Socceroos fan Adrian Brett caught the eye during Australia’s World Cup play-offs in Doha with his passion in the stands. He speaks to KEEPUP’s Sacha Pisani about his extensive jersey collection, which spans across not only the national team but the A-Leagues.
If you tuned in to Network 10’s coverage of the Socceroos’ triumphant World Cup play-offs in Doha, you would’ve undoubtedly come across Adrian Brett.
Brett AKA the ‘@AusKitNerd‘ was part of a passionate group of Australian fans who made the trip to Qatar for the win-or-bust matches against the United Arab Emirates and Peru.
He was front and centre. Not only for his celebrations that caught the eye of television cameras at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, but his extensive collection of Socceroos jerseys.
An avid football jersey collector, Brett packed no less than 20 pieces of Socceroos attire for the Qatar trip.
The 24-year-old was in the stands in his Aussie gear when Ajdin Hrustic’s deflected volley rocketed into the back of the net against the UAE. He was also in attendance when Andrew Redmayne’s best wiggles impersonation helped the Socceroos conquer Peru en route to Qatar 2022.
He rubbed shoulders with the Australia national team throughout his memorable stay abroad, taking in training sessions and celebrating with Graham Arnold following the dramatic penalty shoot-out versus Peru.
Brett has thrust football kit culture into the spotlight, but where did it all begin?
It dates back to his childhood, though the purchase of a heat press during COVID lockdowns “really ramped” things up for Brett.
“Me and my brothers went in on it together,” Brett told KEEPUP. “We all live together in the same house and decided over COVID, we’d learn how to use a heat press and print name sets on the back and all of that.
“We often found ourselves buying jerseys and name sets but having to take it to a place that had a heat press. It ended up being a quite costly and time-intensive exercise.
“It was really fun learning how to use the heat press. It’s been quite bad for my collection because you see something and you’re like, I need to have that and I can do something cool with that.
“What I’ve been doing over the last 12 months or so is buying football jerseys from particular moments in matches or football history that are important to me, and then buying the relevant name set and printing it on.
“That makes the memory. For example, before I went to Qatar, I bought the 2016-17 Socceroos home shirt and then I was able to find the Mile Jedinak name set. He scored that incredible hat-trick against Honduras that qualified us for the last World Cup.”
You only have to scroll through Brett’s Twitter feed to get an idea of the magnitude of his kit collection.
From Socceroos great Mark Schwarzer to Matildas superstar Sam Kerr. The list is endless.
“I’ve been very privileged that as a kid I was able to watch a lot of Socceroos games in Australia and even watching games on TV,” Brett said.
“They bring up such positive, even negative but amazing memories around the Socceroos, how they played and particular players. It’s a great way to remember Socceroos past and present, to remember particular games.”
For all the green and gold, it ultimately comes back to the domestic game for Brett.
“Can’t be a passionate Socceroos fan without supporting the local league,” Brett said.
Brett has a connection to the A-Leagues – he is a Sydney FC supporter. The Cove, he soaked it all up. However, there was a time he put that fandom on hold.
The reason? Brett was a referee in the National Youth League. Then 18, he was named part of the NYL panel, consisting of 29 hand-picked referees from around Australia.
“When I was about 15 years old, I got put on the development pathway to move towards refereeing at an elite level,” recalled Brett, who started following the A-Leagues around 2008.
“At that point at 16, I made the decision to stop supporting Sydney FC because I wanted to become an A-Leagues referee. I did continue watching the league generally, I stopped supporting a specific team.
“By the time I was 19, I was actually a referee in the Youth League, so I was refereeing the Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, all of those Under-20s.
“Whilst I wasn’t supporting a team then, I was obviously following the league quite closely and operating in that elite football environment.”
That time in the Y-League saw him deal with current Socceroos Joel King and Marco Tilio. Funnily enough, the former Sydney FC youth players recognised Brett at a training session in Qatar.
With his ambitions of refereeing at an elite level put aside, Brett has been able to reconnect with the Sky Blues in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
“I decided [in 2019] what I wanted to do with my career didn’t blend well with pursuing being a professional referee because in my day job I’m a lawyer,” said Brett, who remains part of the Ku-ring-gai and District Football Referees Association.
“I decided I would take a step back from refereeing and do it for fun at a local level. I realised if I’m not really pursuing that elite pathway anymore, there’s no reason for me not to support an A-Leagues team.
“I figured I’d get back on the Sydney FC support bandwagon you’d might call it. It was a good time to become a Sydney supporter again, winning A-Leagues back-to-back and all that.”
Brett said he has close to 25 Sydney FC kits. This, after he gave away a lot of his old items, while not adding to his collection during his refereeing commitments in the youth league.
The standout Sky Blues kit?
“It would have to be the 2012-13 Sydney FC when Alessandro Del Piero signed,” he said emphatically.
“That is probably the highlight of most Sydney FC fans’ collections. A very popular kit and the fact they signed Del Piero as well when the league blew up…
“When I go to Sydney FC games, that’s probably the most common kit I see in the crowd because everyone that’s been supporting Sydney FC would have that kit. It was an amazing time in the club’s history.”
Another kit that stands out – the 2022 A-Leagues All Stars.
Brett was fortunate enough to get his hands on the Puma jersey that was worn against LaLiga giants Barcelona at Accor Stadium last month.
“It’s an amazing kit. I was really impressed when it got released,” he said. “It’s a shame more weren’t put on sale because had more been available, people would’ve genuinely got on top of it.
“Me and my brother were able to buy some ahead of the game. We were probably one of the few people in the crowd actually wearing an All Stars jersey, whereas everyone else was wearing their Barcelona kit.
“I think the reaction that came around on social media when the kits were released, it’s proof that people have genuine interests in football kits.
“Football kits and streetwear culture have a really good way in bridging relationships with the A-League amongst fans.
“For a lot of people, even though that game will be remembered for the likes of Garang Kuol’s amazing run and the All Stars pushed Barcelona pretty much all the way, the fact they did it in an iconic kit as well, it’s going to standout too.”
