Disappointed to have missed the finals, veteran defender Simon Colosimo has dedicated Melbourne Heart’s closing match of their debut season to retiring veterans Josip Skoko and John Aloisi.
While conceding that naivete may have been a factor in the club’s failure to achieve its finals ambitions, Colosimo believes there’s still plenty to play for in Saturday’s match against SydneyFC at AAMI Park.
“It’s really a thank you to the supporters, a thank you to Johnny and Josip especially,” Colosimo said.
“It’s not only on the field, we’re talking about guys … who’ve got a wealth of experience and it’s great what they’ve done for the club.”
“We want to get a win, we want to serve Johnny a couple and hopefully Josip is serving them in.”
Colosimo said Skoko turned every match and training session with the Heart into a ‘midfielders’ clinic’.
“You sit there and you forget what you’re doing because of watching what he does, how much time he seems to have on the ball,” he said.
“Josip and (Wayne) Srhoj were our two most influential players all season.”
“Every time that we played with them together we seemed to really grab a hold of the game and him, along with Johnny, when he had his little patch of injury, that really hurt us.”
Colosimo, who played alongside Aloisi in SydneyFC’s championship-winning side last season, said his fellow veteran had a feel for the big occasion.
“We’re talking about goals against Victory, a brace away from home when we’re two-nil down, all the big goals,” Colosimo said.
“He’s a player who’s been written off more times than he’s been praised, he’s someone who’s a massive, massive-game player.”
“People look at the (World Cup qualifying) penalty (against Uruguay) and say,’ that’s what Johnny’s known for’.”
“But, no, it’s not only the nerves to stick it in the back of the net that night, it’s the big games that he seems to thrive on.”
“For Johnny and Josip, if they’re going to miss anything, it’s the big games.”
Colosimo said the Heart should be pleased with how far they come in year one.
“We’re proud of the squad we’ve put together … and we’ve got a lot to build on,” he said.
“The way we played was excellent, I thought, but at the end of the day it didn’t get us enough results.”
“If that’s a case of us maybe being a little bit naive in some stages, whether that be the senior boys or the young boys, there was that freshness.”
“We were like Adrian Zahra playing his first game this season, that’s the way we were as a group … but it’s a process and we’ll be looking to better it next season.”
