Central Coast Mariners are the Isuzu UTE A-League Premiers for the first time in 12 years. After losing their first four games, Mark Jackson’s side have continued one of the great stories in Australian sport. A club that was on the brink of collapse not long ago now stands four matches from an unprecedented treble.
It warrants reminding that it was only five years ago that Central Coast Mariners were the laughing stock of not just Australian football but all of Australian sport.
They had claimed four wooden spoons in five seasons and by all accounts were on the brink of ceasing to exist as a football club at all.
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That context makes it all the more astonishing that on Wednesday night the Central Coast’s only professional sporting club added a Premiership trophy to go with the Championship they claimed last season under Nick Montgomery.
Even more astonishing is the fact that same club now stands just four matches from claiming an unprecedented treble, provided they can navigate an AFC Cup Final on Monday morning and the Isuzu UTE A-League Finals series.
When you consider the overhaul of playing and coaching staff the club went through in the off-season, it’s clear that this is no fluke. The club has found a formula that works.
“These fans have gone through so much with this club,” Mariners legend Daniel McBreen explained on Paramount+.
“There was so much talk this club was going to go out of business. It was going to leave this area potentially, but they’ve turned it around, they’ve got this group flying.
“They got silverware last year, they’ve got the Premiership now and things are looking better and better for this club, this group and this town.”
He continued: “Everywhere wants to see their own do well and you sprinkle that with some talent from overseas, which the Mariners have done exceptionally well over the past two seasons.
“They seem to find these diamonds in the rough, cast-offs that nobody wants, these troubled players they bring them in, get their arm around them and bring the best out of them.
“They’ve got the perfect model; bring them through and just put these little diamonds amongst it – and it shows.
“Put that together with culture and team spirit and this is what can happen.”
Indeed, this Mariners team, like the one who claimed the Championship under Nick Montgomery last term, is littered with players who have arrived to little fanfare but have been moulded into A-Leagues stars on the Central Coast.
Last year it was Jason Cummings, Sammy Silvera, Nectar Triantis, Brian Kaltak, James McGarry, Beni Nkololo and Marco Tulio. This time around, the likes of Mikael Doka, Ryan Edmondson and Ronald Barcellos have been uncovered.
“The star players that come from overseas… were they really stars when they turned up?” McBreen said.
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“We were like, ‘ok, who is this person?’ Mikael Doka, he was so slow to start.
“Marco Tulio, Beni Nkololo… all these guys they’re getting from second and third divisions overseas but gee their scouting network must be good because they are stars and they are diamonds in this A-League. They all seem to go onto bigger and better things.”
Network 10 expert Andy Harper added: “(At the) start of any season, certainly the start of this one, people look at the Mariners team and say ‘well there’s not many of those guys who would be on the recruiting list of any other club’.
“End (the) of the season, which is the great story in sport, they could walk into any club in the league. Fantastic organisation that’s delivered this over the last few years.
“It’s been (Alen) Stajcic into (Nick) Montgomery into (Mark) Jackson.
“This is a great story. For me, it’s clearly the best story in Australian football at the moment, what is happening at the Central Coast Mariners.”
Exceptional foreign signings is one thing, but the Mariners have also become a hotbed for launching Australian talent – and they continue to bring through a string of young players, many of whom have not taken traditional routes to professional football.
The two goal scorers who sealed them the Premiership are perfect examples.
“Jacob Farrell and Maxy Balard… Their journey here is a really important lesson to a lot of the kids watching,” Harper explained.
“They mightn’t make this rep team or this academy team or their local, but they have to stick in there because they love the game.
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“Maxy Balard never played in any of these talented pathways, he did his thing at Manly, here there and everywhere, pops up at the Mariners, caught the eye last year, has a big season and now he’s off to Europe.
“Jacob Farrell had to go and play in the Newcastle NPL with Valentine, had to go up the road to get some senior football, comes home and writes his own story.
“There is so much about what this place is doing; it’s not just about recycling, it’s about launching. People who might think they’ve missed the boat by the time they’re 18, 19, 20, we’ve got two great examples of people who’s careers are about to blossom and they didn’t go through the accepted way of going through the system.”
You can add Josh Nisbet to that list too, who was told several times he was too short to be a footballer, and is now a capped Socceroo and the Mariners’ poster boy.
Alou Kuol trialled unsuccessfully at Melbourne Victory and Western United, but was snapped up by the Mariners and earned himself a move to Germany before being handed another chance again by the club after returning home.
Christian Theoharous could hardly get a game at Western United; he blossomed in Gosford.
Storm Roux and Danny Vukovic are the experienced heads in a youthful Mariners side who have shown what can happen when a team is more than the sum of their parts.
Its leader, though, is Mark Jackson.
Fittingly, the 46-year-old arrived after being sacked by MK Dons having suffered relegation to League Two and has proved everyone wrong. He now stands four games from a treble.
Like so many of football’s great managers, he has shown his understanding of the identity of the region and club he is representing – and it has paid off.
“I do know where this club has been,” Jackson said on Paramount+.
“I know we have to work a certain way because we don’t have a massive budget.
“We have to work smart. We have to think outside the box sometimes in how we work and think differently.
“We’ve got the mindset of people around the club who want do that, want to grow the club and want it to achieve on the pitch.”
These Mariners are the first team in Isuzu UTE A-League history to lose their first four matches and go on to claim the Premiership. The explanation as to how they’ve done that is littered in anecdotes from coach and players.
“I think we just kept that team camaraderie,” captain Vukovic said.
“We had an agent here funnily enough at training after the fourth loss and he couldn’t believe how happy we were.
“We just kept that belief, we didnt turn on each other. It was always going to take time, new coach, new players, but you see a young team who knows what they’re doing out there.”
Sideline reporter Ben Homer said: “What I love about what Mark Jackson is doing at the Mariners is the refreshing nature of the coaching.
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“I spoke to him this morning about these kind of games and he said, ‘we’re not just taking it like any other game. I’ve told the players to embrace the pressure of playing in these big games like the AFC Cup semi-finals or this race for the Premiers Plate.
“I can also tell you at the start of the season when they lost those first four games, they had had the worst start to a season for the defending champion.
“Storm Roux actually got up in a video session and he said to Mark Jackson, ‘Jacko, we believe in what you’re doing, we believe things will turn’ and haven’t they turned.”
Central Coast Mariners are the Isuzu UTE A-League Premiers – and, incredibly, it might just be the start.
