Prized Central Coast Mariners recruit Trent Sainsbury said his return to Gosford was inspired by his desire to give back to the club’s next generation of young talent in the same way older players at the club nurtured him through his early career.
The 32-year-old Socceroos veteran came through at the Mariners as part of a golden generation of talent that included the likes of Maty Ryan, Tom Rogic and Mustafa Amini; Sainsbury debuted for the club in 2010 at the age of 18 and went on to make 60 Isuzu UTE A-League appearances over the following four seasons.
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Sainsbury was a key contributor to Central Coast’s first Championship in 2013; more than 10 years on from his last game at the Mariners, Sainsbury has returned as a 58-time Australia international, a 2015 AFC Asian Cup champion – and a man on a mission to use his wealth of experience to make an impact on return to the club in 2024.
“It’s a bit surreal, a full-circle moment but a group full of young lads are going to keep me young and on my toes,” Sainsbury said. “I’m excited to be back with the team where it all started.
“One of the main reasons I came back was because I was told that the group unity was (some) of the best that (the club has seen).
“Coming into the changeroom as well, (there was) a lot of respect shown to me which is nice but at the same time you can already see that the boys are really close like a family, so it makes it easy for me to come into a new group and get to know everyone’s names and faces very quickly.
“I wanted to come back to the A-League because I didn’t want to finish my career overseas. I wanted to come and compete again in the A-League… and also at the same time give back to the young kids the same way that I was taking all the notes I could when I was a young boy coming through off the older lads.
“Like I said, a full-circle moment for me.”
Sainsbury returns to the Mariners as the club returns to the Asian Football Confederation’s top continental tournament: the AFC Champions League Elite.
In 2024-25 the AFC is debuting a new two-tiered ACL system and after the Mariners won the 2023-24 Isuzu UTE A-League Premiership, the club qualified for the top tier of Asian competition.
Sainsbury believes his experiences both in international and club football hold him in good stead to help the younger more inexperienced players of the squad deal with taking on the giants of Asia in the ACL Elite as well as the pressure of the club’s tilt for three-consecutive Isuzu UTE A-League Championships.
“I think it’s just the experience of being in different scenarios and different places around the world, different types of pressure,” Sainsbury explained.
“I think in football, you just never know what kind of scenarios are going to come up. So having been through a lot of those sort of those type of things, it’s just going to be easy for me to relate to the boys, what kind of emotions they’re going to feel and how to deal with them.
“I think the last time I was at the Mariners, we had the Champions League, we won our first game away (in) the Champions League for the Mariners.
“The boys are excited… obviously after last year’s amazing performance winning the trophy in the AFC Cup. So I think they’re going to have that experience under their belt.
“We’re going to be up against better and stronger opposition now but I think Australians love their back against the wall and they want the the tough competition to prove themselves.”
Sainsbury received his first minutes since returning to the club in a 2-0 friendly win over Sydney FC last week and will contend for selection in the Mariners’ first ACL Elite fixture against Shandong Taishan in China on Tuesday, September 17.
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Speaking ahead of the club’s ACL Elite debut, Mariners head coach Mark Jackson explained why the club was drawn to bringing Sainsbury back to Gosford.
“To have Trent back and his experience back, you only have to look at the career he’s had so far (to) know he’s a vastly experienced player,” Jackson said.
“The big thing for us in particular, is that Trent is still very hungry. He’s still a very hungry player, he’s an experienced player, he’s a senior player but he’s still very hungry for success, which kind of caught my eye when I spoke to him.
“He wants to develop, he wants to get better, he wants to be part of something successful and that’s what we want to try and build here.”
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