Marco Tilio’s exceptional end-of-season form for Melbourne City was a key talking point on this week’s episode of The Official Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast. Listen below.
Time and again this season, Marco Tilio has proven himself the player for the big occasion.
His combined 15 goals and assists throughout the 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League campaign is a career-best for the 21-year-old who, amongst Melbourne City’s star-studded squad, is expected to play from the start in the Grand Final on June 3.
ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE GRAND FINAL – TICKET DETAILS
He scored the third of City’s four goals in a mauling of 10-man Sydney FC in the second leg of the Semi Finals on Friday, May 19. It was Tilio’s fifth goal in six games – a run including braces against both Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers heading into the Finals Series.
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If Marco Tulio is Central Coast’s man in form, his almost namesake will arrive at the A-League Men title decider ready to combat the Mariners’ Brazilian for game-breaking honours.
In a Grand Final matchup that could truly go either way, City’s Tilio looms as an X-factor. On this week’s episode of The Official Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast, host Daniel Garb was joined by KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies and James Dodd in singing the young City forward’s praises.
“Loved Marco Tilio’s goal,” said Garb. “They’re all important goals, but that was a nice moment to sit back and watch a young Aussie kid produce a level of skill – okay, the stage wasn’t enormous because the game was pretty much done for – but again, we’ve just seen a sign of his quality once more.
“He’s making a habit of scoring some very big goals – and goals that grab headlines.”
ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE GRAND FINAL – TICKET DETAILS
“That’s 10 goals, five assists for Marco Tilio now,” Dodd replied.
“But what’s most impressive about that, is he’s become a player you can rely on now. At such a young age, for someone who moved from Sydney FC to be exactly that, to get his chance and earn the right to be in the team every week – and that’s what he’s done.”
The next step in Tilio’s career is one of the off-season stories to watch; speaking after City’s second-leg win over Sydney, head coach Rado Vidosic confirmed the club is generating “interest” in the young Socceroo from other clubs.
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Should this season be his last in the A-League Men, Tilio will depart Australian shores with a brimming trophy cabinet. At just 21, he’s the only player in A-League Men history to win four consecutive Premierships (1x Sydney FC, 3x Melbourne City). Should City convert the Premiership/Championship double, Tilio will scoop up his second Champions medal.
Smithies says Tilio’s level-headedness has contributed to his success; he’s kept his head down and remained humble despite winning multiple club accolades, and representing Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and 2022 Qatar FIFA Men’s World Cup.
All the while, he’s been pushed by his teammates at clubland in pursuit of improvement – and he’s reaping the rewards as a result.
“His character goes a long way,” Smithies said. “I’m really taken by his lack of ego; it’s almost at times he feels like ‘Gosh, am I really here?’ There’s a little excitement in him that he’s getting to hang out with the big kids and play the big football.
“You can see the exuberance in the way he plays, so far it hasn’t gone to his head. He has been so well managed by City over the years.
“Even in games, he still gets coached by the senior players in his movement. They don’t let him slack off, and he is flowering as a result of that.”
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ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE GRAND FINAL – TICKET DETAILS
Sydney’s Semi Final ‘shocker’: ‘They didn’t shoot themselves in the foot, they shot themselves in the head’
Sydney FC arrived at AAMI Park on Friday night buoyed by a 1-1 draw in leg one, and full of confidence in their ability to shock the Premiers.
Just 20 minutes into their second-leg clash with City, it was practically all over.
Max Burgess, who has so often been Sydney FC’s shining light in an impressive individual season, was the villain for the Sky Blues on the night. His late, clumsy challenge on Tilio originally earned a yellow card from Shaun Evans; VAR Kris Griffiths-Jones was quick to notify the on-field official that Burgess had collected Tilio high up the right calf with his studs, and that yellow was upgraded to red.
From that moment forward, the result “seemed locked away,” said Garb.
“It was such a big talking point and it will be for a while; the first time I saw the vision I thought: ‘Maybe he slipped, maybe he’ll get away with it, maybe it wasn’t intentional’. Then you look at the angle from the other side, and you go: ‘Max, what on earth have you done? How? In the first half of the second leg of a Semi Final have you produced a challenge like that?’”
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“He was distraught,” said Smithies. “From all accounts, he was up in one of the coaches’ boxes absolutely devastated and blamed himself. And he’ll carry that for a long time, because it was a big game that he would have wanted to have been a big player in – and suddenly he’s turned the whole contest on its head.
“It’s a bad tackle… that’s not a tackle that’s allowed on a football pitch.”
Dodd was prepared to go further in his summation of Burgess’ dismissal.
“You say bad, Tom, I think if we’re being honest it’s a shocker,” he added.
“There is no way you can try and get a result there with 10 men. They’re unbeaten at home all season, they are that good a footballing side, they know exactly what they want to do.
“When you go down to 10 men that early on, they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot, they shot themselves in the head. Because they weren’t going to win the game.
“It’s unfortunate for them, because away from home Sydney FC are better than they have been (at home)… but as soon as that happened, that was it. They were never going to win that game.”
