Australia may have officially departed Oceania midway through the staging of the A-League’s inaugural season, but the world’s smallest confederation continues to leave its mark on the competition to this day.
New Zealand-based Wellington Phoenix, of course, technically call the confederation home, while 74 players from its member nations have plied their trade in the A-League across its 16-year history.
The vast majority of that sum – 70 to be exact – are made up of players hailing from New Zealand; Kosta Barbarouses, Vaughan Coveny, and Liberato Cacace, amongst others, Kiwi-born players that have left and will continue to leave indelible marks on the Australian top-flight.
Outside the A-League, individuals such as Michael Eagar, Ryan De Vries and Hamish Watson have played key roles for teams across the National Premier Leagues.
Former Wellington Phoenix attacker Benjamin Totori and ex-Perth Glory man Henry Fa’arodo came to Australia by way of the Solomon Islands, while former Gold Coast and Newcastle Jet Mitch Cooper was born and spent the first eight years of his life in Vanuatu.
Infamously, Cooper’s biggest A-League moment came on his debut when Gold Coast owner Clive Palmer bizarrely made him captain, leading to the exit of coach Miron Bleiberg.
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But now Cooper is making his mark in a different way, thanks to Vanuatu.
“I lived there and I was born there and was running around until I was eight, and then we moved over the family to New Zealand,” recalled Cooper, who made his international debut for the island in 2019. “At eight was when I started everything in terms of club football and academies.
“There wasn’t any club football in Vanuatu. You’d just rock up on a Saturday to a field and you just played. I remember two Americans used to set it up and whoever wanted to come down came. It was amazing, that was our Saturday’s and then I would go and watch dad play with his team around the island, which was awesome.
“It’s all about flair, creativity and free-flowing football; there’s always so much talent there.
“I didn’t really realise how beautiful the game is over there until I went back and represented the country. I went and watched a game, it was kind of like the FFA Cup but for Vanuatu and in the final I think I witnessed two bicycles, a million stepovers — it was wild, it was crazy. It was inspirational.
“In Australia, I’ve always been told that I was a little bit creative but now I know where I really got that from.”
Now scoring for fun in the Indian Super League, Fijian born Roy Krishna scored 51 goals across 122 games for the Phoenix from 2014 to 2019; that final 2018-19 campaign seeing him net 18 goals in 27 games and become the first Pacific Islander to ever win the Johnny Warren Medal.
Oceania, in fact, has officially produced the same number of Jonny Warren Medalists as global footballing powers CONMEBOL — New Zealand international Shane Smeltz adjudged as the A-League’s best player in 2008-09 when the talismanic striker was with Wellington Phoenix.
Frequently handed the armband when he pulls on the national team shirt, Krishna has represented Fiji 41 times and scored 29 goals, while Cooper has made six international appearances since being called up while a member of NPL Victoria side Hume City.
“I had aspirations to play for the Socceroos and that was contacted to maybe get into the New Zealand U23 side,” Cooper, a former Australia U17 World Cup representative, recalled. “With Vanuatu, there was always talk but it was never a real thing until they appointed a coach called Paul Munster.
“Over there in Vanuatu it takes a bit of a while to get things going, and I never really had a concrete offer to come and represent Vanuatu until he started things moving.
“It definitely opened my eyes to a new chapter for playing football and giving back what I’ve learned from my A-league experience and share it with the boys.”
The 26-year-olds two most memorable moments arrived in his last two fixtures before COVID shuttered the international calendar: a 14-0 victory over Tonga in which Cooper served as his nation’s captain and an 11-0 triumph over Tonga in which he got on the scoresheet four times in just 65 minutes.
“To put on the armband any time at all is just an honour because that shows the respect within the playing group,” he said. “To have that for my country is… hard to put into words. I’ve got goosebumps just talking about it.
“That inner strength comes out of nowhere and it was such an honour to do that.
“That last game, I saw the opportunity come to me and I was able to take it and embrace my inner-Vanuatan: I scored a bicycle kick that game. I could hear the cheers and the wooos from the crowd.
“Those memories will stay with me forever and hopefully I get the chance to create a few more.”
And now, having had his love for football reinvigorated by a return to Vanuatu, Cooper believes that when it comes to finding their next diamond in the rough, A-League clubs could do a lot worse than casting their eyes across the Pacific.
“When it comes to playing football on the field there’s just so much potential that’s untapped and that creativity that could boost Australian football as a whole.”
