The Mariners bring grassroots football to a rugby heartland
Roar Guru By Jason Gray, 7 Jul 2008 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- A-League, ANZ stadium, Australia, Central Coast Mariners, Crowds, Eagles, football, Lawrie McKinna, NSW, Olympics, pre-season, Premier League, Socceroos, Super League, Sydney, Tigers
Related coverage
- Central Coast Mariners news
- Olympics news
- Football news
- A-League news
- Socceroos news
- Socceroos Fixtures news
- Socceroos 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifying news
Gone are the days when the best club football in the country used to attract crowds of a few hundred people.
On a chilly Tuesday night at Mills Park, Asquith, the league winners from both the NSW Super League and A-League competitions went head-to-head in a spectacle of Australia’s grassroots football talent.
The match attracted a 2400-strong crowd.
This may not compare to the deafening choral echoes produced by tens of thousands of fans at European club matches, but for a pre-season match at a suburban football ground on the North Shore of Sydney – traditionally a rugby union heartland – that featured a team from the nation’s third highest league, it is highly impressive and was once unheard of.
This is no longer a game for “sheilas and wogs.”
The sleeping giant of world game has finally awakened in Australian sporting culture, and judging by the droves of families at Mills Park on a weeknight, will push for supremacy in a land of footy and cricket in the decade to come.
On the field, Northern Tigers went down fighting 3-0 against their A-League opponents Central Coast Mariners in the exhibition match which was part of the Mariners’ pre-season build-up.
The Tigers side, coached by former Macarthur Rams head honcho, Hugh McCrory, surprised all the so-called pundits last year, taking out the league before being steamrolled 2-0 in the grand final by former Premier League outfit Bonnyrigg White Eagles.
They have struggled to find form this season; injury, suspension and lean goal scoring figures have them languishing in mid-table and in danger of missing out on the finals in a season where they had plans of promotion to Premier League.
Against the Mariners, they had a chance to lift their intensity and find some form to take back to the Super League. They did so, but still could not find the net.
The Coasties were without half of their regular line-up, including former FC Lyn Oslo striker Dylan Macallister – the top goal scorer in Mariners’ pre-season matches so far – but proved too much for the home side, who were reminded that the Mariners are two divisions ahead.
“It was great for the kids,” Tigers coach, Hugh McCrory, said. “That’s what it’s about. The youngsters got on at half time and it was a good spectacle. We didn’t expect to win here.”
The Northern Tigers under 10 development squad entertained the crowd at the interval, producing some slick ball movement and good vision like their counterparts in the main game.
Tigers reserve goalkeeper, Jonathon Faerber, spoke positively about his side’s performance in between signing autographs for a group of young fans, and echoed McCrory’s sentiment about the occasion.
“Hell of an evening. It was great to be part of it,” the former Wahroonga junior said. “Not quite the result we were after, but it was good for the Mariners to come out here. We’d like to thank them for that.”
Faerber, who had come on as a substitute for the outstanding Stuart Page, is a former Wahroonga junior who plays in the Tigers under 20s reserves side which is on top of the ladder.
It didn’t take long for Lawrie McKinna’s side to open the scoring.
From a well-worked corner manoeuvre, reigning Central Coast medallist and Socceroo Mile Jedinak headed in at the front post.
Jedinak played in the Socceroos’ recent 1-0 loss to China at ANZ Stadium (formerly Stadium Australia, Homebush), his third cap for the national side.
The Mariners were rarely troubled, though the Tigers took strength from the return of Tom Spencer and Stephen Chipps, who bolstered the side and contributed to some of the side’s better moments in attack and defence.
Central Coast defender and Young Socceroo, Brad Porter, was part of a strong defensive unit that largely kept the Tigers at bay, and was satisfied with the Mariners’ showing.
“We’re happy with that, but it’s not about the result for us. It’s pre-season and it was good to get out there in front of the locals. The Tigers were good opposition for us. It was a high intensity game.”
Despite being out of their depth against the Mariners, the Tigers created some of the best chances of the match – including Daniel Nash clattering a shot against the crossbar after some great build-up play – and overall showed better commitment than in their Super League match against the Central Coast Lightning last Sunday.
“Higher intensity than Sunday, that’s for sure,” McCrory said.
The Tigers currently sit seventh in the league and will need to take the positives of the Mariners match and revive some of the attacking flair that took them to the top of the league last season if they are to make the top five finals series.
As the saying goes, it is a brave pundit who writes them off.
As for football on the North Shore, and moreover, in this country, expect more territory to be conquered.
Bring on the Olympics.
Love this article? Nominate it for The Roar’s Armchair Sports Writer Award. Or vote now for this week’s nominated articles.
Recommend this story.
- Explore:
- A-League, ANZ stadium, Australia, Central Coast Mariners, Crowds, Eagles, football, Lawrie McKinna, NSW, Olympics, pre-season, Premier League, Socceroos, Super League, Sydney, Tigers
July 7th 2008 @ 1:58pm
Redb said | July 7th 2008 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Westy,
Justify this statement.
“The AFL is not out to coexist in Sydney which is something League and football have been relatively successful at especially in Western Sydney”
If Sydney only have a small AFL communtity how again is AFL not out to co-exist? Its coming off a very low base in the first place. It seems any growth is met with fear and loathing from supporters of other codes.
Rugby league players are never racist? The AFL is one fo the few codes that has really tackled racism, its not there yet, you can’t label AFL with this type of zenophobic rhetoric.
Redb
July 7th 2008 @ 2:12pm
True Tah said | July 7th 2008 @ 2:12pm | Report comment
Jimbo,
our rugby club has been playing at our council oval for almost 100 years and pay the rent without fail and every year players from our club volunteer their time with the council to help lay turf and other general maintenance. Therefore it would be reasonable to say we have established a good rapport with the council.
Maybe when some soccer clubs do the same they will be in the same position, although Im sure some may do this. We play trials at another ground which is used by a soccer team, who the proceeded to do burnouts and left the field in a terrible state, and we were lucky to be able to be play there at all.
One of the things soccer is sold on is that it can be played anywhere – AFL, union and league need grassed ptiches, and Redb was hinting at was that its easier to play soccer on AFL pitches than AFL on soccer pitches.
July 7th 2008 @ 2:43pm
Midfielder said | July 7th 2008 @ 2:43pm | Report comment
Redb & Jimbo
Just using my club as an example we have over 600 players in over 50 teams including 3 over 35′s and about 18 all age.
We have two ovals, the council allow us to train four nights and allocate one night and one oval to a local rugby club. Works out at about 14 teams per night and on one night only one oval.
Like Jimbo I have no problem with any sport using community parks …….. just use em ………… don’t just put up posts.
July 7th 2008 @ 2:53pm
Redb said | July 7th 2008 @ 2:53pm | Report comment
Midfielder,
Won’t get an argument out of me. I’d imagine like the in the movie though, if you build it they will come. You need goal posts to play footy, not much fun kicking to empty space and we use them a lot more in our game
Whilst i’m impressed with Jimbo’s list to a casual observer i see few ‘four posts’ in Sydney, plenty of two posts and rectangular fields.
Inspected the new rectangular stadium in melbourne the other night. Drew the attention of the security guard, however it is coming along pretty well, looking forward to attending a few games when it opens.
Redb
July 7th 2008 @ 2:57pm
jimbo said | July 7th 2008 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
True Tah,
Rugby is not the only code that has a number of die hard amateur volunteers who give up a lot of their time and money for their favourite sport.
If I’m not playing, I do it all the time and I know lots of others like me.
AFL people in the district are just the same.
I don’t know any “soccer” supporters or players who do “burn outs” on football fields after a game. Maybe you should have taken down their registration number and handed it over to the council or police – that’s what I would have done – irrespective of which code they play.
The real reason most junior football fields have more dirt than grass on them, is from over use and not lack of respect. Football is the sport that most needs a flat grassy surface because most of the game is played along the ground.
Would be interested to hear your solution for council’s problem of allocating grounds to the various sporting codes:
give it to those who were there first,
those who do the least damage,
those who volunteer the most of their personal time,
those who pay the council the most money or
those who have the most clubs and registered players?
July 7th 2008 @ 3:20pm
True Tah said | July 7th 2008 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
Never claimed that rugby has a mortgage on die hard amateurs – I was merely commenting on the experiences our club has experienced, and why we have no real issues with ground allocations – in fact, we rent out the attached oval as well, and let the local soccer club train there as well.
Believe me, if we’d found out the idiots who did that, we would have taken some sort of action – maybe they would have had a bigger problem than just the council to worry about- a bunch of pissed off rugby players.
Don’t necessarily agree that soccer needs more grass than the other codes, put it this way, you couldn’t play rugby on a dirt pitch as the amount of time a player comes into contact with the ground is greater and at a far greater force than soccer (although given the tendencies of certain European and Latin American players to dive, this is debatable!!). One of the reasons why soccer is the most popular sport in the world is that (well so I have been told) is that you can play it anywhere, I bet kids in Iraq don’t play on grassy pitches.
In terms of allocating grounds, there is no single way of determining how each can be allocated – although I think all of your suggestions would certainly be of relevance. Unfortunately in this day and age, those who pay the most money would seem to the focus. Ironically in our area, there are far more soccer grounds than rugby grounds, so its not so much an issue – we have over 500 players (junior and senior) and we schedule our games on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – so any argument that the ground is underutilised by rugby is pretty weak.
Personally the sport which causes the mosts problems for us is cricket, as most rugby pitches have to share with a cricket club, this means that during the winter there is either a rock hard pitch which makes tackling dangerous or a pile of mud dumped on top of it.
I would really hate for Australia and Sydney in particular to go down the way of the UK, where grassy patches for sports are rapidly disappearing.
July 7th 2008 @ 7:11pm
Midfielder said | July 7th 2008 @ 7:11pm | Report comment
True Tah
I agree with you on the time cricket is given the ground for its a tad over seven months and is used by a few players. Most football grounds regardless of code would provide more players in two hours on a Saturday morning than cricket over a weekend. You touched a hot point with me.
July 7th 2008 @ 10:18pm
Slippery Jim said | July 7th 2008 @ 10:18pm | Report comment
True Tah, I respect your passion for your code, but Jimbo is absolutely correct, football needs a flat, smooth surface for the roll of the ball.
No matter what country you are in, or code you play, you do not need to have a perfect pitch or regulation-size field with proper goals to play your game. I have learned many of my football skills (limited as they are) by playing “kick the bin” with nothing more than a football, some friends and, you guessed it, a bin. Does wonders for dribbling skills, accuracy of shooting and beating your man.
The many times I have hit the ground playing football, (I once broke my cheek and eye socket when two footballers fell on my face full force after three of us went up for a header), I can tell you, with or without grass it makes no difference when you come down hard – why you or RedB’s AFTL personnel need to play on a billiard-like surface is beyond me, since you don’t need to roll the ball over the surface.
In Queenstown, Tasmania, they play AFTL on gravel, I guess you rugby players aren’t quite as tough as you like to think
July 7th 2008 @ 11:18pm
Jason Gray said | July 7th 2008 @ 11:18pm | Report comment
Agreed, Jim. I learned a lot of my limited skill from indoor and soccer on tennis courts and with tennis balls in high school. The tennis ball makes it like Bradman with the stump, golf ball and water tank. The smaller the ball, the more difficult the terrain/activity, the higher the skill required.
July 8th 2008 @ 12:08am
westy said | July 8th 2008 @ 12:08am | Report comment
Redb …..had to do some work…..in my field work quite closely with local councils. AFL development in Sydney has funds which the other codes cannot compete with. For instance AFL made a recent bid to Canada Bay Council (over $200000)for the series of rugby fields adjoining Concord oval. It is just good business. You do not necessarily have the teams just the locations.Football has been trying to get those ovals for decades but do not have that type of funding. The list of recently acquired ovals do not see the intensive usage of football ovals in Sydney and do lie dormant for much of the time but AFL has got the exclusive lease.
Redb….understand this the AFL in Sydney and is not like Melbourne. By conscious or forced circumstance it is aimed at a segment of the market that is white and middle class. It is not the code just the way it is being profiled in Sydney. I am sorry and I am prepared to accede this may be an unintentional consequence of the AFL’s Sydney marketing profile. Unlike Melborne there are significant aboriginal communities in Sydney eg. La Perouse, Redfern, Campbelltown, Doonside and Blacktown and these boys , like many of the islanders , Lebanese do not I regret appear in great numbers in AFL Sydney teams. The push is on for white kids who want to play a contact sport with their own kind. The parents talk to similar parents.
It is not and never has been the AFL policy to do so but an unfortunate consequence to date of its marketing push.I invite you to AFL junior Western Sydney games in the most cosmopolitan area of all Australia and it sure don’t reflect the local population.It does in Sydney North and North west which is more middle class and of course white.This in Sydney is where the AFL is strongest. The problem to date is that in the south west and west the push has still focused on the small white kids. Come and have a look .