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A little over a year ago, Mark Milligan made a potentially risky choice to return from playing in Japan, to join Melbourne Victory in the hope of resurrecting his Socceroos aspirations.
We can be fairly certain that he sought council from Holger Osieck beforehand and, unlike what would probably have been the response from his predecessor Pim Verbeek, it seems more likely than not that Holger encouraged the move.
Milligan’s playing situation in Japan had become far from ideal. His club JEF United Chiba, playing in the Japanese second division offered him reasonably regular game time, but in more of a utility role, one he clearly stated at the time which he did not like.
Then came the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor fallout. The result was that both the J-League and second division were shut down for some months.
Despite not being directly affected by the disaster, it would have been a very frightening experience for Milligan and his young family and must have made him realise that it was time to begin looking elsewhere, especially if he was to realise his dream of playing his way into the Socceroo starting line-up before the 2014 World Cup.
Initially he put his toe back into A-League waters with a loan period at Melbourne Victory, a club then dealing with its 2011-2012 ‘Annulus Horribilus’ and desperately needing to shore up a very leaky defence.
It was not a happy time for the club and it must not have filled Milligan with great confidence to consider a more permanent move, especially based on what he was seeing on and off the field with Victory.
This period also coincided with what is generally regarded as the low point of the existence of the A-League; a failed World Cup bid, the Gold Coast United debacle, falling crowds and the FFA under attack from multiple directions. There must have seemed a great many reasons for Milligan to look anywhere but homewards to play.
However, just after his loan period at Victory, Milligan was given his Soccerooo chance against Japan in Brisbane, even if it was a bench replacement for an injured Mark Bresciano.
The opportunity was fleeting and although his subsequent sending off was a poor call by the Saudi referee, it seemed Milligan might have missed his best chance to impress.
So when Ange Postecoglou came knocking just a few months later it would have taken a considerable leap of faith for Milligan to sign up for a club that had only just finished its most over-hyped and under-achieved season.
Of course the attraction would have been, to some extent, the promise of what Ange could bring to the club and I am sure Milligan was drawn to the possibility of what Victory could be, rather than what it had most recently been.
Milligan’s reward for his calculated gamble has paid off in spades; a successful season with the Victory, cementing his place in the core of centre midfield but with licence to push forward and shoot for goal when the opportunity arises.
Milligan seemed to be instantly at one with the close-passing, fast breaking style of play that Ange brought to the club.
And so it was almost exactly 12 months after Milligan’s missed opportunity that he won his chance to redeem himself by playing in the return World Cup fixture against Japan. By playing regularly for Ange’s Victory, he had run himself into the sort of form that made it hard for Holger not to pick him again.
Winning a starting berth and then holding on to it over the 90 minutes that followed, it seems certain that Osieck had at last found the ideal defensive midfield foil to his more creatively focussed counterpart Bresciano.
The two World Cup ties that followed against Jordan and Iraq, where he held his position ahead of the injury recovered (and Premier League bound) Mile Jedinak, sealed the deal, and for now at least Osiek has found the Socceroos ideal midfield engine room.
So what does Milligan’s experience mean to other fringe Socceroos, including those who might have slipped off the radar, or others who for whatever reason, were never really on the radar? Players such as Matthew Spiranovic, Carl Valeri, David Carney, Alex Brosque, Erik Paartalu, Robert Cornthwaite, Aziz Behich and James Troisi, perhaps?
There are likely a great many others who also believe rightly or wrongly that if they were only given a chance to play regularly in a quality team under the regularly watchful eye of their national coach, they might just be able to get one of the 22 precious ‘golden tickets’ to South America.
One might also add to that list the currently club-less Socceroo Captain Lucas Neill and leading Socceroo Luke Wilkshire (seemingly out of favour at his current club Dynamo Moscow).
You could even add Bresciano to the second list; a season in the A-League may serve him much better in most ways (other than financial) than another year wasting his skills in an inferior Gulf league. And let’s not forget to mention this is a dream that no less the Harry Kewell is aiming to make a reality by joining Melbourne Heart.
The problem that many of these and other Socceroo aspirants have in this year leading into the World Cup, is that they are often playing sporadically in teams coached by those who have no interest in whether that player is a potential World Cup aspirant.
Of course we are not talking about those who are well entrenched in the starting line-ups of their clubs such as Tim Cahill, Sasa Ogenovski, Matty McKay and James Holland. And youngsters such as Robbie Kruse, Tom Rogic, Matthew Leckie and Tommy Oar are all far better off developing where they are and no-one would suggest they would be better served back home.
However, this is not the case for those playing at overseas clubs where they might or might not start a game depending on the quality of the rest of the team-sheet, or who happens to be coaching this month.
This is the hard reality of international club football. Can great players disappear off the Socceroo radar just because they get stuck behind a coach that plays them sporadically, or plays them in the wrong position? Too right; just ask Milligan.
But if the Australian players mentioned above and others want to fight their way into the Socceroo team to Rio, they need to do one of two things. Either be confident, determined and skillful enough to win their way into the team they are with (and hope they manage to get noticed), or strongly consider doing what Milligan did.
There is no doubt the A-League is maturing fast; clubs are appointing coaches who will play fast, modern, creatively focused attacking football. Even just three years ago, Postecoglou was unique in the way he wanted his team to play, whereas now, as we head towards season 2013-2014, there is barely a single A-League coach not starting to think outside of the ‘route one’ box.
We even have an A-League season that is being tailored to finish later to sync perfectly with players preparing to go to Rio. As we saw over the past two years, A-League teams are training and playing almost at European tempo but importantly without the massive number of (European season) games to play, giving plenty of time for recuperation and injury recovery.
Add that to the reality that a Spiranovic, Wilkshire or a Valeri is very likely to be seen as an on-field leader and an almost certain starter in any A-League team and you have an almost ‘perfect storm’ of opportunity for them to book their place on the plane to Rio.
When Milligan transferred to Melbourne Victory, many would have viewed his move as one where he was trying to move forward by going backwards, such was the way the A-League was then thought of.
The fact that this most certainly would not be the case now, says much about how far Australian football has moved forward in just the past 12 months.
It will be interesting to see over the next weeks and months how many expatriate Australian players take the leap of faith and come home to chase their World Cup dream; taking what might be called ‘the Milligan option’.
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