What do a drum, a massive "Birmingham" banner, and 30 confused but happy Australians have in common? They are all finding a home at Sutton United.
Hello & welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time! In this special episode, we’re stepping away from the immediate match analysis to look at the culture growing around the club. I’m joined first by Seb and Harry, the driving forces behind The Amber Project, the group responsible for the rising decibel levels and colourful displays at the VBS. Later, I speak with Xavier from the Aussies in London group to find out why a community of Australians chose Sutton for their football pilgrimage - and what they made of the "Gold Jacket" ritual.
Mike Dowling
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Sutton United Talk Time on podcast. It's the Sutton podcast. Don't worry, you haven't missed a match. It's a different episode.
Mike Dowling
It's a new episode. It's a special episode. We are, as always, sponsored by Lucky Star Gin. I'm your host, Mike.
Mike Dowling
And joining me today, we have got Harry, Seb, and a bit later on, we've got Xavier from the Aussies in London group. We're going to be talking to Harry and Seb first of all about the AMBER project group and find out a little bit more about them and then later on we're going to be talking about the visit from the Aussies last weekend. If you're a regular listener, thank you very, very much. And if you're a new listener, welcome.
Mike Dowling
Hope you enjoy it and stick around. We do love hearing from you. Don't forget to do all the engagement, Harry. Thank you very much.
Mike Dowling
You're one of the favorites on that. And just help us grow, get some more eyes and all the rest of it. Likes and shares do give us more reach and more people have to put up with
Seb
the
Mike Dowling
voice. Seb, let's start with you.
Seb
Welcome
Mike Dowling
back. Listeners will remember you as being referenced quite often as the little drummer boy. Oh
Seb
yeah, not so little anymore.
Mike Dowling
No, but first question, have you replaced your broken
Seb
drumstick? No, we haven't.
Mike Dowling
You're all in tonight. Excellent. Lovely. So Seb, just give us a quick reminder of your Sutton story, how you kind of got involved in Sutton.
Seb
Um, well, it was back in 2014 and it was the 28th of December when we played St Albans at home and we won 2-1, I think it was, or 2-0, something like that. Yeah, just been going ever since. Perfect.
Mike Dowling
Excellent. And Pento, Harry, it's your first time on. Some people will know you as the poor soul who can't allow to go home when we've lost a match of football because recently you're saying your parents didn't want you anywhere near the place.
Harry
Others
Mike Dowling
may know you as the one who tried explaining what an unk is to
Harry
me. Oh yeah, and a 6-7 mean.
Mike Dowling
And a 6-7, yeah.
Seb
No, no, no.
Mike Dowling
Tell us about yourself. Tell us how you started going to Sutton and just what your story is.
Harry
So my first game was the Port Vale match, the home match in 2021 on my birthday. Parents asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. So we had a home match, international break I thought, go on then. And then ever since then, just kept going.
Mike Dowling
To be fair, I can see why that game might suck people in. Yo,
Harry
I like
Mike Dowling
this. Nothing has quite lived up to that yet, but hey, it's
Seb
fine, it's
Mike Dowling
fine. So what we want to talk about today is you guys are part of, or major part of, the Amber Project. Do you want to just tell us a little bit about it? What is it you're trying to do and what's the story behind the Amber Project?
Mike Dowling
Seb, we'll start with you.
Seb
Well, it started back, I think the idea started floating around, obviously. I'm the creator of all of it. The idea came around back in like 2022 and we were like, how do we get the atmosphere in the place to get really loud so we can make obviously home to be like a fortress like it obviously once was which is starting to come a bit like that now and um came up with this bunch of ideas at first and obviously some of them haven't been officially done then it was around about November 2023 where things started to really kick on and we thought okay we can maybe pull this off and then I think it
Seb
was after the Wrexing game We announced it and obviously that's exactly what's been going on since we got the drum in December, which was a massive boost. I remember obviously at first people were like, oh, you can't bring drums in. We don't want no drums. And I was like, who do you mean?
Seb
It's okay. just like it's okay it will help us out in the end and then obviously we spoke with the club and we were like um how do we make this a lot more community based for us and um obviously we found out that we were getting behind the goal when we went down which was obviously a much better thing for us because then we could do the flags make our displays more bigger and obviously there's more people and it's less smaller than Parkside, which is a big, a better thing.
Mike Dowling
Absolutely. And Harry, what kind of got you involved and how, I mean, it's obviously going to be a similar story, but how did the group sort of inspire to start and how did you make these ideas into a bit of reality?
Harry
So Sedna asked me to like sort of start helping out after the drum came in and then started getting a few display ideas here and there. Um, yeah, we're just trying to find ideas, um, and yeah, keep going from there.
Mike Dowling
So did you know Seb prior to this or was it something you met through football?
Harry
Um, no, I met him at some, um, I met him, I remember when I met you at the crew game on your 25th anniversary game. I've spoken ever since.
Mike Dowling
Nice, nice. I know for example there was a game earlier this season Well, I was there early for various reasons and you
Seb
guys
Mike Dowling
were there already getting the flags up and starting to prepare everything. What kind of talk me through how it starts? What are the idea behind it to putting it all together? And what's the hardest part?
Mike Dowling
Is it kind of designing things, doing materials, getting there, getting people bodies to help out? Talk us through the whole process and what's the hardest part?
Harry
Either
Mike Dowling
one of you can go first.
Harry
Do you want to go? Yeah, I think mainly getting the funds. It depends on the size of the display. If it's a big display like we've done for Birmingham, the main thing is the funds, because that banner was a lot of money.
Harry
But like Soliel, we were at the stuff, so we only needed really people for that game. I think one of the hardest bits is just the ideas. Trying to do something maybe a bit original. Trying to get something to a certain size.
Harry
Yeah, things like that, mainly.
Mike Dowling
And Seb, for yourself, what kind of...
Seb
What's the process
Mike Dowling
of picking a game and planning it all out?
Seb
I think, well, we all just got a massive group chat and that helps out because then we could just talk about things and then we all share an idea and then we all just decide in the end, which sometimes is a little bit shit because if you have an idea and we don't want to use it, then, you know, it's like push to the side. Then if we have an idea we all agree on, it's perfect. Like the Birmingham display, That was the best one we've done, obviously.
Seb
But it cost a lot of money. And I think the main issue for us, it's not so much funds. It's more about the people we can get, because it's not just... The Amber Project isn't just a display group.
Seb
It's also an atmosphere group. And we want to make Sutton a really loud team and have one of the best atmospheres in the league. And obviously, it's still a massive stretch, because obviously, where we are in the table, the numbers get lower, which is the same with every team really, isn't it? But, you know, I think now we've got Chris in, the numbers are getting bigger and the atmosphere is getting a lot better.
Seb
And that's a good thing for us because then that means we could Maybe do more displays which like you it just decides on a random game really but it's also has to be house has to have some importance like Obviously, we've done two first home game displays Which is fair enough because first home game of the season you want to do something and then obviously we're doing FA Cup ones which obviously big games and and then just throughout the end of the season we just decided do we want to do one because we haven't done one in so long which is exactly why we did that for Woken last season which was a bit of a boring one. So what
Mike Dowling
what what kind of goes on in your mind obviously I'd say I know I saw you there quite early but what wouldn't people realize I mean do people think maybe that you just rock up with your flags and wave them around? What would surprise people about the work that goes into it Harry?
Harry
I think, I think like the auction display, we were down there quite a few days trying to get everything right. So, I think what goes into it the most is trying to, we tried to get everything like perfect for the day. I was on that auction but it did look really good and like getting that banner done was a lot, quite a bit of work. That was
Seb
quite a bit and then
Harry
putting all the poles, the flags onto the poles. Yeah, I think it's just, like yeah just to work I think like there's a little bit but trying to get perfect is the hardest part. Never go for perfect.
Mike Dowling
When you aim for perfect you're always gonna be miserable like me. So How do you kind of balance the ideas, because I'm sure there's lots of wonderful ideas, but with safety rules, stadium rules, and with the club. So how do you kind of, is there ever things that you think, oh, I'm not sure, can we do that? And then you've got to approach Tim or someone to find out, or do you kind of veto them before it gets to that stage?
Seb
Yeah I mean every time we do something we always talk to like Tim or Claire for instance. We just want to make sure that we could do everything as much as we can without pushing too far if that makes sense. Like obviously we don't want to do something extreme and then like say for instance we all get banned for something. I mean obviously that wouldn't happen but like If an idea is too extreme, we wouldn't go for it because then we know that one, the club would say no and also it would be too much money.
Seb
And obviously we don't want to ask people for money every time we do a display. So, yeah, we always talk to the club and obviously the club will help us out with anything we need. But I think mostly we've got it covered ourselves pretty much. So,
Mike Dowling
yeah. So, for anyone listening now, and they think, actually, you know what, I'd quite like to get involved with this. How can they get involved? Is it just rock up, have a chat with you guys?
Mike Dowling
What can people do to get involved? What kind of things are you needing from people?
Seb
We just need people to be there and join us in the atmosphere and make it like if they want to help us set up stuff then they're more than welcome to because it doesn't for setting up it doesn't have to be just our little group of people. It doesn't matter who comes like we just ask anyone if they want to come down and help us out before the game. Which is also another thing because we want it to look fairly neat and obviously we don't want anything getting damaged. So the trust has to be there that nothing goes missing, gets broken or stolen.
Seb
Yeah, pretty much.
Mike Dowling
Or moved, we'll say moved. Harry, so how do you kind of motivate people to do it? Because obviously, on a lovely day like today, it wasn't, it's horrible, but everyone's like yeah I'm up for that and then it's peeing down rain on Saturday morning and it's like I'm not up for that all of a sudden. How do you kind of make sure people follow through on these commitments and also from the people who aren't necessarily going to be involved in the setting up, what can they do?
Mike Dowling
Be out there at quarter two, be out there early, what would you like? So how do you motivate people and what would you like people who don't want to get too involved but still be involved?
Harry
So I think, like, trying to motivate people is, like, I think actually this answer links in with all the questions. Just like little jobs that we have, like the small flags are the main ones. I think they're, like, good things for people to do. Like, there's a little younger group that are quite a few years younger, but I know a few of them.
Harry
I went to primary school with a few of them. They're always keen and they always do flag jobs. So I think doing the flag jobs, I think, are the main, like, motivations and Getting people there early, I think for Shrewsbury it's probably one people there at 5 o'clock, because it's 5.15. As I briefly said the other day, one people there at 2.45.
Harry
Yeah,
Seb
he did say that. I was like, I don't think people will be there. I don't think the doors are open.
Mike Dowling
will be open at 2.35. There are bars.
Seb
I meant like the main turnstiles.
Mike Dowling
There will be bars. I know one of you guys go for a bath, but you shouldn't be in the bar. So, we've mentioned funding. Obviously you try and cover the costs and all the rest of it, but how do you kind of deal with that challenge?
Mike Dowling
Is it a case of you ask people for regular donations or is it you just wait till you're absolutely desperate and can't cover it? Because obviously we know the club can't because they've
Seb
got other
Mike Dowling
bills to pay. But how do you kind of approach that challenge of the funding?
Seb
I mean it depends like really because if we if like the Birmingham display after the draw was done we were like straight on it and we were like we need to do something because this is one of the biggest games we'll ever play and then obviously we did a bunch of designs and then we asked around and looked at quotes and I think in the end it was like 600 quid for that display itself like literally just the banner and obviously that was a big one and I think with the funding we covered well we try and ask everyone we like who can chip in the most like what's the most we can cover it ourselves without asking so much money and I think we all did about 15 each and then in the end obviously we put out the announcement and then we were asking nicely for donations obviously we're not going to be arseholes about it and say we need money for this to do this and yeah and then obviously I think just how generous people want to be obviously we don't we don't care how much is put in like it
Seb
could be a quid like that's fine a quid is a quid at the end of the day it still helps us out so um yeah but we're not greedy with anything it's just like if we get donations we see it as like oh they're supporting us so this is a good thing because then we've got the audience there for us to be able to put it on if that makes sense
Mike Dowling
yeah absolutely So, Harry, from doing this, my experience of Match Day has changed ever so slightly. I still enjoy it as much as I can. I remember where I left my pint. But when you're planning the big displays and it's big games, does it change the match experience for you?
Mike Dowling
Are you constantly thinking about, oh, what we've got to do here, what time we've got to do this and blah, blah, blah. And is it more pressure or is it more exciting, Harry?
Harry
I think it's, I think it definitely does change it, getting in there, trying to get in there earlier than the turnstiles open like we did for Soliel, getting in there really early, setting everything. But it is a bit of pressure, but I think mainly it's excitement. But it mainly builds up the excitement around like 2.45 when people start pouring in, and then like the music comes on. Like last year's Young The Take music was brilliant, I thought.
Speaker 6
And
Mike Dowling
Seb, what about yourself? I mean, because organizing these things can take over a lot of your time in the week. It's not just rock
Seb
up a
Mike Dowling
match and go home again. Is it a different experience for you now?
Seb
I mean, if we're doing a display, yeah, of course it does, because then you've got, like with me, I'm always, although the drum's in front of me and I'm still doing that, I'm always just looking around and seeing if everyone's doing what we kindly ask of them to do. And also, for me, you've got a monitor if anything gets nicked or moved, as you said. Yeah, because we don't want that to happen, because we've spent a lot of money ourselves.
Seb
And yeah, I mean, if everyone does it, then it makes it a lot easier and you don't have to worry about things. It's just collecting things back after. That's an anxious little thing to worry about. Yeah.
Mike Dowling
And I know we haven't done one with Aggie yet and it's coming up, but what's the reaction been like from players, management staff and the fans so far to the ones you have done?
Seb
I think the most we got was definitely Birmingham, of course, because it was busy, it was sold out. So obviously we're going to get a bit of reception from that. I think after a display, obviously we message the players that follow us on our Insta. We just ask them what did they think of the display and the atmosphere and if there's anything we need to do to improve it.
Seb
and they always say no it was really good the display looked good and that's all we need to know really but obviously atmosphere wise we want criticism really so then we know that we can get better at it and obviously improve ourselves so yeah I think overall reception's good it's just we need more people knowing who we are for some fans that don't have social media that's another thing Yeah,
Mike Dowling
fair enough. Penta, have you noticed the atmosphere shifting slightly and it's a bit more noisy? Yeah. And do you ever sort of sit around going, yeah, we did this?
Harry
I think, yeah, cutting would definitely help. It contains the noise a lot more than what parts I did. But yeah, So like part time, we couldn't be heard by other teams really that much. And like, it's definitely louder.
Harry
We've got other people singing, not just our group singing, joining in other people, joining in with the songs. It's just definitely 10 times louder now.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, absolutely. I did say I'd stop moaning about the curver, as long as you all were making noise. And you were. I didn't stop moaning about the curver, but you held up your end of the bargain, I didn't.
Mike Dowling
What's next? What's coming up? I know you had an announcement the other day, but anyone who hasn't seen it, what's the next one we're
Seb
doing? We're doing a display against Shrewsbury for the FA Cup game, which doesn't need donations. You don't need to worry about that one. We've got that covered.
Seb
We're doing a flag and balloons display. I mean, it's something small, something easy. When I say easy, I don't know how we're going to do the balloons, but we'll figure it out.
Mike Dowling
I went much smaller scale on a Sunday League Cup final. As people were coming in, I handed them two colored balloons. We were in red and white. Literally, I just handed them one red, one white balloon and said, here you go, blow them up.
Mike Dowling
Here you go, blow them up. Here you go, blow them up. So you didn't have to blow them up yourself. With all those hundreds of balloons, there's not a chance I'm doing that.
Mike Dowling
So you could potentially ask the club if the turnstile operators could just give out some balloons. But to both of you, so we'll start with you Harry, what's the long-term legacy you want for the Amber Project. So obviously what happens is you guys are at the Games, what will happen is there'll be universities, jobs, kind of moving on, people going and coming back and all the rest of it. What would you like to see in 10 years that the Amber Project has done?
Seb
It's a bit far.
Mike Dowling
It'll be 25, look.
Seb
He'll be 25, I'll be 20. Jesus Christ, we will not
Mike Dowling
talk about my age. Carry on.
Harry
I think we want to have like, no matter what league we're in, I think our legacy would be the Amber Project helped establish Sussex as like a top atmosphere in whatever league we are in, no matter what. I think that's just going to be the main goal overall, but Seb might have something different. We haven't really discussed this as much.
Mike Dowling
No,
Harry
I know. That's
Mike Dowling
why I ask these questions to catch you on the hop a little bit. But, whoa, Seb, you've had a couple more seconds to think about it, though. What's your nice concise answer that you thought
Seb
about? Well, I don't want it to be 10 years, it's 28, Jesus Christ. No, I think, I mean, I think overall, I just want it to continue. I mean, obviously, I'm still going to be the person who created it all.
Seb
So obviously, I still have something to do with it. And so will Pento. But as long as it just continues on and obviously we don't have to be there to do it. Like if someone who's in the group that's going, they could just take control and it doesn't have to be me.
Seb
It doesn't have to be Pento. It could just be anyone who's in the group or anyone who's closely linked to us. They can always just take control for that specific game. And I think like what Pento said, it's all about the atmosphere at the end of the day.
Seb
So as long as we are in top 10 i'd say then that's good because obviously we're a small club we don't need to have big numbers to make an atmosphere we could do it ourselves but the numbers are a big thing we don't want our end being very empty and it's just four of us singing that's really dead we don't like that
Mike Dowling
yeah there's more and more i see as i obviously are I can't stand still, I keep wandering around now. As I go past, the group is definitely getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
Seb
Yeah,
Mike Dowling
it is. Very well done to both you and everyone else involved.
Seb
Thank
Mike Dowling
you both for joining me
Seb
and answering some of the silly
Mike Dowling
questions. If anyone is interested in helping out and they just want to know a bit more, you can always drop me a line, I'll put you in touch. Best of luck with the FA Cup display and I can't wait to see it. Thank you.
Mike Dowling
I won't do it. Oh, no. Actually, before you go, there is, it doesn't really affect our view, I don't think, but there is an event that I wanted to highlight because some young people might be listening to it because of you two. They will be.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, next Wednesday the 26th, 10 till 1 at the club, there's a young person's job fair and basically they've got lots of companies coming down and people might find it interesting to find out what job market is what's out there um and um well there's probably a free pen or two as well so it's definitely worth anyone who's around next week yeah hang on i didn't say it definitely was a free pen i said there might
Seb
be a free
Mike Dowling
pen i don't know i just know what's going on i don't know what's involved um but yeah it's definitely worth attending these things they're always a struggle because you've got people of a certain age trying to organize things for younger people and they do things they think hey i know what that is six seven and it's just yeah we don't know what we're really doing we just we just do it that's
Seb
the effect
Mike Dowling
did you see my camera flip one the other day
Seb
no
Mike Dowling
that was just as bad don't worry about
Seb
it it was awful i think i'll stay away from it then
Mike Dowling
yeah no yeah i try but it's funny it's funny i'm rather cringy dad anyway gents i'm gonna let you go but don't start with the yank I'm going to let you gents go, but if everyone, if you stay with me, I'm going to continue the conversation with a bit of an Aussie flavor as I talk to Xavier. And I'm delighted to welcome, probably, I can say this without doubt, the most famous Australian to be on the show. Although, to be fair, I had the original Matt Gray on the show and he was in Australia at the time.
Mike Dowling
And you're not in Australia, you're here in the UK. I don't know. But anyway.
Xavier
Yeah, it depends on how many Australians you have on this show, mate. I think you're one. I think you're number one.
Mike Dowling
So you were definitely the most famous.
Xavier
OK, good. That doesn't say much, which I'm happy about. Well,
Mike Dowling
you're on the number one Sutton United podcast, so
Xavier
we're on a par here. I finally made it.
Mike Dowling
How are you? Is your head better after Saturday?
Xavier
Well, I mean, I've got to tell you, I was very merry after Saturday. I didn't intend to stay that long, but I just got carried away. I think we all did. I think there was about 30 of us down there.
Xavier
uh i think maybe 20 stuck around um in the in the sort of the club rooms uh afterwards and uh and yeah we're all just welcome guests like every every one of them was like a mini celebrity it was it was great i don't think i don't think many people bought drinks to be fair i was
Mike Dowling
banking on you spending loads of money
Xavier
No, people spent money on our behalf. Oh, okay. The money was still there, just not coming out of our pockets. I think everyone was just, uh, everyone was, yeah, so welcoming.
Xavier
It was a great atmosphere down there.
Mike Dowling
So for anyone who doesn't know, and we, we, I make that little reference. You, uh, you were a Big Brother contestant
Xavier
in Australia, um, a few years ago. Far off foreman. Uh, I've had to leave country to leave the country in order to get away from it. Um, but yeah, I was many, many years ago now is back in 2013.
Xavier
Um, I didn't last, I might last longer on this podcast than I did on the show. So, uh, that gives you an indication of how well I did.
Mike Dowling
Well, luckily I did the research after Saturday. Otherwise I would have been asking for a demonstration of, I believe twerking was, was
Xavier
one of them. Jeez, you went down that far the rabbit hole. You must have watched some absolute junk to get to that point.
Mike Dowling
We won't be twerking,
Xavier
don't worry. No, I mean, I'm 40 now, I'd probably pull something if I did that.
Mike Dowling
Young man, I've just pulled something talking about twerking. But for listeners who won't know much, what is the group you're part of? Are Aussies in London? How did it begin?
Mike Dowling
I mean, when I was a young man, Aussies were in Ells Court. They weren't in London. They were in just Ells Court. It was a very specific
Xavier
area. disease that you gather in the early hours with this sort of spread all over London now. But we're mainly sort of, I'd say we're congregated between, mainly between sort of the West and the South, but more people sort of tend to go North and East in the last, say, you know, eight or so years, I think, because this becomes a little bit cheaper out there, but like I've been, it's called Aussies in London.
Xavier
And so we've got a couple of Facebook groups where we sort of started from. So one of our Facebook groups has about 87,000 people on it, which is probably more than the population of Aussies in London. But I think people stick around and enjoy the group post their stuff. And then we've got some, and then we do some other social channels.
Xavier
So we've got, we do a lot of social events, I should say. and we do a lot of sport events. So whenever there's a big sporting tournament or there's the AFL or NRL, which are the two big leagues back home, we gather all the Aussies together and generally watch them. And then we do like weekly and biweekly social events.
Xavier
And we try to do some different stuff. Like we do some wine tastings, or we do a singles night, or we've done an Aussie comedy night or Aussie music night. just try and sort of lift the culture and the fun and bring the community together. Because I think sort of what we do over here is that we sort of act as a base for people to start from in their journey into London or the UK.
Xavier
And then once they feel sort of settled, everyone sort of branches out. But I think as a young Australian coming over here to have a group like us, this means you've got some sort of easy connection and so your ease into London's a lot easier and a lot smoother. And we also like help with jobs and we've helped people find places to live and sport teams to play for. So it's really one big community that we get around and it's a vibrant place for sure.
Mike Dowling
I've got some of my cousins the opposite way, an Irish group in Australia.
Xavier
Oh, yeah, yeah. For every Aussie that lives here, there's an Irishman that lives in Australia. I think my wife is Irish as well. Oh, OK.
Xavier
I'm from Melbourne, so that's where the Irish sort of congregate. Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if it's like a one-in, one-out policy. One
Mike Dowling
of
Xavier
my
Mike Dowling
uncle's years ago, he went to Sydney. I mean, he was literally home watching the terrible fires in Sydney years back in the 90s, and he packed up and went over and said that we're going to need help rebuilding. And he's been back over every now and then just to make sure his visa kept
Xavier
on
Mike Dowling
track. Oh
Xavier
really, is that right? He met
Mike Dowling
a Welsh woman over there and they got married, so they live there permanently.
Xavier
Well that doesn't make too much
Mike Dowling
sense. No, absolutely
Xavier
not. But love doesn't sometimes. It does, exactly.
Mike Dowling
But how did you get involved? Was the group there when you came and you got part
Xavier
of
Mike Dowling
it like that? Is that how you kind of got involved?
Xavier
Yeah, it's a good question. So I kind of, I was doing a comedy show called Bogan Bingo, funnily enough. For those of you who don't know what a bogan is, it's basically the Australian chav is the closest, is the closest thing I can put it to. And then through that, I started meeting, I did that years ago, and then I started meeting other people.
Xavier
And then From that, my friend and I, Benny started doing our own events. So we're doing just our own thing. We'll call it the wonders of Down Under. So we did like DJ sets and, and hosted sport events and things like that.
Xavier
And then we met another guy called Ben, who started the page a few years before us. And then we sort of started working together. And then the other Ben guy sort of left. And then sort of everything was just handed over to me to run.
Xavier
And then from there, I've sort of treated as a as a bit of a passion project and tried to build it out as much as possible and try and bring all these different elements of Aussie's culture over here. That's why we try and do so many different things with so many different sort of aspects of Aussie culture. So it's been a slow accumulation of bits and parts, and I've got a team around me that we all sort of work together and start building out some of these events and social events that we put on. So yeah, it's a rolling sort of, it's like a snowball.
Xavier
It's just, I started pushing it and then it sort of started building, built up momentum. And that's why I like the Sutton partnership is a great new one to do because it's just another sort of element that we bring in to bring people together.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I mean, that was one of the next few questions is you could have obviously gone for a lot of different London clubs, lots of Premier League clubs or championship clubs or so on. What kind of made Sutton fit for your guys, not only visit, but partnership almost?
Xavier
Yeah, well, it's funny because we had a very tentative partnership last year where we came down a couple of times and it was just out of the blue. I can't actually, I think it was Jack, who works for a club that reached out to us that said, you know, we're a close club. I think the proximity to London is quite important. And a lot of Aussies come over here without a football team.
Xavier
So having a team that sort of we can introduce them to would be quite interesting. And I think The Premier League is so, I guess it's kind of exclusive in a way that it sort of bars people from going because it's so expensive. And if you're not a certain member and you can't get tickets and you've got to transfer, and then you can only get tickets through scalpers, it becomes quite difficult to do. And so a club like Sutton, that's more a community sort of vibe and it's more accessible because, you know, obviously you're down, you're in the National League.
Xavier
you know, the ticket pricing is a lot easier for people to handle. And I think that, and I think the community, from coming down there last week, the community aspect was actually really quite palpable there. Like everyone was from the area, it was like going to reminded me of going to watch my brothers play football in the amateur leagues in these big sort of ovals that you'd go down there. It's just got that very relaxed community vibe.
Xavier
And I think that sort of gels well with our community. And then from that, so there's a couple of Aussies that are part owners of Sutton. So there's Craig and Costa. And then they also reached out to me because they, as Aussies themselves, they wanted to chat with me and see what we could do as more sort of a permanent relationship to just to try and build out, you know, that sense of community and see if we can
Xavier
make this, you know, we're not talking like massive numbers, we're not going to get hundreds of people down, but if we could get, you know, 30 to 50 to a game each week, and some people might pick Sutton up as their nominated team, then Um, I think there's enough there with like, you know, part Aussie owners that there's a bit of, you know, some connection there that it makes it a bit of an easier sell than saying, Hey, let's go watch Tottenham for 80 quid. You know what
Mike Dowling
I mean? Exactly. You can
Xavier
say, I wouldn't go watch Tottenham. So, uh, I'll go in Arsenal before Tottenham, let's be honest.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, you say that 30 to 50 people, that's a good one, one and a half percent increase on our gate. I know that's mercenary. I know that's really, in fact, yeah, that's really mercenary, but it's simple mathematics. It does increase it and that's the little things that we get.
Mike Dowling
I mean, The Halifax game was the first big proper, this is a partnership. How was the organisation from your point of view? Was it like, I've done various things for Sunday League football and various events and it is like herding cats sometimes. What was it like from your point of view logistically, getting everyone together?
Mike Dowling
Were you going, we're all meeting and going at the same time, or were you just like, here's where we're going to be, meet us there if you want?
Xavier
Well, speaking of herding cats, we missed our train out for that exact reason, because I kind of forgot how we met in a pub in Clapham Junction, the London South Western Tavern, I think it's called, London South Western, it's a Wetherspoons pub, and there's about 25 of us there, and trying to get us from one point to the other. And everyone's an adult,
Seb
but
Xavier
for some reason, you just revert back to being a child having to be nursed across the road because everyone's just looking around. So from that perspective, it was like herding cats because we missed out. We had to go the scenic route down to Sutton. But I think, yeah, we sort of met up and then I find that meet up place first, so everyone could sort of meet each other, swap names and have a couple of beers before we headed out.
Xavier
And then we gathered as a group and walked in as a group. So I think from that perspective, it was really good. From us, it's also great that you use it as a social enterprise where people can meet people and make friends and things like that. And it's a little bit of a pilgrimage.
Xavier
You get to have a few beers on the train as you go out. So there's always that aspect, which is always fun to do.
Mike Dowling
Well, one thing I discovered very late is WhatsApp, the map function. You can
Xavier
share
Mike Dowling
your location and then everyone else can just put it on their phone and go, oh, look, that's where they are. That's the direction we have to go.
Xavier
Yeah, it was actually funny. I did have to use that on Saturday.
Mike Dowling
Very useful. But some of your stadiums at home are quite big, especially in the AFL and the cricket. How did What were people's reaction? I know I had a couple of people near me and I know what their reaction was, but what was the reaction of being so close to the pitch and sort of literally hearing the players?
Xavier
I mean, that's part of the fun of it. I mean, it's so, in our bigger leagues, you know, we've obviously got the, like in the AFL, which is the Aussie rules, we've got these massive, you know, from 60 to 100,000 people stadiums. But this kind of reminded me of what I said before, like my brothers used to play in the VFA, which is the Victorian Amateur Football League. And there was a place called Elston McPark where they used to play their finals or play, you know, round-robin games or whatever.
Xavier
And it kind of felt like that oval space and that it was sort of, you had this, I love the standing room, like, for example, and, you know, the limited seating and it became that quiet, you know, you're so close to the pitch that you can kind of smell the players or you can, I'm not saying that anyone that I know did it, but you could hear a little bit of abuse across the fence. And you know, the player's going to hear it. That's the difference.
Xavier
And I think from that perspective, it was such a close-knit community. And from that, you could actually, I actually met a bunch of people out in that, I was in the standing area, just outside the fan zone. And it just, it's more like a relaxed sort of authentic vibe rather than having to sit. You can kind of talk to people, you can move around.
Xavier
It's less sort of restrictive than going to the biggest stadiums. I think that's what a lot of our guys were really commenting on was, you know, how much fun it was just to sort of move around, go get a beer, come back, have some food, and you can go and talk to people. And I think everyone sort of went to different spots each time they came back and spoke to different people. So, yeah, we loved it.
Mike Dowling
Yeah I did worry because some of the chaps I was talking to were asking about having beers on the stands and I was like no no not at this level you need to go down a couple levels and
Xavier
they're like really
Mike Dowling
I went no no no stay here this is good. But
Xavier
that's that's because we're made to be a bunch of piss heads mate. In
Mike Dowling
fact, one of the groups that go to follow Sutton games up and down the country for many, many years, they aim to get everywhere for 11 a.m. opening hours. Do
Xavier
you know what time the gates open?
Mike Dowling
Not the gates, no, no, the pubs. Oh right, I
Xavier
was going to say, jeez, that's a long
Mike Dowling
day. Yeah, wherever the pubs are, they aim to get there for 11 a.m. and spend the whole day late. They often have a phrase of a lovely weekend or day ruined by the football.
Mike Dowling
Yeah,
Xavier
I mean my Sunday was well ruined by the football. I was hungover and I'm 40 and hungover.
Mike Dowling
Were there any kind of chitchats in the group on the way home about kind of the, not just the
Xavier
bar
Mike Dowling
afterwards, but the actual match and the sort of chats they had with Sutton fans?
Xavier
Yeah, I mean, everyone's just so positive about, A, it's always good to get the win on the first sort of venture into this. But people commented on the price of a pint as well, $3.50, which is very easy on the wallet. And I think most people were just stoked that everyone was so welcomed, especially after the game. you did the, I can't remember what the game was, the gold jacket.
Xavier
It's just so much fun and everyone was coming up to us and so I think everyone was so welcoming that everyone, when we walked around the train, everyone's in such high spirits because Um, yeah, we've been so sort of, um, so looked after and, and everyone knew if they heard an Australian accent, they're like, Hey, are you down here? Part of the Aussie group. And yeah, as I said before, like everyone's like a mini celebrity.
Xavier
So I think it boosted everyone's ego. That's for sure. When they, uh, when they left.
Mike Dowling
This is one of the things, I've been a Sutton supporter for many years, and it's one of the proud things for me is that everyone makes the effort. They don't kind of just go, ugh, more people coming in, they chat, they want to find out why you're there, they want to talk to you, want to make you feel welcome. So it's one of the really, really, really nice things about Sutton fans. I mean, you wouldn't necessarily know, one of the long-term supporters, she had rushed into hospital.
Mike Dowling
the horrible, horrible man was pointing out that we were winning games while she wasn't coming to
Xavier
that. So it was me. But hey ho. But I did meet some great people.
Xavier
Who do I remember? It was Gordon, Sue and Ian I met and had a good chat with each of them. And then obviously I met Costa and then Gary. and Victoria as well, and all these other, and there's a bunch of other people that I'm forgetting, obviously, because by the end of it, I had to stagger out.
Xavier
But yeah, it was great. It was so lovely people, and everyone was very kind and inquisitive as to why we were there, and excited that we were there at the same time. So, yeah, it was really nice.
Mike Dowling
I know you're in a bad state because you said yes to doing this and gave me your number, so
Xavier
I know things were going wrong. It should have got Dan on here as well. He's got a voice that can echo for
Mike Dowling
eternity. You've mentioned that one of the things is people might say, oh, I'm going to go and watch something. Has there been any hint that people are going to go, oh, I might go and watch next summer at home?
Xavier
Yeah, well, we're just working out logistics for the 27th. Unfortunately, I can't be there because I've got family duties. But I think we will try and send a group out for the 29th. So send a group out for that.
Xavier
And then after that, I think the next one was going to be in January, because we've got a couple of conflicting events in December. But I think definitely like everyone walked away going, yeah, we'll definitely come back to another game or another game or two. It was
Seb
just fun.
Xavier
Like I said, everyone got around us. Everyone gave us pats on the back. And look, when you're paying $3.50 for a pint, it's always helpful as
Mike Dowling
well. They can't expect that every time, I don't think.
Xavier
Well, I know. I think they literally put that on for us just to lure us in.
Mike Dowling
You mentioned the strike as a key. I know people do tend to go, do you know about this? We can't really explain it.
Xavier
I still don't understand. I don't understand the game. I don't understand how it works. I don't understand why they're jackets out.
Xavier
I just understood that I was having fun.
Mike Dowling
Yeah, I mean,
Xavier
I've watched a lot of
Mike Dowling
videos, and generally he stands on the chair in his sparkly jacket, shouts at us, we all cheer every now and then, and then someone gets up and tries to open the safe. That's
Xavier
about it. Yeah, there's something about a safe and a key, and then you had the coach's Aggie, Aggie?
Mike Dowling
Aggie, yeah, Aggie was there. Or actually, that was his first time doing it. I think he was a bit railroaded into doing it. I don't think he had much choice either.
Mike Dowling
But what was the highlight for you personally? What was the one that you went, yeah, this was worth all the organization, all the planning, all the herding people around?
Xavier
Yeah, well, I think, I mean, honestly, it was back at the club rooms. I think that cemented the day for me. Because the day was being great, sort of going in. We hung around mostly the fan zone and in that stand in front of the fan zone.
Xavier
And then I think, because everyone was sort of like, didn't know what we're doing. And then I think it was Jack coming over and saying, hey, guys, come over here. I'm going to usher you into this bar. And then from there, like we stayed there for another hour and a half.
Xavier
And I think just the vibe in there and the noise and the fun and sort of the frivolity that was happening, that really cemented it. So I think that was definitely the cream or the cherry on the top for sure. So I think it was just such a great vibe down there. Yeah, it was definitely just that, I keep coming back to it, but that community sort of feel and that welcoming nature of yours, it was really good.
Mike Dowling
Excellent.
Xavier
I need to get me one of those jackets. That's my aim, is to somehow get a jacket.
Mike Dowling
I really enjoyed it. I mean, some of the guys were standing in front of me where I normally stand, and they were vaping quite openly. And I just went and said, just be a little bit more discreet. Well, whatever.
Mike Dowling
I didn't say naughty. And they were like, oh. And I went, no, I'm not saying don't do it. Just hold it.
Mike Dowling
hide it a little bit. Well, no one's going to moan, just hide it. But they happened to be standing in front of me and then we started a good old conversation there and then met you all in the bath afterwards. So, I had a great time as well.
Mike Dowling
I had to keep leaving my pint down somewhere because I knew that I was never going to keep up. So, I had to kind of keep losing it. I can't keep up with
Xavier
this. I wish I had that mentality, but I don't.
Mike Dowling
Bring me down this first.
Xavier
I have, and we'll never learn. It
Mike Dowling
was great to meet you, and thank you for coming on and talking about it. And I can't wait to meet you guys again. Well, not you on the 29th, but January. I'm sure
Xavier
you'll be down. Well, we're aiming to, hopefully going to send a crew down. But we're just working out now. But yeah, we would definitely be back.
Xavier
And thank you to yourself and everyone else down at Sutton. We had such a great time. And yeah, we'll hopefully see you all soon.
Mike Dowling
So that wraps up this episode of Sutton Podcast. As always, we appreciate everyone's attention and feedback. Follow, like, share this episode on social medias at Sutton Podcast across all of them. Subscribe, leave us a review, give us the thumbs up on YouTube.
Mike Dowling
You know, I love all that. As always, thank you to our sponsors, Lucky Star Gin. Thank you to today's lineup. We've had Xavier, you've just heard from, and we had Seb and Harry earlier on.
Mike Dowling
Thanks for listening, and we hope you really enjoyed this episode of Sutton Podcast. Take care, and we'll catch up soon. Bye-bye.
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