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My lasting memory of the Socceroos’ failed World Cup campaign last night was a smiling Tim Cahill and a rather sombre Daniel Arzani chatting on the sideline.
There was Cahill, the oldest and most successful goal-scoring Socceroo at 38, and the third oldest in the Russian showpiece, chewing the fat with the youngest Socceroo, and the youngest footballer at the World Cup, at 19.
The past linking with the future.
I wondered how Ron Lord viewed the campaign, and how the late great pair of Johnny Warren and Les Murray would have seen it.
Lord, now 88, was the first soccer footballer I ever read about in the paper, long before television.
Sharing the same name was the only reason that caught my eye, and the fact we very nearly shared the same birthday – Ron the 25th of July, born in 1929, and a decade later mine, on July 13.
Our paths never crossed, which was very different to Johnny Warren and Les Murray, where we became great mates over many beers, and many years.
Both tried to convert me when soccer was better known as wog ball, prompting Johnny to write his best-selling book Sheilas, Wogs, and Poofters in 2002.
Johnny showed me the cover before it went into print, and he asked me what I thought of the title.
My answer was simple – “Johnny, you’re the only one who could possibly get away with it”.
And, of course, he did – big time.
I well remember Johnny Warren was one of the very few soccer players in the country during the mid-60s an Australian could pronounce.
Those were very different days to now, and a lot of the credit has to go to Johnny Warren and Les Murray, two of the most dedicated and passionate supporters the round ball game has ever had, especially over those formative years.
But both would have been bitterly disappointed with the Socceroos showing in Russia, despite the enforced changes in coaching from a hard to understand Ange Postecoglou pulling the coat to an interim caretaker Bert van Marwijk, before Graeme Arnold takes over.
Arnold is a modern day version of Johnny Warren, and Les Murray.
Goals are the currency of the trio, and that’s where these Socceroos lost out.
They shared 22 attempts in the three Group C games against France, Denmark, and Peru but could only come up with two penalties from the skipper Mile Jedinak.
Yet Tim Cahill, the Socceroos’ most prolific goal-scorer in his history with 50 – 21 more than the next best – played only the final 40 minutes last night against Peru and spent 225 minutes warming the bench in the three games.
The exciting Arzani spent a bit more time in the middle, but not nearly enough as he didn’t seem to slot in with van Marwijk’s plans.
Yet those plans didn’t work with the Socceroos filling last spot in the Group.
Warren and Murray would not have been impressed, van Marwijk’s way was not the Warren-Murray way.
One last memory of Johnny Warren.
He came into The Oaks at Neutral Bay, gave me and my son Andrew a big hug without a word, and died later that night.
Both are no longer with us, and a large slice of me died with them.