Some positive coverage for once (albeit with some whopping porkies in it)
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/football/a-league/grit-and-polish-its-all-looking-shiny-for-central-coast/2009/11/22/1258824628363.html
The best little club in the A-League is continuing to think big, and it's getting pretty hard to argue against the ambitions of Central Coast Mariners. On, and off, the field, they keep defying the odds. And silencing the critics.
If there's any justice in the world, the Mariners will be rewarded with a season-high crowd when they finally return home to Gosford on Friday night. For the past six weeks, because of resurfacing work at Bluetongue Stadium, they have lived out of their suitcases, and many expected them to be packing their bags in terms of the title hopes because of it.
But typical of the club, the team, and the coach, they weren't intimidated, they were inspired. Just one loss in five successive away games - although technically their match in Canberra against Adelaide United counted as a ''home'' fixture.
Three goals scored in Brisbane. Four in Melbourne. And on Saturday night, a record five-goal haul in Townsville. Lawrie McKinna fixed the big problem heading into the season - plugging a leaky defence. And he's found the solution to the other conundrum - scoring goals. Central Coast have comfortably the best goal difference in the competition, and with seven of their final 12 games on home soil, they could hardly be better placed.
Twice beaten grand finalists, and once minor premiers, the Mariners have consistently punched above their weight since the A-League began - their only real blemish being this year's tepid Asian Champions League campaign. But they haven't been getting much of credit, even though they generally come in about $200,000 under the salary cap. This season, they're two players short of the 23-man quota.
Every year, the Mariners are tipped to fail. Every year, they enjoy sticking it up the doubters. This season, Fox Sports analyst Robbie Slater predicted in his newspaper column they wouldn't make the top six. Every week, the column is pinned on the dressing-room wall. The Mariners have never lacked motivation.
What they have missed out on, of course, is a championship. They came close twice at the SFS, but lost out to Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets. The question now is can they go one better this season?
Criticised for lacking imports, McKinna took his chequebook overseas during the off-season. He went where he is most comfortable. A Scotsman, an Englishman and a Welshman have arrived. And a New Zealand international with a thick Glasgow accent. Plenty of eyebrows were raised, but Nicky Travis, Mike McGlinchey and Matt Crowell have shown they can pass the ball as well as any Brazilian. And they have tempered the Mariners' much-maligned long-ball style.
Getting stuck in, however, remains McKinna's mantra, and the beauty is he makes absolutely no apologies for it. As long as he's sitting on the bench, Central Coast will be a physical team. But they've added a bit more polish, and after some trial and error, it's starting to prove a lethal combination. Batter you, then bury you. North Queensland Fury discovered that on Saturday night. The Mariners took their chances with surgical precision.
Hopefully, it's whetted the appetite of the blue-and-gold army. Two ''home'' games in Canberra have lowered Central Coast's crowd average, but in Gosford attendances (8897) have been about the same as they've always been for the first three months of the season.
Traditionally, the Mariners pull their best crowds before and after Christmas, when holiday lettings on the coast fill up. Executive chairman Lyall Gorman is even more bullish than normal about the turnstiles clicking, starting with Friday night's match against Perth Glory.
''It's been six weeks since our last home game, but I'm sure the fans will be back,'' he says. ''We don't ever take our fans for granted, but the way the team's been playing, the way we've been scoring goals, it's an exciting brand of football now. The product is better than it's ever been.''
That it is. And with plans for a world-class academy and training centre at Tuggerah finally expected to be approved on December 9, Gorman says: ''I'm more optimistic about the future than I've ever been.'' So he should be.
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