AFC Cup

[Tevor]

You were expecting Yorkshire weather? . If we can thrive in the tropical heat of East Asia, it should be a doddle for our boys.

No but still surprised how warm it is at night, brutal through the day it’s not even summer yet.

 

[nl.ryan]

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‘Business class? It’s not us’: Inside the Mariners’ 100,000km Asian odyssey​

They’ve flown almost three times around the world - all in economy class. The Mariners’ incredible AFC Cup journey is one of the best stories in Australian sport.

By Vince Rugari

May 3, 2024

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“When stuck in Kyrgyzstan due to flight cancellations, why not explore!” The Central Coast Mariners posted to Instagram while in Bishkek.

By his own admission, Mark Jackson is usually a terrible gift-giver. But last Christmas, which he spent apart from his family back in England, he happened upon the perfect present for his assistant, Danny Schofield, who accompanied him on his A-League coaching adventure. It was a world map printed onto a corkboard.

“It had loads of little pins with it,” Jackson said.

“I said, ‘There you go, we can see where we visit this year.’ Every time we come back from a country, I say, ‘Have you got any pins left?’”

He is surely down to his last few, now that the Central Coast Mariners’ odyssey through Asia is winding to a grand conclusion.

The AFC Cup is Asia’s second-tier club competition – this confederation’s answer to the Europa League – which the Mariners qualified for by finishing second on the A-League ladder last season. It has taken Jackson and his team to places they’d never imagined visiting, and one they all hoped to but never thought football would be the reason.

A few months ago, during the group stage, Jackson remembers one of his friends back home asking on the phone: “So who’ve you got next?”

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Central Coast Mariners coach Mark Jackson has overseen a remarkable season in the A-League and in Asia.

His answer: Bali United away. A blessing from the football gods.

“Getting off the plane, and seeing the environment ... a few members of staff at the front of the bus, particularly me and Danny, we kind of sat there with open eyes, looking at the traffic and the mopeds flying about and the craziness of that,” he said.

The team stayed in Ubud, the “spiritual” heart of the island, which is where Bali United’s stadium is located. A Mariners tour group of around 50 supporters and sponsors stayed in Seminyak and were on the way to the stadium when they discovered they couldn’t take alcohol inside, so they made a quick stopover and drank as much as they possibly could. When they got there, one particularly affected member of the party wandered off and couldn’t be found after the match. The bus had to leave without him. Fortunately, he resurfaced the next day.

The players successfully managed to keep their focus on the football. That was until just before kick-off, when a blanket of thick smoke began to settle over the stadium from local burn-offs. It was a critical match, and they suspected deliberate sabotage from the locals. “Whether that was planned, I don’t know,” Jackson said. “It was not only humid, but very smoky as well … but the lads came through it well, because they had that focus on the game, and we didn’t get distracted. We’re there for business.”

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The Mariners lifted the A-League Premiership on Wednesday night – the first trophy in their bid for a historic Australian treble.

It got hairy in Terengganu, Malaysia, when football director Matt Simon and team manager Darren Dobson were going for a late night walk searching for a convenience store when the latter – head down, following the map on his phone – stumbled into an open-air drain pit along the side of the street and fell into a four-metre deep pool of mud and slush. There was genuine fear for his life.

“I’ve jumped over it, and I’ve just heard ‘Dobbo’ gave a bit of a yelp,” Simon said. “I look back and saw him hit his arm and his head on the face of this gutter. The sound that he made when he hit the concrete ... it was a pretty scary moment, actually.”

The next stop on the Mariners’ magical mystery tour is also the last. On Sunday (2am Monday AEST) they will play in the final in Muscat, the capital of Oman, against Al Ahed, a team from Lebanon with alleged links to Hezbollah. Yes, that Hezbollah. This is the sort of madness only football can dish up and Asian football specialises in.

The Mariners jumped on their squillionth flight of the season late on Thursday, the day after sealing the A-League Premiership with a 2-0 victory over Adelaide United. That game was delayed by a few days because a flood at Dubai airport, of all places, meant they were unable to leave Kyrgyzstan as planned after their semi-final win against FC Abdysh-Ata Kant.

Stranded in Bishkek for two extra days, they made the most of it and asked their local fixers to arrange a bus so they could explore the mountains. Some players saw snow for the first time. For an Englishman like Jackson, snow is old hat, but as a coach, all that time on the road together, in hotels and departure lounges across Malaysia, Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan, has been invaluable from a bonding perspective.

“I’ve been on a lot of trips as a player and a football manager ... you go to a hotel, you go to a training ground, back to the hotel, a stadium, and back on the plane,” Jackson said. “To see a little bit of the country was really good. Football puts you in a privileged position. We get to see the world. And we get to play football as well.”

By the time they return to Australia after the final, they will have travelled roughly 100,000 km, which is almost three times the circumference of Earth. And that’s not even including the weekly demands of the A-League, which are tough enough on their own. They’ve flown economy class the whole way, too, and nobody has complained. “Business class? Honestly, it’s not us,” Simon said.

The AFC Cup has added 13 extra games to their schedule, and if the Mariners happen to reach the A-League grand final later this month, they’ll notch 44 matches in all competitions – a volume and rhythm that begins to resemble what teams do in Europe every season.

It has been 10 years since the Western Sydney Wanderers beat Al Hilal to win the AFC Champions League; no team since has made it past the round of 16, a period that has coincided with the A-League’s civil war for independence and subsequent financial decline. As a result, the gap between Australian clubs and the top end of Asia’s food chain – the booming Saudi Pro League and Japan’s ever-impressive J.League – has never been bigger.

But the AFC Cup always looked winnable on paper for an Aussie team, given they would only play against clubs from lesser-regarded Asian nations – and so it has proved for the Mariners. In any case, this tournament will cease to exist after the final, to be replaced next season by the creatively named “AFC Champions League 2” as part of reforms designed to improve elite club football in Asia.

Many A-League club owners hate playing in Asia because it comes at a huge cost. The AFC does provide a subsidy, but, for Australian sides, it doesn’t cover their expenses because it’s not calculated based on distance travelled. So rigid are the rules that they received $40,000 for the gruelling 240km round trip from Gosford to Campbelltown for a knockout clash with A-League rivals Macarthur FC.

Had they not reached the final, Mariners chairman Richard Peil estimates the AFC Cup venture would have resulted in a net $300,000 loss. If they win it, they will bank US$1.5 million ($2.3m) in prizemoney as well as boosting Australia’s AFC coefficient and the flagging reputation of the A-League across Asia.

Peil would have been happy to take the hit because it would have been money spent on the same thing he got into football to do in the first place: help players get better. And that brings us to the truly special part of the Mariners’ journey. Fairytale winners over Melbourne City in the last A-League grand final, they were gutted in the off-season. Coach Nick Montgomery departed for Hibernian FC in Scotland, and five regular starters – Jason Cummings, Sam Silvera, Nectar Triantis, Marco Tilio and Beni Nkololo – seized transfer opportunities. Such is the price of success in the Australian game.

They lost their first four games of the A-League season, which amounted to their worst-ever start, and fans were calling for Jackson’s head. Parachuted into the job on the recommendation of Montgomery, a close friend, his last job was at MK Dons and it was a disaster: they were relegated to England’s League Two and he was sacked. Not many liked the look of this appointment on paper. Supporters wanted an Aussie coach instead.

But the Mariners stayed the course, and look at them now: on the cusp of a remarkable and unprecedented Australian treble, with one trophy down and two more to go. And they’ve done it, once more, in their own style. They’ve regenerated their squad through shrewd foreign signings – even the shock loss of Colombian import Angel Torres, who has been stood down after being charged with aggravated sexual assault, hasn’t knocked them off course – and by backing in talented local youth players who weren’t getting opportunities at other clubs. Again.

They’ll probably have to do it next season, too. And they’ll probably find a way.

The Mariners don’t really know what they’re up against in the final; sourcing match footage of their opponents has been easier said than done, but they’ve found enough to just understand what Al Ahed are about. If they win, Peil reckons it will validate what he said what he took over the club two-and-a-half years ago: that the A-League should forget about spending big money on “proven” players because a more prosperous future lies in youth development.

“If you knew how many players from other clubs, particularly the big clubs, contacted our club in the off-season wanting to come to the Mariners, you’d be blown away,” he said. “‘We only want $700,000.’ We don’t pay that. It’s not what our club’s about. You don’t have to spend $9 million a year to be competitive.”

Jackson believes the Mariners have set the blueprint for the rest of the A-League.

“If I was at another club, and I was looking at the Mariners, I’d be thinking, ‘OK, what are they doing? They must be doing something right,’” he said.

“It’s credit to the staff and the people who are around the club. Although we haven’t got all of the money in the world, what we do have is people who want to think outside the box a little bit, and think a little bit differently.”

I hadn’t even noticed that 😬

 

[nero]

Will do I’m in Muscat, and it’s pretty warm even at night.

Seems every year they film the team we win major trophies. RP should hire them full time

 

[Corsair]

Match Officials confirmed for AFC Cup™ 2023/2024 Final

Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed that Omar Mohamed Ahmed Hassan Alali will take charge of the highly anticipated AFC Cup™ 2023/2024 Final between Al Ahed FC and Central Coast Mariners FC at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat, Oman on May 5, 2024.

www.the-afc.com

An all Arab refereeing and VAR (err hang on.... we've had no VAR in this comp?) contingent for our 2am game....

 

[scoober]

Match Officials confirmed for AFC Cup™ 2023/2024 Final

Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed that Omar Mohamed Ahmed Hassan Alali will take charge of the highly anticipated AFC Cup™ 2023/2024 Final between Al Ahed FC and Central Coast Mariners FC at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat, Oman on May 5, 2024.

www.the-afc.com

An all Arab refereeing and VAR (err hang on.... we've had no VAR in this comp?) contingent for our 2am game....

Arabs will look after their own (no offence anyone)

 

[Wombat]

No but still surprised how warm it is at night, brutal through the day it’s not even summer yet.

Tevor,
We are all jealous brother.
Can you give us a bit of a blog about the city and facilities etc please.
Thanks

 

[LFCMariners]

A mate said Gosford RSL is showing the game tomorrow morning. Is that the only live venue on the coast, or is CCLC open/ showing it too?

 

[shipwreck]

All eyes on the AFC Cup final, looks like we are playing Sydney or City when we get back.

 

[Emeriners]

Je viens de voir sur Twitter que l'arbitre de lundi est 🇦🇪. Une finale contre un club 🇱🇧 en 🇴🇲 avec un arbitre 🇦🇪. Qu'en penses-tu ? I would have prefered a more neutral ref in a more mid distance country but no matter what, we are cooking🫡🤞🏻

 

[marinermick]

A mate said Gosford RSL is showing the game tomorrow morning. Is that the only live venue on the coast, or is CCLC open/ showing it too?

CCLC has advertised they are showing it as well but I think they missed the boat by advertising too late. I know some going no to to the RSL.

I know a few of my West Ham mates are going in at 11pm to watch Hammers v Chelsea.

 

[Corsair]

All eyes on the AFC Cup final, looks like we are playing Sydney or City when we get back.

If Sydney and M City make it through then it'll be City we play. In fact if it's anyone and City then we play City in the Semi.

 

[Ironbark]

Massive and exciting day for the club and fans

Nervous about how I'm going to feel at work tomorrow, and about the potential for 'bias' in the officiating, but can't wait

 

[shipwreck]

If Sydney and M City make it through then it'll be City we play. In fact if it's anyone and City then we play City in the Semi.

Lol yes exactly..

 

[nero]

Lol yes exactly..

I'll be honest. I want to play Sydney so we can beat them when it counts.
We beat them by ending higher on the table, now I want to see us eliminate them from the finals.

 

[MrCelery]

CCLC has advertised they are showing it as well but I think they missed the boat by advertising too late.

Well, that's a surprise.

 

[pjennings]

'Why not us?': Mariners on the hunt for AFC Cup glory

The Central Coast Mariners are seeking to become just the second Australian side to lift an Asian trophy when they face Lebanon's Al Ahed.

thewest.com.au

 

[pjennings]

Trust the process: Mark Jackson hails Mariners' togetherness after shaky start

Mark Jackson calls it the “bombshell moment”, when he announced to his family that he’d accepted a job offer on the other side of the world. Seven months on since the Englishman took over the Mariners, it feels like the bombshells haven’t really stopped coming.

www.footballaustralia.com.au

 

[Josho Howe]

If ever you were gonna chuck a sickie, tomorrow it is

 

[Big Al]

If ever you were gonna chuck a sickie, tomorrow it is

Nah. Need to tell them all how good it was to win it and then they won’t wake you when you fall asleep after lunch because they will be sick of hearing us talk about it

 

[Hello Sailor]

Bottom line.....Arabs are naturally dodgy......same as Cockneys.......give them an inch and they will take two. So we have to be VERY Alert to the officials this AFC final.

Sheesh! Baksheesh?