The decline of the Wollongong Wolves
''The spirit in those days was something very special. It was all about creating a club.''
Socceroos such as David Ratcliffe, Charlie Yankos and John Filan were drawn to the project. Trevor Francis, Paul Mariner and Alan Brazil showed up as guest players thanks to the generosity of the television entrepeneur Harry Michaels. There was a minor premiership in 1988, a 10,000-plus crowd for a semi-final against Sydney United, a Socceroos game in 1996. The Wolves were building something on the field, and all the time Brandon Park was being improved, step-by-step, to match those ambitions. But then everything changed.
Wollongong University wanted to create an innovation campus, and Brandon Park was chosen as the site. At the same time, the Illawarra Steelers wanted to improve WIN Stadium. The trust that administered both venues needed the Wolves to come back to the showground as co-tenants to justify government funding. Both the Wolves and Olympic had leases until 2008, but they were lured away on false pretences. Everyone, bar the two football clubs, got what they wanted.
Oxley, then running the council, but also working on behalf of the university, says: ''If the Wolves had dug their toes in, it would have been a very difficult situation to manage. They had some legal entitlement. If they had not agreed to vacate, the innovation campus would have been delayed. But the Wolves did agree. They did it for the right reasons, and they did it on the promise they would have got a new home. I guess you could say soccer was the casualty in the process.''
That is an understatement. Vlietstra still goes to watch the Wolves in a borrowed ground at Cringila. It's not the same. ''I'm proud, very proud, of what we achieved,'' he says. ''Do I feel cheated? Absolutely. Every time I go past Brandon Park, I get tears in my eyes. It's not right.''
Oxley insists, despite what transpired, the relocation plan was done in good faith. ''The Wolves have a right to feel disappointed, but I don't think cheated is the right word,'' he says. ''They've lost their way because they've lost their leadership.''
Not because they've lost their ground? ''That's an element to it, yes.''
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