After almost a decade away, Harrison Sawyer is back in the A-Leagues. Having joined Macarthur FC, the NPL sensation speaks to aleagues.com.au about his fascinating journey to Campbelltown.
In the words of Harrison Sawyer: “It’s been a journey that is a little bit left of field.”
Football can take you many different places. For Sawyer, it has led him from Australia to “unexplored countries by a lot of A-Leagues players” – the Philippines, Hong Kong, India and Finland.
Now, after seven years away from the Isuzu UTE A-League, the 27-year-old striker is back.
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“I kind of did it the harder way but I’m really happy to now have a proper crack at the A-League because it’s been something I’ve wanted to do,” Sawyer told aleagues.com.au ahead of Sunday’s Round 1 opener against Perth Glory.
“I’ve had to work through a lot of other countries to get where I am today. It’s been a long journey but really excited to be where I am now.”
“Something you can’t buy is experience as a player. I feel like I’ve added a lot of strings to my bow compared to when I was 19 trying to crack the A-Leagues.
“I feel like I’ve become a much more rounded player in all aspects of my game. I’m really excited to see what I can do in the league.”
You have to go back to the 2016-17 Isuzu UTE A-League campaign for Sawyer’s last season in the competition. He was on the books of Newcastle Jets at the time.
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It has been a long time between drinks; a lot has transpired for the former Brisbane Roar youngster.
He has gone on to win a league title in Hong Kong, experienced an eye-opening spell in India, claimed a pair of NPLM VIC Golden Boots and two premierships with South Melbourne, and more.
Before Mile Sterjovski’s Macarthur came calling this off-season on the back of a 16-goal season and second Golden Boot in NPLM VIC, Sawyer knew 2024-25 was a make-or-break season in his A-Leagues dream.
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“When I was overseas, I was contemplating coming back to Australia,” he recalled, having also had interest from elsewhere in the A-Leagues after helping South Melbourne reach the 2024 Australia Cup final. “I was thinking I’d love to have a crack at the A-League.
“As I signed at South Melbourne and I was captain and having a really good season, I thought if it doesn’t come this season then it’s not going to come at all. That was my train of thought. If I didn’t get the offer or call from Macarthur at the end of this season, then that was probably me done and dusted in terms of the A-League.
“It’s made it all the more sweeter to finally have a crack at it.”
Before Sawyer made himself a South Melbourne great, he had his first taste of an A-Leagues environment in Brisbane.
At the time John Aloisi was head coach of Brisbane Roar in the Isuzu UTE A-League, Sawyer was playing alongside the likes of Nick D’Agostino and Dane Ingham in the youth team in 2015-16.
“My first season in the NYL, we had some really good strikers at the club,” Sawyer recalled.
“Jamie Maclaren was the number nine and behind him was Nick D’Agostino. Both Socceroos. Some pretty competitive players in front of me so I kind of realised my opportunities were going to be pretty limited.
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“I trained with the first team a bit but in terms of game time or playing, I never really got a sniff. I think I had a really good NYL season and maybe I thought there could be a chance after that but I had a phone call from Newcastle Jets to go down there for a trial.”
That trial turned into a contract at and it was in the Hunter Region where the Brisbane-born frontman made his professional debut in 2017.
But it was a challenging, albeit brief, spell in Newcastle. Aged 21 at the time, Sawyer was limited to five appearances for a Jets side that finished bottom of the 2016-17 standings prior to Ernie Merrick’s arrival.
“At the time, the team wasn’t doing so well and I was quite young. It was almost a hostile environment,” Sawyer reflected. “There were a lot of players coming off contract and it was quite tense in the dressing room.
“Me as a young player, I didn’t get as much of an opportunity as I would have hoped. In hindsight, probably I shouldn’t have left Australia so early to go to those unexplored countries. I think I should have tried to build a bigger base at age 20. I played a couple of games in a season where the Jets didn’t do so well. I was there for six-seven months.
“I didn’t have an agent in my corner when I was young, like a mentor might have helped me at the period of time to make a better decision. It is what it is. I’ve had a pretty good career since then.”
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After that “tense” experience in Newcastle, Sawyer eventually found himself in the Philippines – the in city of Tagum to be exact.
Australian Gary Phillips was head coach of Davao Aguilas for their inaugural season in the Philippines Football League in 2017, with Western Sydney Wanderers co-owner Jefferson Cheng the owner.
“He was there at the time,” said Sawyer, who ended his first season as the team’s leading goalscorer. “It was a new club.
“They wanted to bring in a new team and made quite a lot of new signings. Personally I did quite well. Scored quite a few goals. The club didn’t do so well in the first season. After my stint there, I got a move to Hong Kong.”
SIGNINGS, FULL SQUAD & FIXTURES: Guide to Macarthur FC’s Isuzu UTE A-League 2024-25 season:
At the end of his first season at Davao Aguilas, Sawyer went on trial at J2 League side Mito HollyHock in Japan. While he was still contracted in the Philippines, he was still able to trial.
Although a contract did not arrive there, Sawyer still secured a move away. It proved to be a blessing.
“I had a call from a club in Hong Kong, who finished second the year before. My club in the Philippines wanted me to stay there but I managed to negotiate to let me leave on loan,” said Sawyer.
“They let me leave after I signed a new deal. Six months into my loan stint in Hong Kong, the Philippines club – because they’d signed a lot of high-paid players for the league and weren’t doing so well, the owner decided to sack if off and basically folded.
“Luckily I’d made that move already but all those players were without a club. Good timing for me because I still got paid out my contract while I was in Hong Kong.”
During his loan spell at Tai Po, Sawyer won the 2018-19 Hong Kong Premier League. He also had a taste of continental football, playing in the AFC Cup – and it meant an incredible trip to North Korea.
“Pretty crazy. They searched us for 40 minutes when we landed at the airport,” he remembered.
“We were the only people on the flight in. They confiscated an iPad because it had a South Korean film on it. They went through every page of my book. We didn’t have internet there. It was fascinating.
“All the people kind of dressed the same.”
Sawyer, who didn’t feel safe initially, added: “It was more normal than I thought it would be. It’s not fully normal because all the guys there are wearing the same trench coat with a Kim Jong-un badge. There’s crazy things. There’s heaps of big statues of him.”
After returning to Australia in 2020, lured home by South Melbourne, it was not long before Sawyer was abroad again.
His 2022-23 Indian adventure proved to be the most eye-opening experience of his career to date.
Playing for Jamshedpur in the Indian Super League was like nothing he could have ever imagined. It provided the biggest learnings of his life.
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“For me it was pretty crazy and surreal. You can’t really explain it to someone,” said Sawyer.
“They have to be there and see it for themselves. You go there and there’s a cow walking at you while you’re driving. At the games, there’s thousands and thousands of fans. It’s like a whole other world.
“It’s sad there’s a lot of poverty. You’re quite sheltered from it living in a hotel. You can be living in a nice hotel and walk outside 80m and there’s someone giving birth in the street.
“It makes you appreciate where you come from. You realise we’re so lucky here. It’s pretty much luck being born in such a great country because you could’ve been born in the streets of India and have nothing. It makes you appreciate what you have.
“There’s a lot of people there who are happy with nothing and there’s people there living in really poor conditions that still don’t have the first-world problems we have.
“Outside of football, it was probably my biggest learnings. The football was cool, don’t get me wrong but you learn a heck about life and being grateful.”
Sawyer’s next overseas move was entirely dictated by his dog as the big striker took his talents to Finnish club VPS in 2023.
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“Funny story and you won’t believe it. My girlfriend and I took our dog over to India,” Sawyer explained.
“From India when the season finished in March, I had to wait until the June window to open in Europe. At the time, I had offers from Malaysia and India.
“When I went to India with my dog, Australia changed the laws around bringing pets back into the country. For the first time in like 13 years, they tightened restrictions on rabies and it meant, regardless of all the preparation we had – tetanus injections for our dog and rabies vaccines, they were no longer valid for certain levels of rabies in a country which India is high on the scale.
“They used to have a three-year validity, they reduced it and said you have to start again pretty much. You have to live in a clean country for six months before you can come back to Australia with your dog. India was like category four out of four. I was with my dog and thought to be able to get back into Australia I have to be playing in a cleaner country for at least six months.
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“I had an offer from Malaysia and Finland. Finland’s clean and Malaysia is not in terms of rabies, so the dog decided we would play in Finland.
“If I went to Malaysia, it would’ve just extended being able to get back into Australia. We pretty much had a day to pick between Finland and Malaysia.
“Went to Finland and glad I did because I had a really good season. Didn’t lose a game while I was there. We were undefeated for like 17 games. Went from last place to third and qualified for the Europa Conference League. A really good experience.
“To be honest, if it wasn’t for the dog I would’ve chased the money in Malaysia.”
First Jamshedpur and now Macarthur. On both occasions, historic Australian club and NPL giants South Melbourne helped facilitate Sawyer’s moves to professional environments.
Ahead of Sunday’s season opener against Perth Glory in Campbelltown, Sawyer said: “I have a really good relationship with them. They hold a special place in my heart. They welcomed me with open arms twice after deals overseas.
“When I first went there, I don’t think I was that great of a player. The second time in 2020 when I won the Golden Boot and won the Premiership, did really well and got the move to the ISL.
“They’re a club who’ve given me a really good opportunity.”
