Last week, Phil Moss began his final The Moss Pit column with the wise words that “in football you are only ever a phone call away from a life-changing moment”.
Last week, Phil Moss began his final The Moss Pit column with the wise words that “in football you are only ever a phone call away from a life-changing moment”.
Decisions regarding Graham Arnold in Sendai, Japan led to decisions regarding Phil Moss in Tuggerah, Australia, which ultimately led to an offer from Mossy (in beautiful Terrigal) that I simply could not refuse.
The opportunity to become Assistant Coach of the Central Coast Mariners, and to be formally welcomed back into the Club where my Hyundai A-League career began is something I am very proud of.
While my first full week as Mossy-s Assistant has been somewhat of a blur due to the fact I have been transitioning from my role with Northern NSW Football and the Emerging Jets Program – as well as completing the final phase of my pro-license – I have had some time to reflect on how rapt I am to be back involved with the Mariners.
Since I returned from my time as Assistant Coach at Wellington Phoenix I have been a Mariners fan. And living in Terrigal, I have picked up the Express Advocate each Friday morning looking forward to reading the thoughts of Phil Moss and Graham Arnold, and gaining a view of what life is like inside the Mariners camp.
Often the themes Mossy and Arnie wrote or spoke about were ones of ‘mateship-, ‘hard work-, ‘culture-, ‘community-, ‘professionalism-, ‘discipline-, and ‘family-. Of course, it-s natural that some people might question whether these messages reflect reality, but from what I have seen in my first week back with the Club I can confirm that these are ideals shared from the Head Coach right down to the kids we have coming in on work experience.
In the early years of the Mariners, we had a group of hard-working, blue-collar boys who punched above their weight to overachieve. These days, the Mariners are a consistent football machine, and the level of professionalism within the Club is something all our Members and supporters ought to be proud of.
Tonight we take on one of the glamour Clubs in the competition in the form of Melbourne Victory. After narrowly losing to Brisbane Roar on home soil in our last match at home in round 5, the challenge tonight is for us to return to winning ways against an opponent sure to be hovering around the pointy end of the ladder come the end of the regular season.
We hope to see a strong crowd out supporting the team tonight, and I can-t wait to take my seat next to Mossy, Andrew Clark and John Crawley, and commence the next phase of my personal football journey. Thanks in advance to everyone at the Club, as well as the fans of the Central Coast Mariners for accepting me back into the family!
