Friday night will mark a special moment for Luke Brattan as he becomes just the 12th player to reach 300 Isuzu UTE A-League games. The Macarthur Bulls captain sits down with aleagues.com.au’s James Dodd to reflect on his upcoming achievement.
At present, 11 Isuzu UTE A-League legends sit comfortably within the competition’s 300 game club, however this week they’ll be rolling out the red carpet to welcome another bona fide league great into their company.
On Friday night, Macarthur FC captain Luke Brattan will run out for the 300th time in his Isuzu UTE A-League career as the Bulls face Newcastle Jets in a pivotal clash between two sides scrapping to secure a spot in this year’s Finals Series.
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“Honestly, it hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Brattan as he sat down for a coffee with aleagues.com.au after training.
“300 A-League games is, yeah, it’s incredible and there’s only a short list of players that have done it. I’m not sure how many Champions League and cup games it is, but 300 games in any sport or any code is pretty special.
“So I think after the game, it might sink in a little bit more. My family are coming down from Brisbane to be here as well. So yeah, just to have my kids there and my wife, it’s more about celebrating things with them.
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“I think about my kids straight away. I can’t wait to tell them this, can’t wait to show them this. So to have them there, it’s going to be special. But being a competitor as well, I want to win the game. Three points at the moment for us is very important. So yeah, I’ll be thinking about winning the game first and foremost.”
In football the term ‘prime’ is used a lot, mainly when looking back at legends of bygone eras as fans and pundits pinpoint a time in said player’s career when they were at the peak of their powers.
For A-Leagues fans, ‘Prime Luke Brattan’ was probably somewhere around the 2019-20 season when he was guiding Sydney FC to a Premiership/Championship double, one precise pass at a time.
Yet according to the man himself, the 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League season is the one he’ll forever look back on in his career.
Now plying his trade with Macarthur FC, one of Australian football’s most decorated players added another trophy to his bulging cabinet as he captained the Bulls to the 2024 Australia Cup and with it, a place in Asia next season.
But while trophies are important, there was still one thing Brattan hadn’t accomplished during his 16 year career. Something that, had he retired this season, would have been the only thing missing from a domestic resume that could match anyones.
But that all changed on the 15th October, 2025 when, in his own words, Brattan climbed Mount Everest.
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Called up to the national team in 2018 under Ange Postecoglou but not rewarded with minutes on the pitch, Brattan was again recalled to the Socceroos, this time as an injury replacement by head coach Tony Popovic for the crucial World Cup qualifiers against China and Japan.
The bridesmaid in 2018, Brattan again watched on as an unused substitute in Adelaide as the Socceroos swept China aside. For those watching at home as well as on the bench that night, it felt as though his chances of representing Australia were probably over.
Fast forward five days ,though and to the surprise of many, the 34-year-old A-Leagues veteran was lining up in the Green and Gold of Australia as the Socceroos prepared to weather a Japanese storm in Saitama.
Luke Brattan: Socceroo #646.
“Yeah, it’s number one definitely in my career,” said Brattan, a huge smile working it’s way across his face as the conversation turned to that night in Saitama.
“It’s the proudest moment of my career. The trophies, everything. 300 games, all that sort of stuff is great, but to play for your country, that’s the top. That’s the peak.
“Everyone talks about how special it is and the feeling you get when you know you’re on the pitch there singing the national anthem. Yeah, for me, that’s top by far.
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“Obviously I thought my time had gone (but) I always felt that I could still do it.
“The game didn’t quite suit me,” laughed Brattan as he recalled the ferocity of the Japanese pressing game that night in Saitama.
“There’s two games that stand out for me about being the hardest games of my career. One of them was away to Yokohama in the Champions League when Ange was the coach. That was second. First was that Japan game.
He added: “That was an eye opener to see how good they are in all aspects: physically, mentally, technically. They’re so, so good.
“It was a tough game but obviously I wouldn’t change a thing either. Would I have liked it to be in a game where I got 70 touches of the ball? Yeah, for sure. But look, I’m still so proud of doing it in front of 50, 60,000, whatever it was, it was so special.
“That’s something that I’ve finally ticked off.”
At the tender age of 34 years and 221 days, Brattan became the oldest player to debut for the Socceroos since 1963. Good things come to those who wait.
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However, despite having a 16-year career under his belt with a plethora of winners’ medals to boot, Brattan admits he felt ill-equipped to cope with the comedown that followed.
In his own words, he’d climbed to the summit. Now what?
“When I came home for the two weeks after that, I swear I was depressed,” said Brattan.
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“Just coming from such a high. All the emotions and the excitement and such a high, just back to – nothing to do with Macarthur, it would have been anywhere I was – but it was back to training every day.
“Yeah, for a good two weeks, my head was gone. Emotionally, I was just all over the place. I think that just proves that it meant so much to me, and I’d waited so long for that. It’s definitely the Mount Everest. That is the peak for me. That is top.”
Rewind 16 years, though and the idea of Brattan being a professional footballer, let alone a Socceroo, would have seemed like the ultimate pipe dream.
Not because he didn’t want it. Far from it. More so because he didn’t think his body would allow him to follow his dreams.
“All I wanted to do was play football. My dad played, my older brother played, and both my younger brother and sister played as well. So it’s all I wanted to do, it’s all I was really good at but I was a bit of a late bloomer. I was short, skinny, not very quick.
“All through high school I was playing NPL and Rado Vidosic was a teacher at my school, and he took the football program. I got invited to go to the Youth League at Brisbane. So I went from training twice a week in NPL, playing on the weekend, to the Youth League (and) straight away I got called in to train with the first team.
“So I was in every day and my body broke down. I wasn’t used to that. My body broke down several times, I got sick a couple of times, had glandular fever a couple of times, and it’s pretty tough to recover from there.
He continued: “I hadn’t developed yet. It was a long time ago but back then there wasn’t much gym, wasn’t much pre-hab and things like that. So everything was on the pitch. And yeah, I just physically couldn’t cope, pushing myself to limit. Eventually you’re going to break down.”
But in Brattan’s own words, the person now overseeing his first steps into the world of football was exactly the type of mentor he needed: Ange Postecoglou.
“There’s no better person than Ange to sort of teach you that first step in professional football.
“The first year I was there Frank Farina was the coach. I was in the Youth League. He offered me a contract and then he got released. So before I’d signed anything, he’d gone.
“So I was like, oh shit, here we go.
Luke Brattan on beginning to work under Ange Postecoglou
“Then Ange came in and pretty much said to me, I know you’ve got the offer on the table. I want you to train for two weeks and then I’ll make a decision.
“I trained for two weeks, he was happy and I then signed my first deal.”
Under Postecoglou’s tutelage, Brattan’s footballing career began to take off. However, like many players before and after him, the Queenslander admits he struggled to truly understand the coach’s ‘tough love’ approach.
Until one day it clicked.
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“I wasn’t big, wasn’t quick, wasn’t powerful, so I developed a lot earlier my football IQ, my passing. I had to obviously think quicker than everyone else.
“It came out at the time but Ange pretty much said I was the best passer of the ball that he’d ever seen.
“Obviously that was early on in his career. But still, for me, that was a big compliment from such an incredible coach and I had a few of the senior boys at the time at Brisbane that had said similar things.
“Ange rode me hard for many years and was on me. It was relentless every day and I wasn’t in the team, wasn’t starting.
“Obviously you don’t just walk up to Ange and say, ‘Why am I not playing?’ So I took weeks and weeks of thinking about it and trying to build up the courage.
“Ange is such an intimidating person that I went to the older boys first and was like ‘What can I do to get him off my case?’ They said you’ve just gotta go speak to him. Eventually I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna go do it.’
“I said, ‘Boss, what can I do to improve? What can I do to make you stop yelling at me? And he sort of stopped me straight away.
“He said: ‘When I stop yelling at you, it means I don’t care about you.’ I never thought about it like that…”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Brattan would go on to win a Premiership and two Championships under Postecoglou at the Roar before the Aussie trailblazer departed the club for pastures new, but the impact he left on this soon-to-be 300 gamer has lasted until the present day.
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“I’ll never forget that. That first and second year with Ange and obviously the team we had and the players we had and the trophies.
“Not just the success, but the way we did it as well. It was so enjoyable. Speaking to players now that played against us back then, half the battle was already won.
“No one wanted to go play Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium. It was hot. The pitch was big, the way we played. I’m getting goosebumps now. It was so enjoyable, and it was such a good time.”
But despite being part of what many would argue is the Isuzu UTE A-League’s greatest team, it’s south of the Queensland border where Brattan has most enjoyed his football.
Returning from the UK following an ill-fated spell with first English giants Manchester City and then a loan spell at Bolton where he didn’t play a single game, the ball-playing midfielder returned to Australia with something to prove and the bit between his teeth.
First stop Melbourne City and another winners medal to add to the cabinet. 79 league appearances and one Australia Cup trophy later, one of the Isuzu UTE A-League’s greatest competitors then swapped Melbourne for the Harbour City.
“Obviously, I think the trophies helped, but I think my first year at Sydney FC on the pitch, I had a lot going on off the pitch, but on the pitch, I think that is probably my most favourite year.
“We obviously won the double that year as well, which helps, but just the group of players we had, we just had that confidence and that swagger, that we knew that we were just going to turn up and win the game.
He continued: “Even when we were off, somehow we just scored and then we just knew we were going to see out the game. It was incredible.
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“You had Ninko (Milos Ninkovic) Alfie (Adam Le Fondre) Kosta (Barbarouses). You can’t not enjoy football when you’re playing with good mates and fabulous footballers as well.
“It was so enjoyable training every day. Everyone pushed each other and, yeah, just everything, the changing room, the banter, the football, and then obviously the trophies as well. That year was pretty special.”
108 of Brattan’s 299 Isuzu UTE A-League appearances came in the Sky Blue of Sydney FC with his last game for the club being their semi-final defeat to the Central Coast Mariners in 2023-24.
Unbeknownst to most, Brattan actually played his final game for Sydney FC with multiple fractures to his ankle and pieces of bone floating around for good measure before bowing out in the semi-finals.
A solid pre-season later though and the 35-year-old has featured in every game for new club Macarthur Bulls this season, playing 90 minutes in 20 of 21 matches – the exception being when he played 86 minutes against the Wanderers in Round 19.
In short, the one-time Socceroo doesn’t feel like hanging up the boots anytime soon.
“I feel great. My body feels great. I’ve played every minute of every game, bar, I think three or four minutes. So physically, I’m in a good, good place.
“I’m enjoying my football at the moment. It’s such a great club, honestly, the community, the group, the staff, the owners, everyone involved with the club is so good. And I’ve enjoyed every every single minute.
“It’s been a tough year. I’ve never not played finals. So for me, this is so important these next couple of weeks.
“I haven’t thought about the future too much, but I’ve always said, if my body says enough is enough then I’ll stop.
“If I’m falling behind physically, then that’s me done. But I feel great at the moment. I’m in a good environment, and I think that I’m still playing at a pretty decent level.
“Long term, I think I want to finish my career at Macarthur. My kids love the club and I’m in a good place at the moment and I don’t feel like I’m going to stop anytime soon.”
