The ISUZU UTE A-League season commences on Saturday evening, October 8, at Central Coast Stadium and Mariners coach Nick Montgomery is promising fans a hard fought and passionate F3 Derby match.
Speaking with CCN at the Mariners Area of Excellence this week Monty spoke enthusiastically about the continuing momentum in the team and at the club more broadly.
“Exciting times ahead, it’s been a long pre-season for the boys and we can’t wait to get started.
“We have the youngest team in the league and some of the fittest.
When asked about losing key players such as leading goalkeeper, Mark Birighitti and rising star, Garang Kuol, the gaffa said “Football’s football, some players come and go and that’s the beauty of it”
There’s a definite feel at the club that the team has momentum from last season and Monty said the team will continue to build on that in the coming season.
“Momentum is a beautiful thing – in the pre-season, I said to the boys we’ve had some really good results and now we have to take that into the season.
“Although competition is competition, and the moment you cross that white line it’s game on.
“Hopefully we’ll have ten thousand plus fan at the stadium cheering on the mighty Mariners on this weekend
“We’ve developed a great team culture from last year after many wrote us off and we defied the critics … we only just fell short.”
When asked about veteran Matt Simon retiring Monty said:
“What a fantastic career he has had, [he] crossed over to ‘the dark side’ (Sydney FC) for a while though he came back and saw the light and, to be honest he epitemises everything good in this club and that’s Matty Simon, a big guy with a big heart.
Montgomery also sang the praises of the club employing a series of ex international football legends like Andy Bernal to mentor and guide the young players.
Bernal a 21 cap Socceroo has been given the title of Vibe Manager and is a constant presence at the club keeping everybody focussed and rolling out new internal training projects including a new recovery centre complete with ice baths, saunas and motivational music and reading.
The new ownership structure also seems to have bought a whole new culture to the smallest club in the league.
New owner, Richard Peil, has vowed to invest in the whole club including the Academy and to push to get an A-league Women’s team up and running … and his plans seem to be working.
The Academy is one of the most successful academies in the world currently ranking at number 17 according to senior coaching staff.
For the opening game of the A-League season, Monty was keen to get fans to the stadium saying “why not come along, get off your chairs, get out of your houses and come and support the club and this young exciting team”.
The F3 Derby kicks off the season at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday evening at the family friendly time of 5pm.
Organisers are encouraging football fans and Mariners supporters to purchase tickets or memberships before the game as they are expecting a big crowd.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting rain on Saturday evening, and undercover seats are expected to be full as a result.
David Abrahams