All hail the A-League’s unsung heroes
Roar Pro
By Paddy Higgs, 18 Nov 2008 Paddy Higgs is a Roar Pro
Norman Hubbard raised an intriguing concept in one of his recent articles. In it, the ESPN columnist sung the praises of the English Premier League’s unsung heroes: the domestiques, as he labelled them, among the top-team’s household names.
Cycling fans will, of course, know that a domestique – French for servant – is the grafter in road-race teams. The one who ultimately sacrifices his or her own chances of glory for that of his team or team-mate.
It’s an interesting concept when applied to football.
Star players can win you games. Domestiques can win you the league.
They are the players that generally slip under the radar of all but their own club’s dedicated supporters and the most diligent of journalists.
Largely loyal and unquestioning, it is not unusual to find a domestique spending a long stint at a club where others might have moved on.
A look to the successful sides of seasons past in the A-League throws up some likely candidates.
Consider the 2007/08 title winners, the Newcastle Jets.
Ask any fan of a rival A-League team to recite the names of the Jets’ championship alumni and he or she will rattle off the likes of Joel Griffiths, Andrew Durante, Mark Bridge and Jade North.
And while the club owed much to the performances of the above quartet, any dedicated Jets fans will also know the significant contribution of the side’s 2007/08 domestique Matt Thompson.
A right-sided midfielder, Thompson was asked by Gary Van Egmond to slot in to left back during the 2006/07 season.
In doing so, he firmly found his niche in the side.
He played all but a handful of minutes in the 2007/08 season, scoring two goals including the opener in the thrilling preliminary final win over Queensland.
The Jets’ opponent in the grand final – the Central Coast Mariners – had their own unsung hero within their squad.
A local lad, Andrew Clark has been at the club since the A-League’s inaugural season, racking up more than 50 appearances.
While he was an unused substitute in the 1-0 grand final loss, the 33-year-old played 19 times for the Mariners in their march to the title decider.
A model of professionalism, Clark’s influence has been recognised by supporters and at the club, where he is also the strength and conditioning coach.
Thompson and Clark are just some of the A-League’s domestiques.
The list of unsung heroes goes on.
Sydney had a number of them in its Season One success, while Rodrigo Vargas’ quiet effectiveness in Melbourne’s 2006/07 championship season was the perfect foil for the robust Kevin Muscat and makes him a clear candidate.
And making it past the Asian Champions League group stage would have been somewhat more difficult for Adelaide without the efforts of now-retired Richie Alagich.
2009/10 will, of course, usher in the expansion of the A-League through the inclusion of North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United.
Managers of both clubs are busy signing up their squads for their debut seasons.
Messrs Ferguson and Bleiberg could do worse – particularly given the restraints of the salary cap – than to consider the role of the domestique within their sides.
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sledgeross said | November 18th 2008 @ 9:44am | Report comment
My favourite is Sydneys Terry McFlynn. I really liked his blood and guts attitude from the very first A League game. I think he has really improved as a player as well, hes scored some great goals recently, and has improved his passing to go with his ferocious tackling.
jimbo said | November 18th 2008 @ 11:32am | Report comment
Cheers Paddy,
finally – a Roar football article that is not negative and doesn’t mention AU, the FFA or the A-League’s “crisis”!
How could I have mistaken you as an Anti-Soccer Hooligan for your ACL final article – you can’t be too careful these days.
There are a number of players in the A-League that you can count on as unsung heroes.
But there is another category that I think needs a special mention.
Those former Socceroos and overseas established A-League players that took a big pay cut to come back to Australia to play in the A-League to help the sport continue to expand. They put their love of the game and Australia ahead of the financial rewards – reversing the other trend and paving the way for others.
People like Paul Okon, Poppa, Moore, Tiatto, Aloisi and others who give more than the usual comittment to the game.
Greg Russell said | November 18th 2008 @ 12:18pm | Report comment
Domestique – what a fantastic and apt term.
Certainly in German football the importance of this type of player is widely recognized – one thinks of people like Dieter Eilts (who was so silently prominent at Euro 1996 that he made the tournament team) and, in more recent times, Torsten Frings.
Slippery Jim said | November 18th 2008 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
A lot of defensive midfielders fall into this category. Makelele was one for Chelsea, deserved to be a superstar, but as he was not in a flash position had to settle for the position being named after him. Sledgeross has already rightly mentioned McFlynn for SFC.
Pippinu said | November 18th 2008 @ 2:00pm | Report comment
As SJ says, the DMs tend to fall into this category (think Gattuso for Italy, Tiatto for the Roar?).
But I think we have our very own domestique in the NT, and he plays in the front half – who oh who might I be referring to?!
Ricardo Salgado said | November 18th 2008 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
Yeah, i agree almost in everything you said, that domestiques often are the ones that keep the team together, and they should be more appreciated for doing so, in this football modern times, football itself is more about showing off the new tricks and the odd personalities, it´s not like 20, 30 years ago that you could see a player playing for his home team all his life, because for them football wasnt just wags and money, it was dedication, sweat and love…
Brickowski said | November 18th 2008 @ 9:38pm | Report comment
That wouldn’t be Culina by any chance, Pipps?
Midfielder said | November 18th 2008 @ 10:14pm | Report comment
Wilkshere anyone
Pippinu said | November 18th 2008 @ 10:28pm | Report comment
People – the front half – I’m talking about everyone’s favourite player (NOT!)
dasilva said | November 19th 2008 @ 2:38am | Report comment
Good old Dukes. Perhaps the greatest technician Australian ever produced and yet he divides sporting opinion amongst football fans. 442 didn’t put him on top 25 players of all time. Neither did Rale Rasic put him in his XI. People then ram up about his goal scoring record for Australia and the same people talk up Scott McDonald. I have heard people saying that Aloisi, Djite, McDonald is a better player then dukes.We all want to talk about technical or more stylish football. We campaign for Nicky Carle with some South American flair to be incorporated to our team but then I hear the same people who advocate techinical football rubbish our finest technician like no others.
He add so much value to our system. Our maintanence of posession during the World CUp on the attacking half relied on him and lots of his good work goes unnotice. Only in Australia where our most technically gifted player is our “domestique “