The Central Coast Mariners earned their stripes this season with a remarkable second placing in the national A-league competition.
As a result they are rewarded with a home-and-away semi-finals series against Adelaide United starting this weekend in Adelaide, followed by a home match in Gosford on Saturday May 20.
As a professional football club, they deserve to be in the finals series for a multitude of reasons; their consistency, their tenacity, their professional coaching, their dedicated fan support, their underdog spirit and their positive impact on the local community.
Coach Nick Montgomery has played no small part in the success of the team.
In this week’s pre-match interview he said: “All the boys are looking forward to the finals series.
“We’ve had some good performances, yet Adelaide are a very, very good team with good players and we’ll prepare as normal, and we will give them the respect we’ve always given them.”
Asked if there was a special finals strategy Monty said: “Nothing changes; we go out to attack and play games of football to win.
“At the start of the season we went out to get into the top six and to get second is amazing.”
CCN asked if he was worried that several players may be poached by other clubs.
“I can tell you that all those players in the dressing room are focused on the next two weeks,” he said.
In a somewhat surprising move the home-and-away series will have no away goals rule in place, meaning that if the combined scores over the two matches are even at the end of the game in Gosford, the match will go into extra time.
If still no result, penalties will follow to decide the winner.
Fans however should feel cautiously optimistic.
The Mariners thrashed Adelaide 4-1 in Adelaide just weeks ago and with a home ground match the team will have the advantage of the passionate support of local fans in the second game.
Whatever the result, the club’s football philosophy has paid off.
The Mariners deserve to be in the finals series due to their consistent performance, improvement and growth, quality coaching, underdog spirit, fan support and positive impact on the community and the sport.
They also deserve a massive home crowd for the semi-final match at Gosford’s Industree Group Stadium on Saturday, May 20.
The club is quietly hoping for a capacity crowd of 20,000 fans at the home semi-final to boost the team’s prospects of grand final chances.
Their dedication and accomplishments certainly make them worthy contenders for the ultimate prize in the league – a chance to play and win the 2022/23 Grand Final.
David Abrahams