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Opinion
Nick Montgomery steering his Central Coast Mariners side to the A-League grand final on a shoestring budget is one of the most remarkable success stories in the competition’s history.
Montgomery missed Central Coast’s 2013 grand final win through suspension, which is perhaps why he looked so relieved to see his battling Mariners outfit come through their 2-0 win over Adelaide United on Saturday unscathed.
The Leeds-born, naturalised Aussie is as combative a coach as he was a player – yet he’s also proven himself to be one of the shrewdest tacticians in the league.
And on a glorious night when 20,059 fans crammed into every single seat at a sold-out Industree Group Stadium in Gosford, we got a much-needed reminder of why we love the A-League.
Kudos to Adelaide United, who took the game to their hosts and came desperately close to opening the scoring on the break when Ben Halloran cut the ball back for Zach Clough to shave the outside of the post with a first-time volley.
We can only wonder how different the complexion of the tie might have been had Clough’s well-struck effort flown in, but the truth is the Reds were outclassed over the two legs.
And any doubts about the effectiveness of Jason Cummings – not that there should be for a player who has scored 17 goals and chimed in with five assists so far this season – were surely dispelled by his star second-half performance in Gosford.
It may have been the industrious Josh Nisbet who won back possession on the halfway line in the build-up to Central Coast’s opener, but it was Cummings’ turn-of-speed that saw him outpace Ben Warland and lay the opening goal for Sam Silvera on a platter.
Mariners coach Nick Montgomery. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
And the Mariners reeled off a classic one-two punch and put the tie to bed when the equally effective Marco Tulio raced clear four minutes later, only to see the hapless Warland deflect Tulio’s cross back towards his own goal.
Joe Gauci did well to claw out Warland’s interception, but the quick-thinking Tulio simply threaded the needle and placed his follow-up effort between the Adelaide custodian and the near post.
It sparked bedlam in the packed stands and saw the Mariners confirm their spot in the grand final against Melbourne City in a fortnight’s time.
How good was it to see more than 20,000 Mariners fans going absolutely wild in Gosford? It’s been years since we’ve seen the stadium heaving like that!
And while it’s invariably worth pointing out that we could have these scenes every single week in the A-League if supporters chose to turn up, that shouldn’t take away from the feel good factor of watching the competition’s smallest club battle their way to the decider.
The contrast between the Mariners and the nouveau riche that is Melbourne City couldn’t be starker.
City were clinical in their 4-0 demolition of Sydney FC on Friday night, even if they were helped by Max Burgess’ deserved red card for a horror tackle on Marco Tilio.
The Sky Blues weren’t helped by the absence of key wingers Joe Lolley and Robbie Mak and their resistance was as good as over as soon as Burgess saw red.
Even so, it was still a devastatingly effective performance from Rado Vidosic’s men – and they’ll take some stopping in the grand final on June 3.
Vidosic, like Montgomery, probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He may have inherited a winning team from his predecessor Paddy Kisnorbo, but that doesn’t make Vidosic’s achievement in steering City to a fourth straight grand final any less impressive.
What is less impressive is the fact we now have to wait two weeks for the decider on the back of the Australian Professional League’s calamitous administration of the game.
The less said about the APL, the better.
Saturday night was the perfect advertisement of why we fell in love with the A-League in the first place, and a powerful reminder of what football could be if it actually looked after its own fans.