John Aloisi is a Championship-winning head coach. His brother and former assistant, Ross, speaks to KEEPUP’s Sacha Pisani about the achievement and the long road to glory in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
While listening to Ross Aloisi speak, it’s clear how John Aloisi’s career has been shaped by his father.
This season has been one of redemption for John Aloisi. Out of the coaching wilderness and into the winner’s circle, the Socceroos great guided Western United to their first Isuzu UTE A-League Championship on Saturday.
He had won a Championship with Sydney FC in his playing days but this was a first for John as a coach. It was also the first for a club in just their third season of existence.
John had spent three years away from the coaching realm, working as a pundit with Optus, while also travelling across to Europe to broaden his knowledge.
Best known for THAT penalty which ended 32 years of Socceroos’ heartache – sending Australia to the 2006 World Cup, John could’ve been forgiven for living off past glory.
But that’s not now he was brought up in the Aloisi household, father Rocky driving John’s hunger to succeed.
“He’s always striving for more and that comes back to our upbringing with our father,” Ross Aloisi, who is now working as an assistant coach at Kevin Muscat’s Yokohama F.Marinos in the J1 League, told KEEPUP.
“Our father has been in business for 50 years, his own business. His words always are ‘you have to keep improving’. ‘The day you stop working is the day you die’.
“For my brother, I think he enjoyed being on TV but it wasn’t his passion. Coaching was his passion. That’s what drove him.”
‘We worked out of cafes’: Long and emotional road to the top
John Aloisi defied the critics and the odds to transform Western into Australian champions.
The 46-year-old had been out of work since 2018, when he resigned as Brisbane Roar’s longest-serving coach.
During his three years in Brisbane, the Roar played finals football. They were one win away from the Premiers Plate in John’s first season, while they featured in the semi-finals twice. That tenure included that wild 5-4 defeat to Western Sydney Wanderers in the 2016 semis.
It came in trying circumstances in the Sunshine State, after a difficult first senior coaching role with Melbourne Heart in 2012-13.
“We had to leave our office which was at Perry Park,” Ross, who worked as John’s assistant at the Roar, recalled. “For the last six games [of the first season], we worked out of cafes.
“We didn’t have a training facility – the training facility in that first year was at a university ground. We’d go get changed at one ground, drive and train at another ground. Come back and shower, go somewhere else which was 15 minutes away to have meetings or video analysis.
“To go into that last game, knowing you win that last game you finish top of the table or even the game against the Wanderers who had an amazing team at the top, said a lot.”
There were also challenges away from football for John Aloisi, who underwent open-heart surgery in 2019.
But Western turned to John Aloisi as Mark Rudan’s replacement. The ex-Australia international overhauled the club and culture as Western became the first team since Ange Postecoglou’s Brisbane in 2011 to hoist the ALM trophy aloft in their first Grand Final.
Ross, who swapped Adelaide United for F.Marinos during the 2021-22 season, added: “It was extremely satisfying for him knowing what he’s been through in his personal life but also his coaching career.
“It was huge for the family because it’s been a massive part of our lives – football. Obviously that’s all John’s ever done. He left home when he was very, very young to go to the AIS at 15 or 16 and within a year he was in Europe.
“So that kind of made him the kind of person that he is. Very resilient, a hard worker and a never-say die attitude. We have to thank our mother and father for the way we are. Having that winning mentality and never giving up, but that comes from a father a lot as well because when we were younger, no matter what we played with our dad, he’d never let us win. You’ll win, you have to learn to win.
“Me personally, it’s frustrating to hear people say he wasn’t successful as a coach because he was. Then watching him go through his heart operation, that was tough. It was a really, really tough time to see my younger brother go through what he went through. Tough for my mother and father at such a young age.
“For him to come back in his first season at a club that just started up three years ago. Didn’t have the best season last season, and for him to turn things around and win his first Championship, it was huge.
“It’s huge for him and also for me because I’m extremely proud of everything he’s achieved throughout his career as a player and a coach.”
Forget the critics, John’s on his own mission
John’s redemption story is one that, before Western dethroned City, the former Antwerp, Portsmouth and Osasuna striker never thought was possible.
He was linked with Melbourne Victory in 2020 before they stuck with interim boss and club favourite Graham Brebner. At the time there was criticism from fans, who wanted Victory to stay clear of John.
When Western turned to John last year, there was a mixed response to a coach who had never led a team to an A-Leagues Grand Final.
But despite the critics, there were never any doubts from Western.
On Saturday, John silenced his doubters.
But Ross said: “It’s not John’s motivation to prove people wrong. His motivation is because he loves football. He wants to be the best he can be.
“Definitely not his motivation but I’m sure deep down inside, like myself, maybe a little bit it would have spurred him on.”
John Aloisi is on his own mission.
“He just wants to the best he can be and inspired to be in the position of Kevin Muscat coaching in Asia or an Ange Postecoglou in Europe,” Ross said.
And he is already looking ahead amid Western’s title celebrations.
“I already know he’s looking to next season because we speak quite a bit. I know that he was looking at certain players for next season.
“He’d already started and most top coaches do that anyway. There is a lot of credit that has to go to Hayden Foxe and the backroom stuff, and also the club.
“If the club supports you, backs you and gives you every possible opportunity to win, then you have a good chance of winning, especially if you’re a good coach.”
‘He’s number one’: Inside the tactical mind of John
Jamie Young and John Aloisi shared a warm and passionate embrace moments after the full-time whistle as Western were confirmed champions on Saturday.
Young followed Aloisi to Western – the pair having worked together at the Roar.
On this week’s Official A-Leagues Podcast, star Western goalkeeper Young said: “I’ve had six managers who have managed in the EPL. As a technical coach he’s number one.
“Maybe on par with Brendan Rodgers in terms of tactics and understanding of the game.”
So, what is Aloisi like as a coach?
“He is kind of demanding. Because tactically he is so switched on, he makes sure tactically the team is set up well defensively to press in the mid-third block and also back third,” Ross Aloisi said.
“His structures, this is where I learned the most as far as coaching goes. I had them but didn’t know how to implement them, like I learned when I started working with John.
“I wouldn’t say he is intense but he is very positive with the players. But, don’t cross him and don’t question him because he won’t tolerate it. It was the same with me, whether I was his brother or not, he made it very clear he was the boss. You do your work, it’s all about work. Doing all the right things and not taking shortcuts. He oversaw a lot, he did mainly tactical stuff.
“Working with Kevin Muscat, who is incredible. In the short period of time, I’ve learnt so much. I’m not surprised but it’s incredible to work with these people that are so switched on tactically. People don’t understand unless you’re there.
“He is a very positive person. You have to be firm. If you made him angry, it wasn’t nice.”
Ross added: “John’s way of playing, he changed a lot this year, probably with the personnel he had. People said they were very hard to breakdown.
“Defensively, I wouldn’t say more focused on his defensive structures, but at times you were looking at the squad he had out. He did change a little but but that’s a sign of a good coach as well.
“He went into a job wanting to play a certain way, and sometimes with personnel or injuries/suspensions you have to change things and obviously he did. At times, they played some really, really beautiful football. Really nice to watch.”
