Glory’s recent pre-season trip to the Gold Coast inevitably evoked memories of games against Gold Coast United during the Queensland club’s brief and ultimately ill-fated spell in the Hyundai A-League.
From Miron Bleiberg’s casual touchline leisurewear to Clive Palmer’s private jet and the Iron Ore Cup, Gold Coast certainly caused quite a stir when they arrived in 2009 and they would go on to win five of their nine clashes with Glory.
But if the men in yellow and blue seemed to disappear from the national scene as quickly as they burst onto it, the links that were formed with Glory during that time endure to this day.
Chris Harold, of course, moved to the West from United in 2012 and has since gone on to chalk up nearly 150 appearances in purple and then there was the key role that Gold Coast alumni played in Glory’s surge to the 2012 Grand Final.
Bas van den Brink, Steve Pantelidis and Shane Smeltz all made a huge contribution that year and each started in the dramatic denouement against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium.
Add Dino Djulbic and Jerrad Tyson to the mix and you start to get more gold links than in one of Clive Palmer’s watches!
And, of course, there was Michael Thwaite who completed a switch to Glory ahead of the 2012/13 campaign and ended up skippering the club.
Interestingly, Thwaite is back with Gold Coast United now, the reincarnated version of which currently competes in the Queensland NPL.
But as always, it’s your memories of the Glory – Gold Coast dynamic that we’d love to hear about, so please join the conversation via our Facebook page HERE or on Twitter HERE.
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