Central Coast Mariners head coach Mark Jackson lauded the “abundance of talent and potential” Haine Eames possesses while describing the 16-year-old’s emergence as “really good for Australian football”.
It has been an historic rise for Eames, who has announced himself on the Isuzu UTE A-League and AFC Champions League Elite stage in 2024-25.
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This season, the teenager has not only become Central Coast’s youngest player in their history, but the club’s youngest starter and goalscorer.
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“When I first came into the club, I can remember watching, I go quite often and watch the academy work,” Jackson said on this week’s episode of Total A-Leagues.
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“I stood with Matt Simon. He said, ‘Listen, this kid here, he’s only only 15, and every time he gets bumped up an age group or gets given a challenge by playing up or playing against all the players, he just takes it in his stride’.
“So we got to a stage at the end of last season, I said okay well let’s test him now, and let’s bring him up with the A-League. He did exactly that. It just fitted straight into what we were doing. He’s actually developed quite a bit physically in a short space of time, but he still looks very young.
“But he’s done that, and he does that from every session we work on every game is getting stronger and stronger. He is a real level headed young man. He’s got an abundance of talent and potential.
“He’s a really level headed young man who just gets on with it, takes everything in his stride.
“To see him starting early games now and playing in the Champions League, it’s fantastic for us, it’s fantastic for him, but I think it’s really good for Australian football as well.”
