The Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final has provided Australian sport with the quintessential David v Goliath decider, laced with story lines to follow, writes David Weiner.
Do you still believe in sporting fairy tales?
Football fans might be thinking otherwise in a week where Borussia Dortmund saw Bayern Munich clinch the Bundesliga from their grasp on the final day of the season, and Leicester City, holders of one of world sport’s all-time most unfathomable triumphs, losing their status in a league they won just seven years ago from those famous 5000-1 odds.
But Central Coast’s return to the Isuzu UTE A-League big dance isn’t just a classic underdog story, or a battler done good who has fought their way to the league’s showpiece.
It should bring the glint back into the eye for those who love a feel-good sports yarn, a story so good, it should trickle into beyond football into the sporting consciousness as we build up to this weekend.
The Mariners’ return to the Grand Final, to face back-to-back-to-back-to-back Grand Finalist Melbourne City, has all the ingredients to make both David and Goliath’s script writers envious.
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10 years since their last decider? Tick.
Laughing stock of the league at times since that appearance? Tick.
Appoint a club legend, who missed a Grand Final as a player due to suspension, to coach the club to a Grand Final? Tick.
Appoint a club legend, who was sent off in a Grand Final, to captain the club to a Grand Final on his return home? Tick.
Build a team based on academy graduates, recruitment misfits and a central defence with no senior experience prior to this season? Tick.
Sold their brightest talent in January? Tick.
Galvanise a community with a population of 376,000 to attract a sell-out 20, 000 Semi Final crowd? Tick.
League’s lowest wage bill? Tick.
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The Mariners’ run to second spot, and then the decider, pits them against the A-Leagues club backed by City Football Group, the football powerhouse with an eye on their headline club, Manchester City, sitting days away from a potential trophy treble in England and Europe.
Their squad, in market value, is reportedly worth double. The contrast, in sporting terms, could not be more perfectly poised.
“There will be a bit of a David versus Goliath battle but we’re looking forward to it,” Mariners boss Nick Montgomery told reporters.
That’s not how Melbourne City skipper Scott Jamieson reads it.
“I’ve heard a lot of talk from the Mariners about budgets and stuff, but money doesn’t buy you success,” he said.
“Day to day work ethic is what brings you titles and Championships.”
And he should know, having hoisted the trophy in 2021, as well as steering the club to their three consecutive first-placed finishes as they have become the yardstick for on-field success, with a culture and professionalism that attracts the biggest names in the country.
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To point to the Mariners as the only side laced with stories to clutch to ahead of the decider is not fair to City, who have remained the competition pace setters under Rado Vidosic ever since he was seconded from the club’s A-League Women’s side to take over from Patrick Kisnorbo mid-season.
That, if anything, sums up the standards of the league’s on-field benchmark. Kisnorbo departed to become the first Australian to manage in a ‘Big Five’ European league, taking on the Troyes job in France. In stepped Vidosic, seamlessly; the veteran added his own flavour to the side, but it hasn’t diminished their thirst for redemption after losing last year’s decider to Western United.
The City juggernaut is impressive and they have much riding on it. Jordan Bos departs for Belgium as the league’s biggest ever outbound transfer; Jamison will retire, to follow Kisnorbo’s pathway into coaching at the club; prodigious talents Thomas Glover, Aiden O’Neill and Marco Tilio will likely springboard to pastures new in Europe; Mathew Leckie can round out his extraordinary season, which included heroics on the World Cup stage, in style while Jamie Maclaren, now the league’s all-time leading goal scorer, can land that one piece of domestic silverware eluding him – a Grand Final appearance, and win.
The two clubs could not be more different, on and off the pitch, and nor could their histories to this point.
Josh Rose, who played for both clubs, explained on KEEPUP’s Players Pod, how real that contrast was after City Football Group acquired Heart in 2014.
“It definitely was a different club in all aspects, from finance to culture to the players around you and everything, but I think in the early days…they did spend a lot of money, and I thought that would bring them instant success,” he reflected.
The Players Pod, with Robbie Cornthwaite. Listen below or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
“I felt when I went there, I looked around the players in our change room, it was absolutely incredible for me to see that and we just lacked a little bit of culture. We lacked a little bit of unity, which I think in Australia it gives you so much momentum going forward.
“I think what they’ve done well was bringing in someone like Paddy Kisnorbo as coach and then Jamo (Scott Jamieson) as a captain. With those two together, along with the finances and the structures all in place then and they bring that culture into their group, and since then you can see that the success has come in leaps and bounds.”
They have got the machine right, but under Montgomery, the Mariners have fuelled the emotion.
Making Of The Mariners, a KEEPUP Studios production this week, detailed the unglamorous, humble, and at times laughably humble beginnings 18 years ago from which Central Coast’s culture and identity bloomed from Lawrie McKinna, to Graham Arnold, and which thrives again now under Nick Montgomery with the squad he has shrewdly assembled, motivated and built into one of the most exciting to watch in the league.
Those contrasts are in full display, when both teams are pitted head to head going into the weekend.
The experience of Curtis Good and Thomas Lam against the rookie pair of Brian Kaltak and Nectarios Triantis; the unheralded midfield workhorses, Max Balard and Josh Nisbet against City’s Rolls Royces of Socceroo O’Neill, and whichever midfield flavour Vidosic opts for to complement him, for example.
And the beauty of football lies in the conclusion to this story. One side is part of a football powerhouse; a global behemoth with unfathomable riches. The other is a community club that has provided a model that, when thriving, brings out the very best of the A-Leagues.
But still, when you pit both attacking units together, compiled with different methods, and through different means, you’re left with a mouth watering battle you don’t know how to split.
Jamie Maclaren, Mathew Leckie, Marco Tilio, Andrew Nabbout against Jason Cummings, Beni Nkololo, Marco Tulio and Sam Silvera. The stage is set.
“We know we can beat anybody, so we’ll go in full of confidence and go in and try to win the game against a very good Melbourne City team,” Montgomery said.
Vidosic’s tempered excitement says everything about the focus and mentality the Mariners will need to overcome.
“They’re jumping out of their skin to play in the Grand Final but it doesn’t guarantee success this season or next,” he said. “If you don’t try to improve, you’ll go backwards.”
