Launch Date – 15 years On

The original collection was focussed on the Golden Generation of Socceroos. It is now over ten years since that collection expanded to collecting cards, stickers, programmes and other similar items of all the Socceroos and Matildas. Over the last five years I have been thinking about establishing a website to display the collection, generate discussion, encourage others to take up the hobby, publish their own collections and maybe even have people contact me with items that I would be interested in!

The idea of a website also came from a site that is no longer operating called “WhiteCardLane”. It was an extensive collection of one person’s Tottenham Hotspurs Cards. I was impressed by the collection and the well designed site that made it easy for collectors to identify additional details of their cards, missing cards in their collection etc. In terms of Australian Produced Soccer Cards the equivalent is the Soccer Guy’s collection on the Collecting Bug site.

I was planning to launch this website on the 17th June 2022, being the 100th Anniversary of the first Socceroos match. Over the last year I recognised that it is unlikely I would be able to display the complete collection by that date. It would be better to progressively add players as I completed cataloguing and scanning their items. I have recently completed thirteen player collections. Given the collection started out as just the Golden Generation of Socceroos I decided to launch the website on the 15th Anniversary of the Socceroo’s first world cup win when they defeated Japan 3-1. The blog picture has Select cards of the 14 Socceroos that played in the match plus other related items.

I was fortunate enough to attend that match at Kaiserslautern with two mates Ross and Steve. A few years later in an interview, Brett Emerton said that the last ten minutes of that match were the best ten minutes of his life. Being a fan in the crowd I feel the same! As a footnote, I also met a Socceroo for the first time when Craig Foster came down from the commentary box to celebrate with fans at the stadium!