When I got asked to go on The Today Show last month before the derby with Sydney FC, I was excited. I’d never been on free-to-air TV. People watch that stuff.

I got there early and asked them what questions they were going to ask, so I could prepare myself. The questions were pretty basic, I guess to appeal to a broader audience.

So when they asked me that about the fans’ behaviour, I saw our media person behind the camera, and she looked at me and I was just like, ‘I’ll let this one go’. I said the fans “had better go hard” and apparently it went a bit viral.

Truthfully, I could’ve said more, but there are some things you’re just not allowed to say. I know I would’ve caused the club some grief.

I remember when I was at Victory and we played against Wanderers at Pirtek Stadium, I’d already heard a lot about the fans, and them just losing it, and the funny thing was a few of my friends from school were in the Red and Black Bloc (RBB) at the time.

They would be swearing at me and I’d be like, ‘I know you man, how’s it going?’ And they’d be like, ‘F-ck you!’ I found it all quite fun. I was like, ‘Well done to them’.

The A-League needs that fanatical side to it. And when I say fanatical, I don’t mean doing anything illegal, I just mean going absolutely hard. The Wanderers had that reputation.

My first two years in the A-League, before they knocked down Pirtek Stadium, they went hard, especially against Victory.

‘They search for negativity’

I one hundred per cent believe there’s a bias against football in some Aussie media. From things I’ve known and heard that don’t make the news in the other codes, to what makes the news when it comes to football, it’s chalk and cheese.

Some people search for negativity in football. That’s my perspective on it. They look for ways to create a scandal. It’s almost like people take football as a threat. It’s the world game.

Hats off to AFL, they’ve got a massive TV rights deal, they get 80-90 thousand fans to games – soccer’s not competing with that. You can’t. That’s amazing, but don’t try to destroy soccer.

From what I’ve read, there’s over a million kids playing it in this country. I say embrace that.

‘Chasing girls, going clubbing’

I never saw an NSL game growing up in Blacktown. When they talk about past players now, I don’t know about any of them. I played for Marconi Stallions and Blacktown Demons but I never stayed to watch the older grades after.

As a kid, we had bricks around the garden beds out in our backyard. I used to aim for this one brick every single time.

My older brother was a talented player too. A left winger, he was quick and had a good cross off his left foot. But he gave it up when he was about 17.

He did what pretty much everyone else does – he said, ‘I’m not going to make a career out of this, I’m going to give up, go out, chase girls and go clubbing’. I think 95 per cent of kids end up stopping at that time. I guess I just had the mental strength for it.

‘The RBB just get louder and louder’

It’s pretty chill here at the Wanderers. It’s such a multicultural place and I feel like I’ve fitted in straight away. The transition was probably the easiest I’ve had in my career.

I look at our Western Sydney fans and I’m like, ‘These guys go bloody hard’. They’re there to support – they’re not there to screw around. Compare that to Sydney FC, when they won the league a couple of seasons ago. They were literally unstoppable, and I didn’t think their fans were anything close to how the Wanderers fans are now.

We’ve got Melbourne City this Friday night and they’re top of the ladder, three points ahead of us. I know I don’t have to say anything to our fans. They know what they want and it’s on us to give it to them.

If you come to a Wanderers game you don’t even have to watch the game itself – you can just watch the fans because they create a spectacle themselves.

Every number counts, especially when it comes to the RBB. They just get louder and louder. It’s like they were already established, they went on a break for a few years when they knocked Pirtek Stadium down, and now they’re coming back again.

We want to make Bankwest a fortress, so when teams come there, they shit themselves.

I’ve had ex-teammates telling me they can’t wait to play there. It’s an awesome stadium. You’re in the second tier and you feel like you’re going to fall out of the stands. We want to bring all our fans back with our performances, and that’s been our duty since I’ve come to the club. We know the only way to do it is by winning.