Yes. By the time the Gers kick off against Blackburn Rovers on July 25th at the Sydney Football Stadium, it will have been exactly 26 years and 18 days since they have played a game Down Under.
For all the Glasgow based supporters and season ticket holders who go down to Ibrox every weekend, this probably means little to you. But this is a huge event for fans like myself - an almost religious experience. I watch all the games when I can on RangersTV and have never even been to Scotland, let alone Ibrox! And I know many other Aussie Bluenoses who are in the same boat as myself. This tour is a dream come true for many of us.
Apart from the ageing Peter McCloy, Davie Cooper and the yet-to-be-proven Ally McCoist, the team on that tour in 1984 contained no real stars (think Nicky Walker!). We were at the bottom of a dark period in our history.
Since that time we had the Souness Revolution, 9IAR and the likes of Gascoigne, Butcher, Hateley, Laudrup, De Boer & Ferguson all grace our famous jersey. Rangers could claim to be one of the most popular and successful clubs on the planet. Rangers even owned an Australian team (Northern Spirit) for a while.
Yet despite all this, there was no tour to Oz. In the intervening years, football has exploded in popularity in Australia, but the Rangers have not been here to capitalise. Manchester United toured in the mid 90s to sold out crowds. I know we can't be everywhere, but it seems like an opportunity was lost during that period to grow the supporter base outside of Scotland in a way that the EPL has.
Nonetheless there's no point crying over spilt milk. What's done is done. The boys are finally returning and I really can't wait. The results almost don't matter. I would chew off my arm, if it were the price I'd have to pay to finally get to see them in the flesh for the first time.
Just three more sleeps now!
BLUE DINGO