To say it’s exciting to be involved in football on the Central Coast at this very point in time is an obvious understatement. We’ve got the champions of Australian football on our doorstep, a football college opening and doubling in size in just one year, a Centre of Excellence not replicated in Australia and, how could we forget, the Socceroos progressing to the World Cup. Wow! Doesn’t get much better and here’s some stats to back it up. With two months remaining until our Mariners meet Western Sydney in the Round One blockbuster, memberships are over 3300, less than 200 off last season’s total for the year, edging us closer to our 5000 target. As Roy & HG would say “Go you good thing”.
How about our very own Central Coast Sports College which started off with a respectable 76 students only six months ago, now sits at 116 students in term 3 and looks like starting term 1, 2014 with approximately 180 students. Do Mt Penang Gardens know what they’re in for?
The success of Arnie’s men last season combined with the Socceroos World Cup qualification could be seen as the main contributors to this growth, but I think it’s been a joint effort between the boys out in the community and the teams behind the scenes as well. Whenever I’m in the Mariners or IFS offices it’s always all hands on deck. To Mariners memberships, marketing and sponsorship, media, merchandise and football operations I say, keep going, it’s all coming together. At IFS, Paul, Laura and Julie are leading from the front and have a fantastic team which is getting the job done.
It is also great to see our local Central Coast celebs jumping on board as members to raise support for our team. We have our first MasterChef, Julie Goodwin, on board (I can smell a Mariners Cookbook brewing), Liesl Tesch, our Australian representative for basketball and sailing and Troy Waters, who also does a great job keeping our A-League boys fit. It’s always good to know we’ll win the biff. Danny and Nath from SeaFM, who keep the boys on their toes with early morning interviews and one of my own heroes, Mark Waugh. My mum tells me she has served Mark Waugh and his wife Kim (a celeb in her own right with horse training) at the DJ’s fine fragrance counter and I still picture him in his all whites. Nothing looked like it ever rattled him, something I try to live by.
This week at IFS, Julie asked me to assist Andre with the year 5 and 6 students, a move which could see me with the younger age groups on a more permanent basis. Apart from feeling privileged to work alongside someone so passionate about development, it reminded me of the early Mariner days when Andre and I roomed together for three years. It’s fair to say I know Gumpsy quite well and even though we act like an old married couple sometimes, we have the ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine down pat. I’m sure the kids will work out who is who quite quickly.
In the Mariners camp, Arnie and the coaching staff have now moved from pre-hab to football training (tactical). In layman’s terms, they are stepping it up and getting serious (no more tennis tournaments). Soon, the games will begin, literally, more than ten good hit outs will be played before the October 12 grand final replay, so stay tuned for all the team’s upcoming trials. This is the type of preparation that gives A-League teams the best chance of early success.
In off-field news, there are only a couple of club nights left and a big thank you to all the local clubs that hosted the players. A lot of effort goes into the organisation of the evening and it is certainly appreciated. A special mention to the Terrigal club. Beef curry, potato bake, Asian noodle salad and mars bar slice are not the norm, but it does make the players stay longer on the wintery nights. Good thinking!
Finally, it was great to see the Mariners Mates program relaunch for season nine. For those unsure how it works – kids 16 and under, who are registered to play football on the Central Coast, can access all Mariners home games at Bluetongue Stadium for just $10 – that’s about 70 cents per game! Best yet, $5 from each Mariners Mates Membership goes back to the player’s local club as revenue which supports football on the Coast. This is the link if you need more info: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/centralcoastmariners/news-display/Mariners-Mates-is-back/72567.
Catch you in a couple of weeks.
Browny
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