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Is the A-League smallest club its most important? I am a Mariners supporter and this article will contain a degree of bias but, having said that, I think the Mariners are the most important club in the A-League.
Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United and Newcastle Jets come from traditionally strong football supported areas.
Roar and Perth Glory again have strong traditional links from the NSL days, as does the Wellington Phoenix.
Of the original eight teams plus Melbourne Heart and WSW, only the Mariners came from an area with no traditional football support.
In fact the Mariners started in a rugby league heartland.
The history of the Mariners media-wise is also interesting, no team has had so many negative articles from the traditional football media.
Starting with SBS openly questioning the wisdom of a Central Coast team pre-A-League, to the constant SBS attacks on coaching and style in A-Leagues one to five, hardly a week goes by when someone questions the crowd average even through Mariner crowds have always been around the middle of the teams in a season.
In spite of all the negativity, and with almost non-existence media coverage nor acknowledgement, an audacious plan was developed.
Determined pre-A-League, a training facility to get Australia’s best was considered essential and the club would be based on technical excellence; developing players to not only provide high quality cheap footballers but a revenue stream when on-sold overseas.
Since then, a private football school has been built and Australia’s first indigenous football academy has been developed, along with two academies – one on the Central Coast, the other in country NSW, all of these largely ignored by the traditional football media.
Many on the Coast wonder aloud if Sydney FC, Victory or WSW had achieved similar off field achievements would they have received almost no comment?
This is where and why I think the Mariners are by far the most important team in the A-League.
My reading of the tea leaves is the traditional media, especially SBS, don’t understand or accept the Mariners are not a traditional Australian football team.
In fact the Mariners are very different – no football background, no home end support like other teams.
The Mariners are a ‘Skippy’ team, with converts from rugby league and union still learning the game.
Being a Skippy team from a rugby league heartland, they should have failed. FFA support when compared to every other team has been minimal.
Somehow, with no money and Skippy fans, they have been the most successful.
FFA and football generally need to analyse the Mariners as they represent the areas football is not strong in.
The people of the Coast are not by nature football fans and this represents most of the country. Like many parts of the country, football was known on the Coast but was secondary to traditional sports such as league, union, and surfing.
How have the Mariners overcome the twin problems of not being in a football area and constant negative criticism from within many in the traditional football media?
Why is understanding this so important anyway?
It is important because the Mariners are breaking into the non-football community, something no other side has achieved and understanding how to break into the non-football community is essential for football to take its next step.
How the Mariners have achieved their success is equally important.
The Mariners clearly delineated a philosophy – we will build Australia’s best training facility, develop the best technical skills in Australia, and develop academies to support these desires.
The system has not only worked in keeping the club afloat but has also produced a number of players for the national side – Mat Ryan, Trent Sainsbury, Tom Rogic, Mustafa Amini and Mile Jedinak to name but a few.
The team with the least money, in a non-football community, has built football assets that other teams have not and all with little acknowledgement from the traditional football media.
The Mariners have shown selecting a philosophy is important and developing youth academies is important.
Most importantly, they are showing how to connect to the non-football community.
The Mariners can show FFA how to connect to the non-football community and this makes them very important, as is how to build and run football academies
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