Neds Weekend Preview: 'That's the future of the A-League'

KEEPUP previews the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final between Melbourne City and Central Coast Mariners, with thanks to neds.

Melbourne City v Central Coast Mariners is a ‘David v Goliath’ battle.

On one hand you have the City Football Group-backed reigning premiers, who are featuring in a fourth consecutive Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final. On the other you have the Mariners with the lowest budget in the competition and set to end their 10-year wait for a spot in the big dance.

BUY TICKETS TO THE GRAND FINAL

BUY TICKETS TO THE GRAND FINAL

Nick Montgomery’s Mariners have won admirers far and wide, beyond Gosford, thanks to their exciting brand of football and faith in youth. From Jacob Farrell and Max Balard to Harrison Steele, Josh Nisbet and Nectar Triantis.

It is the blueprint for the future of Australian football as world football gravitates towards young players, according to former Socceroo and A-Leagues striker David Zdrilic – who appeared on The Players Pod with host Robbie Cornthwaite and fellow guest Luke Wilkshire.

In season 2022-23, you can listen to Robbie weekly on his new KEEPUP podcast – The Players Pod, with Robbie Cornthwaite. Listen below or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

“There’s different ways that you can approach the way you want to go about a philosophy. I’m certainly one that loves the way Monty goes about it – playing kids. I’m the same,” former Sydney FC striker Zdrilic told The Players Pod.

“There’s this old-fashioned view that you need to play with experienced guys to win titles and do anything decent. It’s definitely not the case.

“If you look around Europe now it’s getting younger and younger. The teams are getting faster, the players are getting faster. They’re getting more experience at a younger age. It’s only going to head that way.

“I think also for us, when you see what Central Coast have done playing young players… we all get excited by young players in the A-League. Seeing a future for them.

“Eventually they would, if they’re good enough, they’ll probably go overseas. That’s what we want as well. That’s the future of the A-League generally. Producing young players, us getting excited about them then following them when they go overseas to bigger and better things.”

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Central Coast’s one and only Championship came in 2013 – their last Grand Final appearance, but the Mariners head into the decider in good form.

The Mariners are undefeated in their last seven A-League Men games (W6 D1); the last time they went longer without a loss in the competition was a nine-game stretch from March to November in 2013 (W6 D3).

Zdrilic, who previously worked with RB Leipzig’s youth teams between 2017 and 2020 when Ralf Rangnick, Julian Nagelsmann and Ralph Hasenhuttl were the German club before going on to eventually coach at Genoa in Serie A, added: “For me, it’s fantastic.

“It’s no surprise because when you unlock young talent they’re going to surprise you. The very, very positive thing is we have the young talent here in Australia.

“If you give them the chance, we are going to produce a lot of good young players. It will just strengthen our Socceroos and our name all around the world, which we’ve done previously.”

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Opta stat: Central Coast Mariners (77% of 13 games) and Melbourne City (75% of 20 games) have the highest win rates when scoring the opening goal of the game on the day of any team this season; while the Mariners (33% of 15 games) also have the highest win rate of any team when conceding the opening goal of the game on the day.

MATCH DETAILS

Melbourne City v Central Coast Mariners
Saturday, June 3 2023
CommBank Stadium
Kick-off: 7:45pm AEST
Broadcast: 10 Bold, 10 Play & Paramount+
Odds: City $2.00, Draw $3.60, Mariners $3.25
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