Sydney FC midfielder Sarah Hunter has made significant strides forward in her burgeoning career this season – and the 19-year-old tipped for Matildas stardom puts it all down to the impact of Sky Blues boss Ante Juric.
Hunter scored for the third time in four games in a 4-2 win over Newcastle Jets on Saturday afternoon, as Sydney FC romped to a sixth straight win in the Liberty A-League.
Adding consistent goals to her game has quickly turned Hunter into one of the most impactful midfielders in the competition after nine rounds. It’s her second campaign in Sky Blue after a season spent at rivals Western Sydney Wanderers; Hunter admits her first season at her new club was a transitional one, spent acclimatising to the standards set within the squad and the commitment to the pursuit of consistent success in the competition.
MATCH REPORT: EARLY BURST SETS SKY BLUES EN ROUTE TO VICTORY OVER JETS
At the heart of that collective effort is Juric, says Hunter, who the teenager hails as a terrific player manager – and an underrated one at that.
“Ante has been really good for me,” Hunter told Dub Zone in the aftermath of her side’s win over the Jets at No.2 Sportsground. “He’s given me the motivation and the drive to be the best player I can be. It’s been really good to have a coach like that.”
Hunter added: “Ante, he’s just so good at managing girls, at being a leader and getting the most out of (his) players, which I think once you get to that top level in sport is the key… he does that so, so well.
“He gets success every year, he has to be doing something right and I think he goes a little bit under the radar. I think the whole team sometimes does as well. We just get consistent success.
Before me, he’s made so many Matildas, he’s made so many stars. That goes to show, he’s just different.
Hunter scored the second of three Sky Blues goals in the first half against the Jets – three goals which all came within the first seven minutes of play in Newcastle.
The Jets clawed a goal back by the 10-minute mark, before making it 3-2 at the start of the second half – but the damage was done in those seven minutes which followed the first blow of the referee’s whistle.
Hunter says Sydney’s explosive start came down to a poignant pre-game message from Juric.
The Sky Blues boss based his message around the heart-wrenching story of NFL player Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills star who received CPR on the field on Tuesday morning (AEDT) after collapsing and experiencing cardiac arrest in his team’s meeting with Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin has awoken since the event in Cincinnati on Tuesday, even regaining the strength to FaceTime his team-mates and coaches.
Juric used Hamlin’s story, and the reaction from his Bills team-mates and athletes around the NFL, as an inspiration for the Sky Blues to take into Round 9.
“That was emotional,” Hunter explained. “I think we’re a very tight-knit team, we fight for each other. That pulled on our emotional side. A lot of our hard work got down to our love for the girls around us, our love for Ante.
“He’s kind of like a father figure to a lot of us, so that emotional side probably kick-started us in that 10 minutes.
“He pulls different things out of the heart sometimes, so that was definitely a good one today.”
THE DUB ZONE AGENDA
Newcastle Jets 2-4 Sydney FC
MATCH REPORT: EARLY BURST SETS SKY BLUES EN ROUTE TO VICTORY OVER JETS
Western United 1-0 Wellington Phoenix
MATCH REPORT: WESTERN’S PERFECT RUN CONTINUES WITH SLENDER WIN OVER ‘NIX