New Macarthur boss Sasa Ognenovski says he’s ready to take his first A-Leagues coaching opportunity with both hands after being named the new Bulls head coach. Ognenovski sat down with aleagues.com.au ahead of the upcoming 2026/27 campaign…
Sasa Ognenovski was a 22-cap Socceroo, an AFC Champions League winner and former AFC Player of the Year who enjoyed a stellar career both in Australia and overseas.
Key to that success was no doubt his attitude on the pitch. In short, Ognenovski openly admits he wasn’t exactly the nicest player to play against.
“I’m a fierce competitor, I hate losing. I even hate losing at training!” the new Bulls boss laughs as conversation quickly turned to the now-iconic Sydney Derby moment that featured Ognenovski back in the 2014/15 season.
A Sydney FC player at the time, the clip in question shows Ognenovski reacting furiously to goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic’s attempts to aid Western Sydney Wanderers player Brendan Hamill who was down with cramp.
“You know, to help an opposition player in the Derby I was like, what are you doing?
“Yeah, and it just happened. I didn’t think about it. It’s just sort of no, leave him. He’s not one of ours, so it’s us against them.
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“I still say to this day, I had the most fun on the field that day. I was doing some silly things. Like I remember (being) two nil down and we had I think four or five corners in a row.
“I was just running around the box, bouncing off players, and they all lost concentration. All of a sudden, we scored a scrappy goal off that, and that sort of changed the game as well. I think that was the most fun I had on the pitch.”
Nowadays, Ognenovski will be channelling his competitive streak in a different way as he prepares to guide his new Macarthur Bulls side into the 2026/27 campaign after being named as Mile Sterjovski’s successor in Campbelltown.
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Whilst the 47-year-old’s playing experience was vast, his coaching experience is somewhat limited. His only spell as a head coach was hampered by COVID-19 with both the 2020 and 2021 NPL seasons were severely disrupted by the effects of the virus meaning his coaching stint in charge of Dandenong City never really got going.
Following that, Ognenovski’s only other coaching experience came at a club close to his heart, Preston Lions, where he performed the role of assistant coach on several occasions.
In his own words, he’s ‘chomping at the bit’ to get going, but what type of coach can we expect to see?
“Look, I played as a defender my whole life. I think that’s a really important element in what we want to do, and I think it builds on what we want to do moving forward.
“I’m hell bent on getting the ball forward to our attackers, to our creative players as soon as possible, but also having the structure behind the ball to make sure that if it does break down that we can adjust and stop any goals coming the other way.
“I think every ladder in the world you see the top two or three teams, and they’ll all have the best defensive record.
“So although they might score the most goals, nine times out of 10, the winner of the league has the best defensive record, or pretty close to it.
“So the good teams can do both: score goals, play forward, and defend well.”
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He added: “There are a couple of non-negotiables, and that’s effort and the willingness to work.
“So, I think if you have that within your team, and they’re willing to learn and listen and take information on board, then you know it goes a long way to at least trying to achieve what we set out to do as a coaching staff.”
The opportunity to showcase his abilities as a head coach is one the former Socceroo has been waiting for for some time now, having previously been accustomed to coaching at semi-professional level which meant juggling all the other ways of paying the bills alongside his coaching commitments.
“It’s been a little bit different to what I was used to,” Ognenovski says as he chats with aleagues.com.au ahead of the new season.
“Obviously, back in Melbourne, training at nights and sort of running my businesses during the day, that’s a little bit different. You know, it’s a full-time job for me now.
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“But just coming in and working in a professional environment and having the time to actually get to the really fine details of what we want to do and how we want to do it is quite refreshing.
“You can actually work on all the fine details that need to be fixed. You can go through video footage of training and bring in players and show them what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, how we can improve.
“So yeah that’s, for me, one of the biggest elements that we’ve got the time to actually get to the level that we want to get and it’s not ‘okay, we’ve just got to rush these few things that we need to get over the line and then sort of cross your fingers and hope for the best’.
“So there’s a lot more time to get those details right.”
Having arrived less than a month ago, and with less than thirty days to go until the Bulls kick off their 2026/27 A-Leagues season with a home clash against Perth Glory, Ognenoski knows he has his work cut out.
What will no doubt help the coach’s transition though is the fact Macarthur have opened the purse strings this off-season with an eye-catching shopping spree, which has seen the likes of former Premier League winger Ryan Fraser, proven A-Leagues goalscorer Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and exciting winger Musa Toure all join the club.
Considering the new head coach is quite literally still living out of a suitcase after moving up to Sydney, having those three players at his disposal will certainly help his preparations heading into Matchweek 1.
“Goals change games, and they’re guys that can impact the scoreboard.
“We’ve got obviously Gibbo (Ben Gibson) and Reecey (Jing Reec) and Bernardo and Vickers (Luke Vickery) and (Dean) Bosnjak in there as well that can impact the scoreboard.
“They scored goals last year as well, so yeah, it’s good. It’s competitive. That means that there’s competition for spots as well, which drives everyone to become better.”
He goes on to say: “But we’re sort of still working out the balance between what works for us and we’ll get there.
“You know, not even in pre-season, we might get there in round six and say, “Okay, well, we need to tweak something here. We need to be a bit more possession-based and less structure-based.
“So, yeah, that’s all I guess part and parcel of the coaching gig. But we’ll study opposition and then see what we need to do to break them down.”
Pushed further on this point, Ognenovski believes one of the greatest strengths a modern-day football coach can have is flexibility. Furthermore, it’s about not being wedded to a specific style of play regardless of who you’re coming up against, and that’s something we can expect to see this season.
“I think a lot of coaches are now adapting to the circumstances within a game a lot quicker. Obviously, we’ve got the benefits of video analysis, live video on the benches now, and so you can see trends very quickly.
“You can see patterns that are happening very quickly. You can counter that.
“Everyone says, “Oh, what system are you going to play? The 4-4-2, 4-3-3…” and for me, I think the best teams are very fluid in their systems.
“So that might mean that without the ball we sit like this. With the ball we might push a couple of defenders up. So again, that’s all based on how the game’s going, whether you’re under the pump, whether the team’s allowing you to have the ball, and then what you’re going to do with that.
“So I think tactically you really have to be sharp and ready to change within games, and I think you need to also teach the players all of that tactical intelligence, so they can see that within the game and change on the run.”
So whilst he’s still getting used to being back in a full-time footballing environment (and living out of his suitcase), the new Bulls boss believes life away from the game forms an equally important part of the life of a head coach. Specifically, the ability to know when to switch off.
“I try to not obsess about football because you know you’re here for whatever it is, 10 hours, 12 hours (a day) and that’s your focus and your job.
“I don’t want to bring that home and have a negative impact on my home balance either. So family’s super important to me.
“I’ve got a large family, five children, two dogs. So that’s sort of where my energy goes to away from football.
“So hobbies… I don’t really have any because I haven’t got time for them! Family is where I can relax.”
Ognenovski’s new-look Macarthur Bulls side open their 2026/27 A-League account with a home clash against Perth Glory on Saturday, October 17 at Campbelltown Sports Stadium, kick-off 5pm (AEST).
