Years of backyard banter will come to a head for Wellington Phoenix defender Brent Griffiths on Friday as he lines up one Central Coast Mariner in particular.
While Griffiths will make his starting debut for the Phoenix in place of the banned Ben Sigmund, his brother Rostyn will line up for the opposition in a true family affair.
While they were clubmates in Blackburn’s youth setup, it will be the first time in a professional football league match – the two had played each other briefly in a warm-up game earlier in a pre-season match – between the brothers.
“I guess that’s just a part of the weird and wonderful world of football,” Griffiths said with traces of joy and disbelief.
“I’ve never played against my brother before apart from when we were growing up and together at Blackburn. I’m pretty excited.”
While it’s an exciting moment for the young defender who won a contract with the Phoenix after training with Perth Glory last season, there was the small problem of which team the parents would be supporting.
“I think Mum will be wearing a Central Coast jersey and Dad will be wearing a Phoenix jersey and they’ll swap at halftime,” said Griffiths.
While the match holds a special moment in the memories of the entire Griffiths family, it could all be for nothing for Brent if the Phoenix don’t pick up three valuable points, and it is something he is all too aware of.
“It’s massive really. They’re either sitting just above us or on the same points as us but with a better goal differential.”
“They’re a team that haven’t really fired so far, and we’ve been dominating in most parts of our game so we’re pretty confident of getting a result on Friday.”
But given his side’s inability to fire too many shots so far this season, the Phoenix would normally have a cause for concern.
“We score plenty of goals in training,” Griffiths rebuttled.
“Some days they go in and some days they don’t, I don’t think it’s down to any individual. We’re pretty confident in our fluidity and we’ll give it our best on Friday.”
“If it’s a 1-0 win I won’t be complaining,” smiled Griffiths.
And should that eventuate, the bragging rights over brother Rostyn will no doubt continue well until their next meeting in February.
