Jamie Maclaren and his entire family sit down with KEEPUP for a rare interview after the Melbourne City striker became the most prolific goal scorer in Isuzu UTE A-League history.
Australia’s trailblazing domestic competition was two years old and National Soccer League (NSL) clubs were recruiting globally, in line with the nation’s immigration policy that was reflected in the Socceroos melting pot.
And a project inspired by Australian football greats Johnny Warren and Indigenous activist Charles Perkins, led to a chance phone call and a 20-year-old Scottish talent signing for a club in Australia’s capital.
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Donald Maclaren – or Donny as he’s affectionately known – was a promising Hearts youth and Dunfermline player in a golden era of Scottish football, which included Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness and a national team that beat finalists Netherlands 3-2 in the group phase.
His decision to move to the other side of the world has paid off.
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He played 241 NSL games for Canberra City and Sunshine George Cross, met wife Julie, with whom he has three children and, 44 years on, son Jamie Maclaren has just become the record goal scorer in the Isuzu UTE A-League and moved into second on the all-time Australian domestic list.
“It’s incredible, football’s in the Maclaren DNA. I was delighted, over the moon (when Jamie broke the record). I knew he would eventually get there, (but) didn’t think he’d score a hat-trick,” Donny told KEEPUP.
“It was a decision to come to Australia after playing in America (New York Eagles), and Scotland. I wanted to travel the world and I got a call from Jimmy Cant, who I played with at Hearts and joined Canberra City in the first NSL season and went on to play for the Socceroos. He said ‘come (to) Australia, it’s happening here and you’ll enjoy it’.
“So I went to Canberra City (in 1979) and played there for six years. A couple of famous Aussie names (stand) out at the time, Johnny Warren, who was the coach before, Vic Fernandez, (Socceroos great) Atti Abbonyi, who was one of the best coaches I’ve ever had – attack-minded. It was a good time.
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“Then I moved to Melbourne to play for George Cross. The kids weren’t old enough to watch me play (NSL), they only got to see me age two or three, and I was just starting my player-coaching coaching career at Sunbury (United).
“It’s a similar story to big Alex Robertson – I played with him at Dunfermline many years ago. He came to Australia to play for Sydney City, became a Socceroo, then his son (Mark) and grandson (Alex) have gone on to play for Australia.
“There’s lots of dads who have had kids and grandkids. Football is in the DNA, teach them how to kick and head. If they have the love of the game. Off they go, they excel. And you need to make the decision whether they are good enough to go overseas or not.”
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That history has not been lost on Jamie, who has overtaken a host of Australian goalscoring greats from the NSL era and now sits no.2 on the all-time list, behind Adelaide City and Perth Glory great Damian Mori.
On Friday night, he will be presented with the ball that saw him become the A-Leagues’ record goalscorer by John Markovski – who sits 14th on the all-time scoring list.
“I want to pay respects to the NSL because (without it), I wouldn’t be standing here,” Jamie Maclaren told KEEPUP.
“The Maclaren name started from him, not from me. And that’s where the NSL comes in, and the respect for someone like Damian Mori who scored goals in the NSL and he’s got 240 (domestic) goals.
“But that was a different era. A different league. And he’s number one in that list and the league’s a completely different competition. (Now that the A-League) record is broken I still want to pay respect to the ones that played before me, because this game in Australia is built on history and you know it’s in the blood.
“He (dad) has done it, he’s played over 200 games in the league.”
Donny interjected: “It’s 250 (games).”
“Even the guys before, the guys I played against, (John) Kosmina, Gary Cole, Francis Awaritefe, Rod Brown, Marshall Soper. Some great players, good goal scorers, (he’s) surpassed them so it’s an achievement and a half.”
An unfortunate clash of dates meant that Donny missed watching his son play for the first time in 15 years, due to a family wedding.
As formalities progressed at a reception centre just 3.5 kilometres from AAMI Park, Maclaren’s goal rush left some of the guests distracted.
“You wouldn’t believe it. I haven’t missed a game since Jamie’s VIS days. Travelled all over the world to see him, and if I haven’t attended in person, I have watched on TV,” Donny said.
“It was my wife’s sister’s daughter’s wedding on Saturday. Julie’s sister was watching on the phone, Jamie scored the second goal during the speeches and she screamed.
“The first goal hit his nose then hit his knee. It’s that knack that goal scorers have – being in the right position, that’s not by chance.”
Donny instilled a love of football into the kids and he has been by Jamie’s side throughout a journey that has been a rollercoaster of emotions.
And Maclaren could have been lost to the Socceroos. Malta – where his mum was born and bred – came knocking during his 2015-16 breakout A-League season with Brisbane Roar, where he netted 18 goals, to finish sandwiched between golden boot winner Bruno Fornaroli (23 goals) and Besart Berisha (17).
He did represent Scotland at youth level. A proud moment for dad’s side of the family.
“I was a Scotland schoolboy. I know what it’s like to play for your country, but truth be known, he did okay. But he didn’t know the national anthem. He felt like a bit of a fraud,” Donny said.
The striker admitted feeling like an outsider alongside Scottish teammates and was nicknamed after an Aussie artist.
“It didn’t feel right. To be honest, every conversation I had with them (players) they would laugh,” Jamie said.
“Callum Tapping (now at Edinburgh City) was at Tottenham, he nicknamed me Peter Andre. Possession drills and he’d say ‘Pete, pass here’. It was great banter, but it just didn’t feel right.
“Doing the national anthem, ‘The Flower of Scotland’, eye contact with the head coach. He’s looking at me like, ‘mate, you’ve f**king got no idea what the words are’. And I didn’t.
“I knew what it was like to play for Scotland and I felt proud, dad was born there and half my blood is Scottish. It was an amazing feeling when I represented the green and gold but you do look back and think, is it a little bit sad that I never got to play for Australia for the first time in my international experience?
“But I’ll never change it, never regret saying yes to Scotland. I met some great people, had some great laughs and it helped me massively when I went to Hibs because I was respected almost instantly from players that I played with (and) against. I was in the same squad as Ziggy Gordon, who ended up coming to Australia.
“Then Jackson Irvine got called up for Scotland and he had to do the same thing and basically say to Scotland, ‘Thanks for the appearances, but we’re green and gold. It’s in our blood. It’s not DNA. It feels right’.”
Steph Maclaren, Jamie’s sister, admitted the Scotland appearance propelled him up the family favourite’s charts: “That’s when you went to top of the charts even in granddad’s eyes.”
Maclaren’s mum Julie moved to Australia from Malta age 13, which paved the way for the other international approach.
“When we came to Australia we really followed the Maltese. (Sunshine) George Cross and Green Gully,” said mum Julie, with Donny’s George Cross stint helping him win over his future in-laws.
Jamie admitted the Malta approach came when he was still uncapped by the Socceroos.
“I rocked up to Brisbane training and John (Aloisi) pulled me and said we’ve been contacted by the Maltese Federation to play against Germany and Cyprus,” Maclaren recalled.
“He said, look, Macca, I’ll be honest with you, we’re going to decline because I’ve had conversations with Ange (Postecoglou) and he’s going to select you (for the Socceroos). I think at that time I had like 13 or 14 goals in the A-League.”
Since 2012 it’s been all green and gold, starting with a hat-trick against Indonesia and a major tournament debut at the 2013 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Turkey.
Coinciding with his first stint in the A-League, when Ange Postecoglou-coached Victory passed on the young Maclaren, who’d just left Blackburn Rovers.
He signed for Alistair Edwards’ Perth Glory and after two seasons made the game-changing decision to sign for John Aloisi’s Brisbane Roar. Since then, 132 of his 143 A-League goals have been scored in just 162 games.
“Everyone’s got an opinion on him. But numbers don’t lie. In the game they call it seeing the pictures and he sees the pictures all the time,” Donny said.
By his own admission, Maclaren’s is hungry for more goals for club and country, after taking 10 games to net his first senior international goal.
Since breaking his Socceroos scoring drought the international goals have flowed and he believes he can contribute on the road to the 2026 World Cup, in addition to more individual and team A-League accolades.
“My debut was against England, that was special just because I’d plied my trade in the UK, boys that I played with at Blackburn came to the game. But every journey and every Socceroos caps earned and I have found it difficult,” Maclaren said.
“Especially as a young guy you always feel that pressure because you go from scoring week in, week out, to then playing international football. I wasn’t Ange’s first or second choice, so I had to accept being third and that was in a way hard to accept. It was always seven minutes here or there and I had to try and fight to get a space on the bench or even on the field.
“That was again character building and I had to work hard at club level to make sure that I’d play in the national team.”
That breakthrough came at the 2019 Asian Cup, with the Socceroos gathering around their teammate, led by fellow Melbourne products Irvine and Aziz Behich, both of whom had challenges breaking into first team and international football.
“I got my first goal under Arnie, and that was, it was almost once I scored, it was like weight was off my shoulders. I just remember everyone coming around because they knew that international (football) was a different beast rather than club football,” he said.
“It’s different, you’re playing against defenders who are at a high level and it was in the Asian Cup (against Palestine) and Tommy Rogic whipped it in. I just got the glancing flick on.
“And I just remember that goal specifically is probably one of my favourites purely because it was the first time in a while where goals just weren’t flowing for me.
“Strikers go through that but it was a hard one. I’d always wanted to play for Australia, my dream was to score even just one goal.
“It wasn’t as if when I scored my belly was full. It was like now I want to build on this. But I know that you probably get one chance a game, compared to three or four in an A-League game.”
With eight goals in 29 Socceroos games and still age 29, Maclaren is still plotting a big role for club and country.
Should he remain in Australia for the foreseeable future, Mori’s all-time record could be in doubt.
And having missed the recent Socceroos matches to enable his broken toe to heal, he will return to Graham Arnold’s side and looms as a key en route to the 2026 World Cup in USA, Mexico and Canada.
