Central Coast Mariners: from peak farce to A-League summit

How about them “South Coast Mariners”? The A-League club which made such an impression on new consultant Harry Redknapp he could not quite recall their name.

“It’s the South Coast Mariners … they asked me if I would do a bit as an advisor,” the English manager told talkSPORT radio in May 2016. The Mariners had just claimed the wooden spoon, finishing 12 points adrift and with a total three wins and 13 points from 27 games.

Executive vice chairman Peter Storrie, one of Redknapp’s former West Ham colleagues, had done the wooing and chief executive Mike Charlesworth expected him to visit the Central Coast at least twice during the season and possibly also in the off-season. “No, no,” Redknapp said. “I won’t be going. It’s a long way – 30-odd hours on a plane.”

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How about those Mariners? The team which used to do so much with so little but had slipped into comedic areas and reached the peak of peak A-League. How about the 70 goals conceded in 2015-16 under Tony Walmsley, an unenviable record that got him the sack?

How about the 4-1 loss to Perth Glory on New Year’s Eve of 2018 remembered not for the unfortunate scoreline but the image of two portable training goals being wheeled onto the field after a goal post on one of the originals snapped mid-match?

How about Usain Bolt, the champion sprinter with the first touch of a trampoline who came but did not conquer? How about the home defeat to Wellington Phoenix that ended with an 8-2 scoreline and another sacked coach in Mike Mulvey?

Now there is none of that. Gone is the drama and the farce and the toy rifles smuggled into stadiums by small children. In its place, finally, is some football. This season, under Alen Stajcic, is the first time the Mariners have back-to-back league wins since December 2017. It is their best start since their title-winning campaign of 2013-14 of the Graham Arnold era. Five wins and two losses from the opening seven games seems scarcely fathomable, their 15 points to date utterly incongruous with those 13 gleaned from entire season some five years ago.

Each week, A-League observers with a keen sense of history wait for it all to come crashing down, for natural order to resume. Except that it does not, and the football keeps coming. There is still the small matter of the club’s perennially imminent sale the still-empty promise of a budget big enough to climb up off the salary cap’s floor.

Still, how about 19-year-old Alou Kuol, whose mere presence on the field makes magic happen, and whose brace off the bench against Western United on Sunday – his fourth and fifth goals from seven outings this season – won the game 3-2 and restored the Mariners’ spot at the top of the table, and whose name is now talked about as an Olyroos candidate for the Olympics?

How about Danny De Silva’s return to form, and the energy of Josh Nisbet, Jordan Smylie and Daniel Bouman? That tired “give youth a chance” refrain so often trotted out when money is tight, recruitment poor and injuries plentiful has suddenly taken on a prettier hue.

And what about Matt Simon doing things the way he used to back when the club’s winning culture made for premierships, championships and regular finals appearances. He has always been the serial pest opponents love to hate and hate to love, only the Wizard of Woy Woy of 2021 is producing his special kind of sorcery surrounded by some other magic. Last week the club talisman marked his 200th A-League appearance with an assist and penalty goal to help Central Coast to a 3-2 comeback win over Melbourne City. He was chaired off the field by teammates, then cried as he embraced his young daughter, who was born prematurely and to whom he dedicated his display. Days later the 35-year-old opened the scoring against Western United to lay the foundations on which Kuol would build.

According to United coach Mark Rudan, Stajcic is actually the resident practitioner of the paranormal. “He’s a magician as far as I’m concerned – he’s turned the place around again,” Rudan said before his side’s loss. “It’s funny [the media] mentioned [the Mariners are] walking on water because right now you’d think Alen Stajcic is Jesus, because he’s done a fantastic job with them. We all know the fantastic job that he did with the Matildas as well.”

Afterwards, Stajcic himself was more pragmatic. “There’s no magic, the magic is hard work,” he said. “When you put the hard work in sometimes you get rewarded, and we’re in a moment now where the hard work we put in over the pre-season is paying off. The best part is it’s instilled some belief and confidence.”

Nothing to write home about, in other words. No slapstick or circuses, just football.