Brendon Santalab reflected on the final moment of his professional career, what he’s been up to since leaving the A-Leagues and more on this week’s edition of the Players Pod with Robbie Cornthwaite. Listen below!
It’s difficult to think of a more devastating way to end a football career than the scenes that played out for Brendon Santalab in 2019.
After 19 years of professional football, the striker who made 129 appearances in the Isuzu UTE A-League finished his time at the top level with a failed Panenka penalty that ultimately cost Perth Glory the Grand Final, which was won by Sydney FC in a shootout.
But, four years down the track, does Santalab regret his decision to stare down Andrew Redmayne and attempt one of the boldest ploys in the game?
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“That’s football. I made up my mind to do that. Credit to the Sydney FC coaching staff, they’ve done their homework,” Santalab reflected on a special Sydney Derby edition of the Players Pod with Robbie Cornthwaite, alongside Sky Blues great Alex Brosque.
“They must have looked at my run up, videos from the past, I’ve done a few in the past and I just thought on that massive occasion that Redders is going to dive. Unfortunately, he’s done his homework and stood in the middle, credit to him.
“I don’t regret what I tried to do; it is what it is. You look at (Zinedine) Zidane’s penalty years ago in the World Cup Final, it’s hit the crossbar and landed over the line by a few centimetres; that doesn’t go in and all of a sudden there’s a different picture.
“Mine didn’t work… it took me a long time to reassess the situation and say why in a big game did I try to do something like that?
“I was always brave in my decisions when I was out there. I believe in what I wanted to do in that moment. Redders did the right thing, they did their homework and congratulations to them.”
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Of course, that isn’t where the story ends.
That Grand Final was actually the debut of Redmayne’s now famous antics on the goal line, which have seen him dubbed the Grey Wiggle after his heroics against Peru saw the Socceroos qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Who knows, if Santalab had scored and Perth Glory had gone on to win, perhaps the Sydney FC ‘keeper would have thought twice about his approach to spot kicks.
“You might have given him the confidence to take that onto the global stage,” Cornthwaite joked. “You might be the reason that Australia got to the World Cup, if we put it like that!”
Santalab responded:
“I made him a Wiggle, I think! I’m waiting for the commission from Redders. I haven’t had no calls, nothing!
“It was a great send-off for Brosquey and I to be in a Grand Final for our last appearances. You go through a massive career and to be in a Grand Final on the last day of your career was quite special.”
However, Redmayne’s wiggling days may be over after IFAB’s controversial decision to tweak the rules surrounding penalties, with goalkeepers no longer unable to ‘unfairly distract’ the taker from July 1 onwards.
“He didn’t put me off at all, to be honest,” Santalab said when asked for his opinion on the law change.
“I always, when I went up for a penalty, I knew where I was going. I wasn’t one of those players who watched the goalkeeper where he was going to move, I had my mind set on a place and I was going to try and score that way, where other players are watching the goalkeeper.
“If you have that approach and Redders is making those movements, I see how that could put you off. In my situation, no it didn’t.
“In terms of the rule, I guess they’ve analysed the situation, done their research and found that it could possibly be putting off the penalty takers. Keepers are restricted as it is, so taking that away from them as well, it makes it really hard for the goalkeeper now.”
Since hanging up his boots following that Grand Final, Santalab has trodden a unique path that has taken him across state lines, back to the National Premier Leagues, coaching in Victoria’s fifth tier and now back home.
“I transitioned down to Melbourne (and) had an opportunity down there to play for Dandenong City,” he explained.
“So I was there for a little while and then Covid kicked in not long after that, it would have been four or five months after I moved to Melbourne.
“We all went through a really tough period down there, it was brutal and took its toll on many people including myself. We were like in hibernation for a couple of years down there, not much happened at all.
“Then soccer started again and we had ups and downs there as well, with rules and whatever.
“I was playing on and off, then I had a little stint of coaching down there in the fifth division which was some experience down at that level. It was very challenging in many ways.
“I was with that football club, and it happens a lot down in Melbourne, there are jobs linked to these clubs to keep some so called big names at their clubs. So I was linked in with a construction company and I was working there for a couple of years
“I finally made the move home to Wollongong about seven weeks ago now. Coaching the kids with our academy TS11 Football down here with my brother and another ex-pro Mitchell Blowes, which is something I’ve always wanted to do.
“I wanted to coach kids, it’s where I see the professionalism and the experience that I’ve had, it is where I want to put that into the kids and lead them to try and become professionals as well. This is where I am now.”
After a high-profile career in the A-Leagues with stints at Sydney FC, Perth Glory and Western Sydney Wanderers, where he became a legend, it is little to surprise to hear that Santalab was targeted by defenders when he dropped down to NPL level.
Asked if centre-backs treated him differently at that level, he responded: “It’s more words than anything. They’re all a lot of talk.
“That is the issue I had at the lower levels, it was the ego and the characters.
“Seeing some of the players down at that level being put on the bench and having a dummy spit, when I spent most of my career on the bench at the highest level, I had to try and get my head around how that was making them upset.
“It was something I just couldn’t get my head around. I really struggled coaching at that level. So to get back to the kids is a refresher for me.
“Just seeing there is no politics involved, the kids come with a clear mind to training, they love it, they work hard and they’re willing to learn.”
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BUY TICKETS: ADELAIDE UNITED V WELLINGTON PHOENIX ELIMINATION FINAL
