Few people have a connection to their local club like that of Central Coast Mariners volunteer Pat Tatum, who has been with the club for 19 years. The much-loved 73-year-old sat down with aleagues.com.au to discuss some of the good, the bad and the outright crazy things that have happened during his time with the club.
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Much like players and coaches, employees at football clubs come and go. Some are there for the highs, others are unlucky enough to only experience the lows but for Central Coast Mariners volunteer Pat Tatum, he’s witnessed everything.
Affectionately known as ‘Patty’ by everyone at the club, Tatum is a jack of all trades.
Whether it’s helping the Mariners’ coaching staff lay out a training session, preparing the drinks for the players, washing the kit alongside team manager Darren Dobson or even acting as a chaperone for the away sides during this season’s AFC Cup campaign – more on that later – Patty has done the lot during his 19-year association with the Mariners.
But how did it all come about?
“It was the second game where I got my start,” laughed Tatum as he recalled his first ever involvement with the club.
“19 years now. A mate of mine volunteers and in the club’s second ever game he said ‘we’re short of volunteers do you want to come and help?’ So I said ‘yeah, righto’, I went on the field of play as a stretcher bearer and since then I’ve just been doing whatever!”
Like many others on the Central Coast, Tatum became a Mariners fan the day it was announced they’d become one of the Isuzu UTE A-League’s foundation clubs back in 2004.
“We needed a team on the coast. We’ve got 15,000 players on the coast now from under-5s to over 45s and back then it probably wasn’t much different. You needed your own team and on the coast we had nothing. We needed a team that was going to play all over Australia.”
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Many believed the 2022-23 Championship winning season under Nick Montgomery was the completion of a fairytale season for the team from Gosford but fast forward another 12 months and Tatum can barely believe what he’s witnessing.
“It’s unbelievable, isn’t it? I think it all changed when Staj (Alen Stajcic) came in three or so years ago,” said Tatum.
“Now the last few years, here we are. Two Grand Finals, an AFC Cup – who would have ever thought the Central Coast would have a Grand Final at Industree Group Stadium?
“So this ones just magic for the people, the fans and all the other local clubs we’ve got. They should all be supporting the Central Coast.”
Now 73, Patty initially spent his career working in retail before calling it quits after sustaining a shoulder injury nearly eight years ago and now happily retired, he spends his days volunteering a few times a week at training sessions and on matchdays in Gosford.
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“Yeah two or three days a week,” said Tatum, as news of him being interviewed began to spread around the players at training.
“Then on gameday, I’ll go and help Dobbo (Darren Dobson) do the Newcastle games and all the Sydney games. Any local games I’ll always go and help him set up.
“I come in at about 8am and get all the water bottles ready, put them out, put some ice on them and get them ready. I’ll pump the balls up and get them out there and then whatever Andres (Clavijo) and Danny (Schofield) want to set up, I might help them. After that I’ll get the washing done with Dobbo and then go home.
“I’m 73, what else would I be doing? Sitting at home watching TV and not doing anything? Come on, this is an opportunity to be involved with a team like this. That doesn’t happen.
“I remember the first Grand Final I did in 2013 with Arnie (Graham Arnold) and Phil Moss. I was on the (dressing room) door then looking after that (in the tunnel) – I was probably on that for 11 years.
“Phil Moss then said ‘we want to take you down to the Grand Final to be on our door’ so they took me down there and I was out on the pitch with the boys.
“I could see my family looking and saying ‘Is that Dad on the pitch? What’s he doing out there!’ so that was really fantastic.”
Operating within the inner sanctum of a football club has allowed Tatum to experience some incredible things and meet some incredible people. At the top of his list are the usual suspects; Alessandro Del Piero at Sydney, Harry Kewell with Melbourne Heart and even Luis Garcia with the Mariners but there’s one global superstar that stands out above all the rest.
“Would you think Usain Bolt would ever be on the Central Coast?!’ said Tatum, still gobsmacked the world’s fastest man joined the Mariners on trial at the beginning of the 2018-19 season.
‘Hey Pat, have you got a shirt, I need a shirt!’ is what he’s saying to me. Those things are pretty hard to believe. It’s the fastest man in the world and I’m standing right beside him!
“He’s probably one of the nicest blokes you could meet. There’s nothing big headed about him, everything was good. Because everyone followed him so much he used to go and do extra work here. We had to block off the carpark and stop people from coming in.
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“I think we went to one game and he was sat on the bench. I think there were something like 15-20 photographers and all they did was take photos of Usain Bolt the whole time – nothing about the game!”
But for all the highs of Grand Final wins and the outright bizarre experiences like Usain Bolt training at the club, there are, of course, the lows. Between the 2015-16 and 2019-20 seasons the Central Coast Mariners finished bottom in four of five campaigns, with some calling for their license to be revoked.
“I suppose those times where we were down and we got four wooden spoons out of five, they were tough times. But if you support the club like you’re supposed to, those times don’t matter.
“You’ve got to go through those times, every club goes through them. At low times what do you do? You’ve just got to grin and bare it.
“It didn’t matter to me win, lose or draw I’d still be here helping. It doesn’t matter. Because we want the club to stay on the coast. We probably went through six coaches in six years. That’s probably the hard part to you know, because there’s no stability with anyone.
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“Even the players, the players sign a three-year contract and they’ve had three different coaches. But what do you do?”
Thankfully now enjoying happier times on the Coast, Patty is gearing up for a sixth Grand Final with the Mariners and this is where the conversation turns to clothing – and not just the kit he’ll be washing for the players to wear.
While Patty is certainly famous for some of the outfits he’s worn over the years – including a pink tutu and full batman costume to raise money for charity – the Mariners veteran has also helped others out with their sartorial choices.
For example, ahead of the recent AFC Cup Inter-Zonal Semi-Final second leg between the Mariners and Abdysh-Ata Kant, Tatum took the opposition manager Islam Akhmedov and his assistant out for the day so the pair could purchase new suits before the game, despite the language barrier proving to be quite the obstacle.
But when it comes to his own outfit for Grand Final day Patty is likely to keep it pretty casual, albeit with one notable inclusion: the shoes.
“10 years I’ve had them, the same pair. I wear them on every gameday.
“I used to do my own shoes, dress up shoes. I used to put stickers on them! So I gave Phil Moss and Graham Arnold them ahead of the Grand Final – I think Phil has still got them!
“I wear the same gear all the time, although there were a couple of years I didn’t wear them (the shoes) – I wasn’t allowed to wear them… I’m not going to say who wouldn’t let me wear them though!
“Everyone is always good to come up and say hello to me though as soon as they walk in the door. I’ve been here that long, it’s pretty hard not to see me when I’m out there!
“Tim Cahill once picked up my grandson and held him so we could have a photo together. They are things that a 70-year-old guy thinks you would never do. But the Grand Finals are the ones. I’ve been to every Grand Final that we’ve been to… and that’s pretty good.”
Whether it’s giving lollies to Nick Montgomery and Matt Simon before games, swapping shirts with Marco Tulio, making slushies for journalists on a scorching hot day in pre-season or even just putting the cones out at training, Pat Tatum truly is one of a kind.
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