On Easter Sunday I returned home from the Mariners’ major semi against Roar to find a freak storm had devastated my street.  The football field where we’d once watched the Mariners play a pre-season match was strewn with broken branches.  A massive tree had fallen on my house and another across my driveway.  Had we not been at Bluetongue, our car would almost certainly have been crushed and someone may have been seriously injured.

Events like this tend to put everything else into perspective.  I forgot the pain of losing to Roar, forgot about the irritating antics of Henrique and some dodgy ref calls.  Instead I was grateful to Roar for giving us a match worth arguing about, grateful also to Olly for bringing the Premiers Plate to show the fans after the match. These seemingly trivial actions had delayed our home journey and saved us from harm. 

With no power, holes in our roof and the ultimate trauma, NO FOX SPORTS – (quick! Send Bob Geldof !) we were cleaning up the damage the next day when someone told us the devastating news about the Jets. Like an unexpected storm, Tinkler’s announcement had ripped through the already wounded A-League causing the kind of lasting and widespread damage no SES team could fix.  It made our Finals rivalry with Roar seem somehow less significant.

For Mariners supporters, the loss of the Jets is unthinkable. Since the A-League started they have been our greatest rivals, tough and worthy opponents in countless F3 Derbies that are the highlight of the season.  We faced them in our greatest match ever, the second leg of the major semi-final in 2008 followed by our painful loss to them in the 2008 Grand Final.  The cruel end to that match, featuring “handball Holland” and The Vukes Tragedy is the stuff of Mariners’ legend.

There has always been a special fire that revs up players on both sides when we face each other, generating excitement and controversy like the infamous Joel Griffiths “sackwack” or Hutcho’s goal celebrations in front of The Squadron.  Even when I met Tarek Elrich at the start of this season he jokingly offered to explain to me “what it was like to win a Grand Final.”  Now my heart goes out to Tarek and the rest of the players and their families who face an uncertain future; they deserve better treatment.

I also feel deeply saddened for the Jets fans who are some of the most dedicated in the A-League and have built up such a fantastic rivalry with Mariners supporters in such a short time.  To say our fans love to taunt each other is a massive understatement; finding new ways to ridicule each other is a pleasure few fans on either side can resist.

To us they’re “Scumcastle”, to them we’re “Gypos”, both sides caught in a never-ending battle to prove who amongst us is the most “bogan”, producing thousands of tasteless jokes and elaborate tifo’s, a tribute to creativity on both sides.   What will we do without the team we love to hate ?  And now that we’ve lost “Scum Coast” and “Scumcastle”, does that unfortunately make us “The Most Bogan Team in the A-League”?! 

It’s hard to find the humour when the A-League is facing yet another publicly damaging crisis. The actions of Palmer and now Tinkler will be held up as proof that the game is in hopeless disarray and cannot possibly compete in the Australian sporting marketplace.  Media that normally gives no space to football will rush to recount the ugly details and predict our imminent demise. All the genuine achievements of the A-League will be obscured and credence given to the soccer-knockers who would gladly see us fail.

So who is to blame for Tinkler’s actions?  The FFA for not giving owners greater input?  Tinkler himself for not honouring his commitment?  Or does the A-League’s lack of finances simply mean we’re sadly reliant on courting owners who won’t always have the game’s best interests at heart.  And in a country with such a small population where other codes have more lucrative TV deals, will this situation ever change?

As that great storyteller Miron noted when Gold Coast folded  : “imagine Ben Buckley and Andrew Demetriou both live in the same street.  Andrew’s kids ride bikes but Ben can’t afford to get his kids bikes.  That doesn’t make Ben a worse dad than Andrew.”  (Ah, Miron’s metaphors - an ornament to the game!)

Is The Jets’ crisis a case of bad parenting or just a sign that our beloved A-League simply hasn’t got enough bucks to compete?   And how will we sell a nine-team competition next season featuring one less derby and a no-name Western Sydney team?

As the court battles roll on, I’m hoping The Jets will weather the storms and come back fighting in Season 8 (at this stage, I'm beginning to wonder if there'll be a Season 8).  Roar have been fantastic rivals for the past two seasons but the Mariners rivalry with the Jets will live forever.