Graham Arnold will be a special guest in Gosford this weekend as Central Coast Mariners’ 2013 Championship-winning side are honoured before Saturday’s showdown against Western Sydney Wanderers.
These two teams met in the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Final decider 10 years ago with Arnold orchestrating a 2-0 win over the Wanderers at the old Sydney Football Stadium (now Allianz Stadium).
Mathew Ryan was Central Coast’s goalkeeper that day and he has gone on to captain the Socceroos at a FIFA Men’s World Cup and play for Arsenal. Trent Sainsbury has spent time with Serie A giants Inter Milan, Anthony Caceres was once signed by Manchester City , Mitch Duke scored at Qatar 2022 and John Hutchinson has worked with Ange Postecoglou and coached in Japan and the United States.
Meanwhile, Mile Sterjovski is now head coach of Macarthur FC.
As Central Coast prepare for Saturday night’s reunion, ex-Mariners striker Daniel McBreen joined host Robbie Cornthwaite on The Players Pod.
In season 2022-23, you can listen to Robbie weekly on his new KEEPUP podcast – The Players Pod, with Robbie Cornthwaite. He chats to Labinot Haliti and Daniel McBreen on the 12th episode. Listen below or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Cornthwaite posed a question to McBreen to discuss the impact of Arnold, who guided the Socceroos to an historic last-16 berth at the World Cup, referencing Manchester City’s managerial maestro.
“People talk about Pep Guardiola and his impact on teams and his players going on to coach,” Cornthwaite said, with City assistant Mikel Artel guiding Arsenal to the top of the Premier League while ex-captain Vincent Kompany has Burnley on track for promotion from the Championship and Xavi is in charge of Barcelona, a feat that’s recently gone viral.
“There might not be too many at that reunion because most of you are all still involved in the game. Is that down to Graham Arnold or just footballing minds?”
McBreen replied: “The education we got from Arnie.
“Even the young guys. I remember at the time, I was in my mid 30s and I would say to the young boys – Maty Ryan, Trent Sainsbury and Oli Bozanic, all these guys… take this in.
Arnie was the best coach I had and I didn’t get him until I was 33. And that is no disrespect to any other coach that I had. Arnie just was the complete package for me as a manager.
“I just thought the knowledge he imparted on the game, the way he treated players, it felt like he cared about you. He would bring you in and talk you through scenarios as groups, as individuals.
The football education we got from him has really gone on and showed – I think it’s all the young guys who were part of that squad are still playing at a good level and have had good careers overseas.
“And a lot of the senior guys are coaching, if it’s not in the A-League or overseas, they have their own academies. Like myself, I’m working in television.
“I don’t think there’s many people really, if any, who aren’t involved in football at a high level giving back to the game itself. It’s testament to the coaching staff back then that they got that mindset into us.”
