I SAW my first Gold Coast United bumper sticker the other day: "I'm A Fan!" screamed the back window of a silver 4WD.
And that got me thinking.
The first thing I thought was "Hey! I want one of them stickers!"
And then: "I wonder where you get them?"
And then I thought, "Wow, it's really happening. Only another week before pre-season training kicks off. Soon we'll be watching Miron's Dream Team playing actual, real, live games!"
And then another thought came creeping slowly out of my sub-consciousness.
I mean, here's a family I've never met, waiting ahead of me at the traffic lights. And yet that little sticker on their window unites us with a common bond.
There is an ennobling sense of community which can come through sport, and this simple bumper sticker had just captured it for me (in a way that "Gold Coast Titans" stickers never will).
Of course, the football community on the Gold Coast is already alive and well, thank you very much, and has been for some time. But the community to date has mostly congregated around individual clubs.
Suddenly we all have an A-League team to provide a focal point for our shared passion, drawing us all ever closer.
Isn't that a magical thing? It's much like the sense of shared passion we Aussie fans all feel when we watch the Socceroos play, albeit on a smaller scale.
Sheer magic, really.
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And here's where I drop my bombshell - I've just become a coach!
It was a bit of an accident, you might say. After watching them play together in the Under 12s last season, this year we decided to put our two boys into separate teams, so the younger fellow had a chance to shine.
Pre-season at the local club, however, was the usual administration nightmare.
My oldest boy Sam was delighted to be selected for an Under 14s Junior Development Squad, under the guidance of an excellent new Brazilian coach. A few days after their first trial game, however, the coach abruptly walked out on the club, taking half his squad with him. A bit of a misunderstanding, we were told.
Meanwhile Edward's Under 12s team was hopelessly over-subscribed, as were the Under 13s. An amalgamated third team was obviously going to be needed, but nobody was organising it because our Junior Director had also resigned. A week later he was back, struggling to cope with the mess. Then he quit again.
Training sessions were quickly descending into an anarchic cacophony of uncontrolled kids and anxious parents.
And it was in the midst of this madness that I quietly suggested that I might just possibly, if nobody else were available, perhaps, maybe, help out with coaching.
"You're it!" declared the other Under 13s coach in sheer delight.
And so it was that my motley crew of kids, still struggling to remember each other's names, travelled up into the mountains of the Gold Coast Hinterland last Saturday for our first game of the season.
The good news is that the Southport Warriors Under 13 Division 3 team roundly defeated Beechmont F.C. by 11 goals to nil. Not a bad start, really.
Especially given the lack of preparation.
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Of course my club's pre-season nightmares are hardly unique. As I've said before,
local clubs like ours are always struggling through, and we need all the help we can get. So will the arrival of an A-League franchise make a difference?
Well, keen fans might have noticed local Premier League coverage on the official Gold Coast United website. That's an initiative of Neil Favager, Gold Coast United's media manager, and a hopeful sign of things to come.
Neil envisions the new A-League club leading the way towards a more professional approach to the game across the Gold Coast region. But he warns that it will take time.
"Throwing money at the local game is not the answer," says Neil, "and there is no quick fix anyway. We are keen to help and we will help, but first we need to concentrate on getting our product right then finding out what the local issues are through dialogue.
"Even though we represent the pinnacle of the local pyramid, we do not govern so it's critical that we work in tandem with the clubs, local federation and Football Queensland. The vital point is that we all want the same thing - football to be the number one code on the Coast.
"To achieve that there needs to be a long-term plan and with so many stakeholders it takes time.
"Ultimately it comes down to the local clubs all doing what they can to improve and hopefully we can provide our knowledge and expertise to assist. Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something - that's the key in my opinion."
Of course, the A-League club is currently dedicating all its energies toward starting their first season with a bang. And rightly so.
But with the Socceroos set to storm South Africa next year, and the Gold Coast eagerly awaiting the arrival of Jason Culina and company, I can't help wondering how many extra kids will be turning up at our Junior Sign-on Day next season. How on earth are we going to cope with them all?
I'm thinking we might need a bit of magic.
