Okon's departure triggers Mariners to firm their identity
By Dominic Bossi - SMH
23 March 2018 — 5:48pm
The margins have always been fine on the Central Coast and that’s why one player signing became the undoing of Paul Okon’s tenure at the Mariners - the $320,000 failed investment on Spanish striker, Asdrubal.
The thrifty Mariners pegged all their goalscoring hopes on the expensive signing of Asdrubal, brought in to replace Roy O'Donovan after the Irish marksman was ruled out of Okon's plans for the season. While O’Donovan hit the back of the net 11 times with limited service, Asdrubal netted only twice despite being offered greater support. After just 16 games, he was in the departure lounge of Sydney International Airport headed back to Spain for family reasons.
Expensive lesson: Asdrubal (centre) was the catalyst of Okon's departure and the Mariners quest to rediscover their principles.
Expensive lesson: Asdrubal (centre) was the catalyst of Okon's departure and the Mariners quest to rediscover their principles.
Photo: AAP
His departure left the Mariners rudderless in attack for the second half of the season, Okon without funds for a Plan B and the team headed back towards the bottom of the table. Now again looking for a leader in uninspiring times, the lessons of Asdrubal will shape the Mariners' immediate future.
Like Okon, the new coach will be given just 90 percent of the salary cap to spend - the minimum allowed. In real terms, that amounts to about $2.6 million. No marquees, no use of salary cap exemptions. Those strict parameters were made clear to Okon during the ill-fated meeting on Tuesday, along with one condition the two parties did not agree upon, understood to be the hiring of a technical director.
That condition became clear the week previously, when chief executive Shaun Mielekamp was in Europe with chairman Mike Charlesworth on a “fact-finding mission". That took them to Aston Villa, Sheffield United and Partizan Belgrade as they sought to expand their scouting network, establish pathway partners and learn how to reforge their youth development structures.
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Throughout Charlesworth’s reign, the latter crumbled as the club’s philosophy has always hinged on that of the coach. Of all the criticisms directed at the chairman, the biggest is the diminished core values of the club. When the Mariners previously found success despite running on the fumes of an oily rag, they did so because of their identity.
“When you look at the monetary side of things, there's becoming a wealth gap. We're a regional club, we haven't got the money, so for us it's about structure, about character, and about culture,” former coach Graham Arnold told Fairfax Media back in 2011.
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They couldn’t always afford grounds keepers yet the Mariners went on to win the 2012 premiership and the 2013 grand final. When that culture was eroded, the fall from grace began. In 2014 they finished 3rd before slumping to 8th, 10th, 8th-placed finishes in subsequent years and are now battling to avoid the wooden spoon.
While spending will remain at a minimum, the club has been forced to look inwards to rediscover its strengths. As Mielekamp says, the club must sharpen its “due diligence” around its operations.
Alongside appointing a technical director, they are set to allocate more funds to domestic scouting, more on reconnaissance of foreigners and had more been done there, they would have likely discovered Asdrubal was not the right fit.
Already, products of their two academies - in Central Coast and Sydney’s north shore - are now training with the first team while ties with local football are being strengthened. By the start of next season, the Mariners can boast the most tangible connection with supporters in Australian football with the introduction of one board seat reserved for a supporter elected by members.
When their new coach takes the helm, they will have the foundation of the purpose and professionalism laid by Okon. On top of that, they will take control of a club that has a better understanding of itself
