Almost 20 years later, Cath Cannuli can well remember the pressure in a dressing room from the legacy of previous losses.
Even in the days before social media and with little newspaper coverage, we just knew. Walking into the dressing room on the day of a Grand Ginal, when your team has been in the last three Grand Finals but lost them all, you can feel the pressure hanging over the team.
For Sydney FC in 2023, read the NSW Sapphires team of nearly 20 years ago – battling not just the opposition but your own demons over games you lost when glory was so close you could almost touch it.
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In the Women’s National Soccer League, the precursor to the A-League Women, I was part of that Sapphires team which arrived at Lions Stadium in Brisbane just before Christmas in 2004. We were a really young team, with six players aged 18 or under including myself. We could have crumbled, but maybe the inexperience helped. When you’re that young, you worry less about the past.
But mentally it’s still tough. I know what those Sydney FC players will be feeling on Sunday in the Grand Final, given that they have also lost the last three. The worst pressure is what you put on yourself when you haven’t won for consecutive years.
It can take you away from the processes and the form that have helped to get you to the Grand Final in the first place. You can overthink things, become determined to make your mark on the day instead of getting into the flow of performance that is the reason you’re there. For the Sydney FC girls, there is so much more media attention than we had as well.
Three times in a row that Sapphire team had lost 1-0 in the Grand Final. I played in two of them, and started in the 2004 final. Just after halftime we went two goals up but any coach will tell you how dangerous that score is. We kept fighting hard, and finally we got a third a few minutes before the end when my shot was saved but Leah Blayney followed up.
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KEEPUP’s Campbell Johnson was joined by Rhali Dobson, Sydney FC’s Madison Haley and Danielle Steer of Western United on this week’s edition of the Official Liberty A-League Podcast. Catch the full episode wherever you get your podcasts.
Our coach then was a young Alen Stajcic which is ironic as he went on to have so much success with Sydney FC. His assistant for several years was Ante Juric, and since Staj left it’s Ante who has himself brought more success to the club – and led them to a literally unprecedented six grand finals.
But the hard truth is that they have only won one, and lost four, including the last three. I have no doubt that his preparation this week is almost entirely mental. A fortnight ago Sydney played Western United in the Semi Final, so the game plan for the same opponent is pretty much unchanged and doesn’t need much repetition.
Instead I think Ante will be reminding his players of the success they’ve had, and all the reasons why they should win. Finals football is so different to the week-by-week stuff, it’s far more about managing of emotions and which players find the way to own the big moments.
Western United have never been in a final, so their players may find the stage daunting. Sydney’s message to the players will be all about the value of their experience, not the weight of history.
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The Sky Blue players have to find a way to relax into the occasion and play the football that deservedly won the Premier’s Plate. That way they can experience an unbelievable high, when you win a trophy that for so log has seemed out of reach.
