The Central Coast Stands Up
This was a game which saw the people and the players of the Central Coast stand up and fight for their team. It was a game of high elation, tingling excitement and numbing exasperation. A thriller that burst into action in the second half after a cautious first half. A game for which the players should feel proud of their efforts and the supporters, almost 10,000 strong, should feel proud of their team.
Phil Moss recalled Eddie Bosnar to replace the injured Mickey Neill with Josh Rose resuming his usual role as left back. Sim started instead of Vernes; young Liam Rose made a rare appearance on the substitutes’ bench.
Brisbane pressed high from the outset, targeting John Hutchinson as the weak link. His first three touches were to misplace a pass, concede a foul, and then concede possession. Ten minutes in, and the crowd stood up for their Mariners and applause went round the ground and out on the airwaves. The players could not, yet, respond; they were struggling to stand up, only Caceres showed the skills to cope, and often resorted to desperate late lunges to try to win the ball. Sim and Bosnar quickly drew the yellow card from debutant referee Matthew Conger as their frustrations grew.
Simon had the first shot on target, for either side, but it was a soft effort, easily fielded by Jamie Young. And then Rose got the crowd to their feet with an explosive run down the left, turning back the years – not all that long ago – as he raced to the goal line but his cross came to nothing. It was a promising sign of things to come.
Young, who one trialled with the Mariners, losing out to Liam Reddy, then passed the ball out to Fitzgerald who smartly slipped the ball to Trifiro on the edge of the penalty area but his strongly hit shot did not have the width to beat the embarrassed keeper.
Simon picked up a yellow, his second late challenge, as he began to lose his cool at the way the game was going. Rose, after lovely work from Caceres and Trifiro, then burst away down the left again but Young was too good on the eventual cross.
The Mariners seemed to have worked their way back into the game, honours were beginning to even up when Brisbane took advantage of some bad luck and weak defending. A shot deflected off Anderson’s boot and fell for Solorzano who stepped past Rose’s feeble attempt at a tackle and beat Reddy to give Brisbane the lead.
As the teams went to the sheds you wondered if the Mariners, who have struggled to score goals all season, would find a way to score at least two goals. They could - and how!
The only change made by Moss was to swap the positions of Sim and Fitzgerald: Sim moving to his more natural left wing. The Mariners lifted and pressed forward and quickly won a real chance to equalise as Donachie was adjudged to have passed the ball back to Young in his penalty area. It seemed harsh but meant the Mariners had an indirect free kick directly in front of goal about fifteen yards out. The problem with an indirect kick is that the ball has to be passed to the next player to shoot and that always gives the defenders time to block the shot; almost certainly illegally but referees are rarely strong enough to enforce the rules even though this referee did make them take it twice. The shot was easily blocked. What the Mariners should have done, in hindsight, is treat the kick as direct, and take a shot, hoping for a deflection. At least it brought some humour to the proceedings.
A wonderful piece of skill from Caceres brought the Mariners level; controlling the play quite beautifully before caressing a cross for Bosnar to head home off the post. It was a goal of rare quality which had the crowd standing up again, in applause. Smoke drifted across the ground, I thought it might have been a flare, until I remembered we used to fire a canon when we scored. It has been a very long time!
Simon almost found Fitzgerald at the far post, a similar ball to that of Caceres, but it was just too long, and then Moss brought on Duke for Sim and the game exploded into life. Fitzgerald fired a strong shot which Young spectacularly parried; Duke’s first touch was a volley on goal from the rebound, Young again saved. Duke tried to force the ball home but was blocked and then Simon dug it out of the maul and banged it home. I haven’t felt such profound relief in a long time; this was the Mariners standing up for the Coast. I was just as elated as when Zwaanswijk drove a dagger into the heart of the Wanderers on Grand Final day. It meant so much to so many people.
Brisbane, though, are the nemesis of the Mariners at Bluetongue; over the years we have found it hard to put them away and it was the same today but they needed a broad slice of luck, another deflection going their way, and more inept defending as the Mariners elected to put the short Roux on the tall Donachie. The Brisbane man won the header but it deflected off Roux’ should into the net. Kim came on for the tiring Trifiro.
The Mariners were unbowed. Duke, stirring up the defenders like an outboard motor on Brisbane Water, intelligently carved them up with a forceful direct run and passed the ball to Simon who gave it a fierce wallop which Young, again, could only parry, and there was Kim to volley home with superb technique and put Mariners ahead again.
I really thought we could get another but Brisbane had other ideas and too easily carved open the defence on the left and Solorzano, despite three defenders in close proximity, turned the ball home from a yard out. It was soul destroying, and annoying, but the Mariners almost snatched the winner when Donachie had to head Duke’s bundled effort over the bar with Young nowhere.
I could easily criticise the defending today but I prefer to dwell on the joy and relief of seeing a Mariners side play with spirit and guts and stand up when it mattered. Rose got forward often, Fitzgerald was impressively lively, Duke provided a real spark and Simon, four goals in five games, showed he can never be underestimated but my MoM for a display that was all class and composure is Anthony Caceres.
