HISTORY OF OM21
20th April 2002...A cold Melbourne night filled with rain and dark clouds. In Greece, thousands of AEK fans prepared themselves for the big derby at OAKA. In Melbourne, at 2am, three friends gathered all the black and yellow friends that they could find to gather in the Waverley AEK's club rooms to listen to the match on radio. The result is well documented, it was a black day in our history but for a particular group thousands of kilometres from OAKA it was a beginning. For everyone who was there, it was an amazing night....it was the first time we had shared the happiness and pain with our brothers. We were not alone and from that day forward we would never be alone again.
After the dramatic loss, we were still hurting. As painful as the result was, the memories that we shared would remain unforgettable. At the end of May 2002, back at the club rooms, the AEK fans gathered again. We sat and watched matches from past eras as we traded stories about our experiances at the Temple (those who had been)....From the television a voice was herard...the voice of ORIGINAL. We all knew that the time had come for AEK's heart beat to hit Australia, just as it had been hitting in England, America, Germany, Cyprus, Romania and in Italy. And like that OM21 was born.
1st October 2002...It was the first time that Melbourne heard the voice of OM21. At an English pub called the Charles Dickens Tavern at 4:30am in the morning, roughly 70 people woke up to watch the unthinkable, AEK - Real Madrid 3-3. We continued on this path....wherever our brothers, we went with them - our souls with them. In our hearts, we didnt leave our brothers on their own. Together at the Bernabeu, together at the Olympico, at Toumpa, at Rizoupoli... wherever AEK would go within Greece and in Europe, OM21 would be there at the Dickens singing non-stop.
And now the three friends that began have turned into many but not only friends, but brothers...and we all know that in our darkness on the other side of the world that we are not alone, we know that we have family all over the world. We are not just AEK fans, ORIGINAL is a family, and we are proud to be part of this magical family that now extends its branches to Melbourne.
Our distance isn't measurable. It doesn't minimise our love for our AEK. It gives us the strength to continue...to fulfill our dreams with reality. Together with the love of our brothers, we are feeling what it is to be AEK and ORIGINAL. The magical world of ORIGINAL helps us grow as people, as supporters...the friendships, the craziness, the passion, the strength and the love that it gives us is not cut back by our distance. We have been welcomed into the family and we try to do the same when one of our brothers is down this part of the world. And for everything that ORIGINAL has given us.... we thank them.
WITH WINS - WITH LOSSES - IN RAIN, HAIL OR SHINE - IN THE HARD TIMES - WE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU AEK
ORIGINAL MELBOURNE 21
From May 2002 Till The End