He’s lifted the trophy with Sydney FC and Newcastle but Mark Bridge says winning the A-League championship with Western Sydney would mean far more.
The striker is determined to return the Wanderers to the pinnacle after they crashed out in the group stage of their Asian Champions League title defence on Tuesday.
The disappointing end to their continental campaign compounding a dismal A-League season.
At 29 Bridge knows he’s in the latter stages of his career and the nightmarish workload he’s had to endure this season has made him far more aware of his own fragility.
The Wanderers return from China, where they ended their ACL campaign with a 2-0 win over Guangzhou Evergrande, looking to rebuild their squad with a host of players set to exit the club.
The likes of Tomi Juric and Kerem Bulut are expected to sign elsewhere with the futures of Ante Covic, Mateo Poljak, Nikita Rukavytsya, Brendan Hamill, Iacopo La Rocca and Anthony Golec still up in the air.
Bridge says he’s confident the club will recruit well and says the benefit of an uninterrupted pre-season will set them up perfectly.
With no ACL next season they’ll also be able to focus all their attention on domestic matters.
The Wanderers have come so close to A-League championship glory making back-to-back grand finals in their first two years of existence.
Bridge has won the title with both the Jets in 2008 and Sydney in 2010 and scored in both grand finals.
Having claimed the Asian crown and the Premier’s Plate with the Wanderers he is now desperate to complete the trifecta.
“I’ve still got two more years left on my contract and I don’t know what my future will be after that and how my body will hold up,” Bridge said.
“So these next two years are very crucial and I’d like to go out with at least one championship with the Wanderers.
“Winning a championship with this club would definitely be more satisfying than any other club. It’s my home town and and my family and friends are still there.
“It’s actually killing me how successful we’ve been since we started, that we haven’t won it.
“So it’s something that not only me but everyone involved with the club next year will be aiming for and we’ll be aiming to get ourselves back in the Champions League.”
AZ_RBB
Guest
WSW are expected to announce a contract extension for Popovic tomorrow. Not that it matters much. But it's a good symbolic gesture.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Grand finals aside, tomorrow night might one of the biggest events Australian club football has ever experienced. MVFC fans might have been worried about the ticketing situation. But I'm quite sure it'll be at least 80% in blue.
langou
Roar Guru
Excellent stuff. If there's 20K sold already then they should have no problem getting to 30K. What a great weekend we have coming up.
SVB
Guest
Golec on his way is fantastic news. I never seen such a liability in my short time of supporting the Wanderers.
AZ_RBB
Guest
That's good stuff! Not much NRL on that night aside from a Sharks home game. They don't draw much anyways. The lattes will be flowing.
wanderingkooka
Guest
Email from Wanderers says Hamill has resigned for 2 years.
Franko
Guest
20k tickets sold for SFC v AU. Hoping they can reach the 30k mark by Saturday.....
cm
Guest
Yep good calls on all of these AZ.
AZ_RBB
Guest
We also need one or two of our youth players to step up. Aspro was immense in the back half of the season. He came up against some top quality opposition and did brilliantly. Kuzmanovski is another exciting talent. I say let him keep trying to be Ronaldo. We have enough players in Australia who toil hard and play by the book. Wouldn't hurt to produce a few flamboyant talents. I'm a big fan of Daniel Alessi as well but he struggled this season and I didn't see much from Perkatis either. Sotirio was decent and Fofanah has the technical ability to become a very good player. The club as a whole has a huge 5 months ahead.
cm
Guest
The 10 days off did wonders for the side. They looked very different to what we've been seeing over the course of the season. So as long as the recruitment goes alright I'm feeling relatively confident that next season will be a good one. No midweek games, no floating schedule, a full preseason. On the recruitment: Hamill has been signed I'm pretty sure. Golec is on his way apparently. Scott Jamieson looks close (yay, a fullback) And current dream big rumour is Jorge Valdivia.