Six years ago, Roy O’Donovan switched F3 Derby allegiances – and all hell broke loose. He recalls the dramatic events that followed his move up the M1 motorway from Central Coast Mariners to join Newcastle Jets.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in April, 2022, but has been resurfaced to celebrate the return of the F3 Derby to the Isuzu UTE A-League agenda this weekend.
No player knows more about the intense rivalry between Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets than Roy O’Donovan.
Few players are brave enough to switch F3 Derby allegiances. Even fewer go on to inflict derby pain on their former side quite like the striker who, on the first weekend of the 2017-18 Isuzu UTE A-League season, made his debut for the Jets against the Mariners in Gosford, and tore his old club to pieces.
In this classic A-Leagues rivalry, ample motivation comes via the pre-game barbs thrown from either end of the highway linking Newcastle to the Coast.
Or, in one case, an enormous billboard plastered in the middle of it.
Roy O’Donovan, formerly a Central Coast striker, joined the Jets at the end of the 2016-17 season. Of course, the first fixture of the following campaign could only have seen his new side travel to face his former side in Gosford.
“We were driving down the M1, and there was a little bit of commotion on the bus,” O’Donovan told told aleagues.com.au.
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Peering out of the window of the Jets team bus, O’Donovan saw a billboard with the faces of two former Jets Ben Kennedy and Andrew Hoole, dressed in their new club colours, next to a line that read:
The best road in Newcastle is the one out of it.
“I think (Jets head coach) Ernie (Merrick) pointed up at it and gave it a shout out on the bus,” O’Donovan said.
“If we needed any more motivation, that certainly was it.”
The Jets went on to trounce the Mariners 5-1 on their home patch, with O’Donovan scoring a first-half hat-trick.
“Looking at it now from a marketing point of view, I kind of have a bit of respect for what they did there, the Mariners,” O’Donovan said. “But the problem with doing something like that, you really have to back it up.
“To lose 5-1 in your own backyard after putting a sign on the highway, it really bursts your bubble a little bit.”
The build-up to O’Donovan’s return to Gosford was one of “nervous energy” for the former A-Leagues striker, from the moment the Round 1 F3 Derby was pencilled into the calendar.
The season opener couldn’t have started better for the Mariners, who carved out a 1-0 lead on five minutes. O’Donovan looked around the stadium and wondered where the inspiration for the fightback would come from.
“There was a lot of animosity when I left the Mariners to come up here,” he said. “It (put) a certain target on my back, and (brought about) certain bad energies from the Mariners fans.
“There was a lot of tension leading into the game. When I came out I was getting booed every time I got near the ball in the first minutes, and there was a big 50-foot banner behind the goal with my head on a snake. It just added to the drama.”
O’Donovan continued: “Five minutes in, the Mariners are 1-0 up… I think there was about 12,000 at the game or something on the day – it felt like double that, with the energy in the stadium. But we managed to turn the game on its head by half-time.
“I managed to get a first-half hat-trick, and it sucked the energy completely out of the stadium. It was just what we needed on the day, and it set the tone for the rest of the season, really.”
The Jets went on to reach the Grand Final that season. The Mariners finished at the foot of the table.
In 2017, the F3 Derby raised the curtain for the new season. In 2008, it was the final act.
The Jets and Mariners locked horns in three finals fixtures: two major semifinals, and the grand final. Former Jets CEO Lawrie McKinna was Mariners head coach at the time; and after a 2-0 Jets triumph in the first game of a two-legged semifinal, his Central Coast outfit were on the canvas.
Between the first and second leg, Jets skipper Jade North fired up the rivalry, labelling the Mariners as “the worst” passing side in the league.
“Obviously they’re going to play that route-one football,” North said at the time. “We’re going to play good-quality football, and good-quality football is going to outclass route-one football over two legs.”
It wasn’t quite how the story played out.
“We thought being down 2-0 after the first leg, we were a bit unlucky because of the way we played,” McKinna told KEEPUP.
“Going into that next leg needing to win 3-0, we were reasonably confident. We just knew we needed to get that first goal – that was the big focus.
“The way we played in that first game, we played very well. (John) Aloisi missed a penalty and we had a goal chalked off that we thought was fair. We knew we didn’t deserve to be down 2-0 so we were always confident.
“There were certain games that year when we were always written off. When you’re down 2-0 the coach can come in and say: ‘Yeah we can win’, but you actually have to get (the players) to believe.
“Your players might think: ‘Oh yeah, yeah, bulls***, how are we going to get two goals back?’ But you actually have to get the added (motivation).”
The Mariners found that motivation in North’s pre-game comments.
“The personal things with them saying ‘you boys can’t pass, you’re the worst passing football team’ – that hurts. When you’ve got to a semifinal that stuff hurts you.
“It didn’t really wind us up, it was just one of those ones you put in the back pocket and bring it out during the game.
“So all those little added bits helped. When you put them in the mix, put the pot on and mix it up, then we just happened to come up with a big 3-0 win.
“It was a huge night. A massive, massive night.”
On Saturday afternoon, these two great rivals meet once again.
O’Donovan says the emotions attached to the occasion are the same as they always have been for fans of both sides.
“If you know the supporters and the fanbase up this way, up the F3 and the M1, this is a big game on the calendar,” O’Donovan said.
“It’s an important game. The fans want it to be feisty, they want to see tackles, they want to see entertainment.”
