Garang Kuol and Jacob Farrell. They are the two latest examples of the Central Coast Mariners’ famed production line, which has spawned the likes of Mat Ryan, Tom Rogic, Trent Sainsbury, Alou Kuol, Mustafa Amini, Bernie Ibini and Mitch Duke.
Teenage sensation Kuol, 17, has taken the A-Leagues by storm, catching the eye of European juggernauts Barcelona and Chelsea. Farrell, 19, has also been the subject of interest abroad.
Then there’s Josh Nisbet, Dan Hall, Max Balard and Harry McCarthy who have emerged from the club’s academy as the Mariners lead the way with youth development. It’s also yielding results on the field after Central Coast featured in the A-League Men finals series again last season, having reached the Australia Cup final.
And the secret behind it? People like Mariners legend Matt Simon.
“The key is having people like at the football club who make the youngsters understand what it’s like.” Mariners great and former captain John Hutchinson told KEEPUP.
“There is one guy there that maybe doesn’t get enough credit for what he does and that’s Matt Simon.
“I was a footballer growing up with Matty and this guy is a winner. He will run you over to win a game of football. He has no issues. He is the biggest gentleman off the field, which is surprising to some people because they just see this angry man on the field. Absolute gentleman and beautiful family.
When Mat Ryan was there, Trent Sainsbury, Mustafa Amini, Bernie Ibini, Mitchell Duke, the list goes on. We knew we couldn’t give them what Europe could give them in terms the intensity in training etc but what we could give them was the best environment as a pro footballer to challenge them and ourselves. Whether it be in life or football.
Simon is part of the furniture in Gosford, such is impact and longevity at the Mariners.
A Premiership winner and the club’s all-time leading goalscorer, the 36-year-old is gearing up for another season on the Central Coast.
“Matt Simon is that guy. We had some wonderfully experienced leaders when these kids were coming through,” Hutchinson, now head coach and technical director of El Paso Locomotive in the USL – the tier below MLS in the United States, added.
“One guy that flew under the radar when I was there was Mile Sterjovski. Incredible human being and another guy who had done everything and people forget about how good this guy was.
“He was almost for me the forgotten unbelievable Socceroo. Of course people talk about Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, they’re incredible footballers but sometimes we forget about someone like Mile Sterjovski, who had a great career. He came back to the Mariners. That’s why the Mariners are such a special club in terms of what they do.
“You need the right senior players which they do in Matty Simon. You need the right manager to give these kids a chance which they do in Nick Montgomery. Then you need the right environment and the club have gone back to that.
All power to them. They’re exciting to watch. They have games where they implode and lose and then they have games where you’re like ‘wow, that’s good football’.
Regaining their identity
Hutchinson knows the Mariners better than most. After all, he was there for the Central Coast’s inaugural season in 2005-06.
The Mariners’ all-time appearance maker felt Central Coast strayed from what made them so good. But they’ve rediscovered their identity under head coach Nick Montgomery.
Playing the kids, the Mariners have emerged as one of the entertainers in the ALM, while providing a pathway to the Socceroos… look at Kye Rowles and Mile Jedinak, Sainsbury, Ryan, Duke and Hutchinson before him.
The Mariners have also established a platform for young talent to make the move abroad – Rowles (Hearts), Miller (Hibernian), Alou Koul (Stuttgart), Jing Reece (AGF Aarhus) and Gianni Stensness (Vikings FK).
Hutchinson said: “The Mariners have always been that club who’ve given young kids an opportunity, even when I played for 10 years.
“When I was playing, if you look back at some of the young kids who came out of the Mariners at the time, we had some of the best footballers coming through.
“It’s a club that always nurtures the young players. It doesn’t matter who is coaching. Whether it’s Lawrie McKinna and we have a Mile Jedinak or it’s a Graham Arnold and we have a Tom Rogic on our hands. There’s so many players and I don’t want to name every single one because we’ll be here for a while.
The club have always been that club and I think at one stage, they tried to move away from that and lost their identity. I know coaching is sometimes the most fickle industry because you get sacked if you don’t get results. It is difficult but they’ve always been that club.
“I always believed, the Mariners attract the best talent because they know the club will play them.
“There’s are a lot of super-talented kids in that squad. We still have a home in central coast, so that’s our base at the end of the season and go back overseas.
I get to go watch them and I remember Jacob Farrell last season and I was like wow. Raw but this kid is going to be super. I don’t know how long he will be in the A-Leagues for. I think he is a super player and talent. He is one of six or seven kids that can make it.
“Every club have what they stand for,” Hutchinson continued. “We need big Melbourne Victory’s, Melbourne City and these clubs but we also need the Mariners.
“If you go back through the archives and see who’s created the most footballers that have gone overseas since the inception of the A-Leagues, I’m sure the Mariners are one of the top clubs.
“They are such an important club. I know it was easy when they were going through a bad patch to s*** on the club, but they are such a special club.”
You can watch these youngers in action, starting in round one of the 2022-23 A-League Men season against Newcastle Jets in the F3 Derby on October 8. BUY TICKETS
