Charlie Austin

[bunburygills]

Just a comment on Charlie Austin. He was on a multi year contract signed by Brisbane Roar from QPR. He was supposed to score lots of goals and to help develop the younger players with his experience. He stayed here for 6 months and most of that was spent whinging and complaining. His classic was Aussie TV was rubbish. He scored 2 goals in 6 games, Hardly a success. For weeks he wanted to go home, so they let him, much to the delight of the Brisbane fans. What does he do, score two goals against the Gills. That might suggest that the standard is higher over here. Having been to Brisbane several times, I can't imagine how Swindon could possibly be a better place to live. Perhaps the TV is better after all.

[gillsfan1066]

Swindon, compared to Brisbane, no competition, Swindon wins hands down. Whats Brisbane got, the ocean ,well that's full of dangerous sharks and stuff, it's the home of Steve Irwin's famous zoo, and look what happened to him when he went in the ocean. Swindon has TWO Rivers , the Cole and Ray. Brisbane has the Gold Coast , where the temp is normally between 85 for a high and 51 for a low, a wonderful bay with islands, fabulous beaches, great seafood restaurants, well Swindon has got the Wilts and Berks Canal that there restoring , nothing more dangerous in them than an odd bike and shopping trolley or two, one up for Swindon.
Brisbane has the Queensland Museum and Sciencentre , Swindon has the Museum of Computing , put that in your pipe and smoke it Brissie. Oh yeah,Brisbane has got the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Swindon had got The Museum of the Great Western Railway, home to only good old Number 11 , OLIVER, a Great Western Tank Engine in Thomas The Tank Engine, what you got to say now Brisbane ? OH big deal Brisbane ,you have got the Botanical Gardens ,that's nothing compared to Mrs Jackson's Hollyhocks collection down by Liquor World off of Pinehurst Road .
This is just scratching the surface comparing the two places but I think my dear Mr Bunburygills you will agree with me when I say that 99% of people living in Brisbane,would, given the chance ,HAPPILY move to Swindon if they could get The Ten Pound Poms Scheme boat ticket they got to go to Australia ,reversed.

[bunburygills]

Good reply Gillsfan, I think your Knowledge of Brisbane is exemplary, if it's all true, and I'm sure you never lie. However, it all points to the fact that Austin is a right plonker.

[sotongill]

Never been to Brisbane , but have spent many a night in Swindon with work , and the only positive that i can remember is an Indie Karaoke bar , where you can sing along to proper guitar songs rather than the standard fare of i will survive/islands in the stream/green grass of home .

The other positive of course was leaving it , and getting back on the M4

[gillsfan1066]

I did spend time in Brisbane, when I lived in Australia back in the late 1990's. Started off living right up the road from Mr B in Perth, and then when me and her at home split up I moved over to the East Coast and ended up wandering around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane before ending up at Surfers. Brisbane is a great city, fabulous place to live , bit like the east coast of Florida ,and I am sure it has only got better as it has grown quiet a bit since I was there,almost 25 year ago. As for Swine Dom, I spent 2 days there days there installing a couple of portable units in a school where they were gong to be used for overflow class rooms, I don't think I did anything but work and go back to the hotel for the night,I honestly don't remember much about the place at all.
I have often wondered why they seem to be one of the teams we love to hate, as if it were a local team and it was a Derby game.

[bunburygills]

Why did you leave Aussie land after living in all those beautiful cities? We left England in 1971 and have never considered going anywhere else, we love it. However, after watching all those selling houses programmes on TV which my missus is addicted to, I must say Spain looks very nice, especially those golf course estates. I don't know if Brexit has affected the poms over there, I hope not, but if I'd retired in England, I think that's where I'd have ended up.

[gillsfan1066]

I left the UK back in 1976/77 , traveled the world,ended up in Aussieville with a woman I met in Hong Kong. Why did I leave Australia, lol, well I have asked myself more than once but after we got divorced in Perth , I spent a year on the east side , met an American woman up in Surfers and she wanted to come back to the States,so I came here with her,got married had a child got divorced and the rest as they say is history. My big regret (one of many) lol, is not staying in Australia. I should be retired but after the wife passed away a while back I tried it for a few weeks, then decided to go back to work, and I enjoy it. I thought about moving down to Beleize, I was down there for a couple of weeks with a friend who lives there for most of the year, but she lives in a mainly senior community and to tell you the truth it isn't for me. We will see what happens in the future.

[Garawa]

I think home sickness plays a big part as we are often linked with players wishing to move south to be closer to family so the other side of the world would definitely have an impact. What standard League 2 is getting though for average teams to bring in players like that!?

[gillsfan1066]

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence,trust me ,that's something I am an expert on . Players go off to teams where thy think there going to be great,loved by everyone ,have their butts kissed and they forget they have to play, and play hard or there soon knocked off the perch. Then it's the teams fault, the managements fault, the country's fault , every one elses fault other than the players, just ask Manchester United and Rolando.

[bunburygills]

Agreed. We've had some great imports of "big players" but we've also had some real lazy doozies. None bigger than Daniel Sturridge, ex Liverpool, who played probably all of about 90 minutes all season, did no promotion work, and when Perth Glory got rid of him at the end of last season, the celebrations could be heard all around Perth. We've also had Gallas, Fowler who was way past his prime and we still have Sardinero who played in the Spanish LaLiga who's spent most of two years injured with a multitude of problems. We've also had some "unknown" foreigners come in who have been absolutely brilliant. Diego Castro for us was known as The Maestro, he was sensational.