fruition in the coming weeks. The RSF wishes both the Women’s and the Men’s Teams an outstandingly successful season.
Neil Ballment
President RSF