This was published 11 months ago
‘You find out who your real friends are’: What it’s like to be a coach under fire
By Vince Rugari
Graham Arnold will never forget how it felt. A little over a year ago, as the Socceroos missed out on direct qualification for the World Cup, his job was on the line. Critics wanted him gone; the federation was briefing against him. The pressure so was immense, even his family was hurting.
Football Australia had a choice: stick or twist. They stuck, and the rest is history.
Steve Corica and Graham Arnold together during the latter’s days as Sydney FC coach.Credit: Getty
It might turn out the same way for Steve Corica. Earlier this year, Sydney FC endured a woeful start to the A-League season, having missed the finals for the first time in five years the season prior. Rumours swirled that the club’s board was considering a coaching change. Dwight Yorke was even being touted as his replacement. But the Sky Blues backed him in.
Few would have predicted that they would be where they are now: just one game away from a fourth grand final appearance in five years.
Except Corica, of course.
“I had no doubt that we would be in a good position to give this a crack once we got everyone back,” he told this masthead.
Adam Le Fondre celebrates his goal in the first leg of Sydney’s semi-final with Melbourne City.Credit: Getty
“Everyone says it’s been up and down season. I would say the first 13 games have been up and down. But if you look at the last 13 games, we’ve been very consistent – we were two points behind Melbourne City over the last 13 games. It’s just that people talk too much, and they don’t actually do their research.”
That, right there, is an insight into what Arnold describes as Corica’s inner “mongrel” – the drive and determination that has enabled him to endure the scrutiny that naturally comes with life as a head coach, to block out the noise, and come out the other side unscathed.
Arnold has been with him almost every step of the way – first as his boss, during his own five-tenure in the Sydney FC hotseat, but more recently as his mentor, guiding him from afar through this season’s rocky terrain with little pieces of advice, and random messages of encouragement via text.
“You find out who your real friends are,” Arnold said. “We have conversations. Me and Sarah [Arnold’s wife] caught up with Stevie and Sandra when he was going through the tough times, we’d go catch up for lunch or a beer. The girls talk about how hard it is on the family and the kids, when you’re copping all this shit.
Graham Arnold has been down the same road as Steve Corica.Credit: Getty
“You’ve got two choices, really. One is you listen, and you start buckling and bowing to what these people are saying – or you do it your way, in the way you believe.
“As I said to Stevie, ‘No regrets, mate. If you walk out of this place doing it other peoples’ way, then you’re never going to be able to live with yourself. You’ve got to do it your way.’”
Corica has done exactly that, trusting in his own methods and making only small tactical tweaks to the way his team has set up when other coaches might think about throwing out the baby and the bathwater.
Ask him how they’ve turned it around, and his answer is simple: it was always going to take time for them to settle into the new system they’ve introduced this season, while some of the core players it was built around, like Adam Le Fondre, Alex Wilkinson and Jack Rodwell, were missing for long stretches through injury, and are only just now hitting their straps.
They’ve played their best football this season in the finals, bossing the Western Sydney Wanderers in their opening match before getting the better of newly crowned premiers Melbourne City in the first leg of their semi-final last weekend. Leg two awaits on Friday night at AAMI Park, and while City are warm favourites, this Sky Blues team knows exactly what it takes to win high-stakes matches, having been there and done it before.
“There’s always doubters,” Corica said. “It’s just always been in me that when people doubt you, you actually have to prove them wrong – that’s the only way to do it.
“But it’s not just myself that they were doubting. They were doubting the players as well, which is disappointing. But again, the best way to show it is to get into the grand final and hopefully go on and win it. That’s the best way to prove people wrong.”
Whatever the result, Arnold sees Sydney’s turnaround as a victory already for Corica and vindication for the club’s board, who chose to back in their man and stay loyal to a Sky Blue legend.
“A lot of owners, a lot of clubs rush into sacking coaches,” Arnold said.
“Look at some of these clubs in the Premier League. Did it work at Chelsea? Did it work at Tottenham? Leicester City?
“You can tell when a coach is done. That’s when the players are not putting the effort in. And that wasn’t there. The effort was always there. They were still playing for Stevie. So you’ve got to persist.
“Stevie comes across as a quiet guy [who can] get pushed around. But he won’t get pushed around by anyone – never has, never will. He’s one of those guys that loves proving people wrong. He showed that mongrel in him, when everyone might have thought that with the pressure and with all the stick he was getting, that he would crumble – but that’s not the real Steve Corica. He’s done great.”
THE LOWDOWN: Sydney FC vs Melbourne City
A-League Men semi-final second leg
Friday, May 19, AAMI Park, 7.45pm
TV live on Network 10 and Paramount+
LIKELY TEAMS
Sydney FC (4-3-3): Redmayne; Grant, Rodwell, Wilkinson, King; Brattan, Caceres, Retre; Mak, Le Fondre, Burgess.
Melbourne City (4-3-3): Glover; Talbot, Reis, Good, Bos; Berenguer, O’Neill, van der Venne; Leckie, Maclaren, Tilio.
IN THE DUGOUT
Steve Corica (Sydney FC) - Has masterminded a terrific turnaround across the back end of the season, which now includes an unbroken run of seven matches without defeat. Sydney hasn’t won away to Melbourne City in almost five years, but they have had recent success at AAMI Park against other Victorian opposition, so it’s certainly not outside of the realms of possibility that the Sky Blues can upset the apple cart once more - and if they do, a grand final in their home city awaits.
Rado Vidosic (Melbourne City) - Expressed supreme confidence after the first leg that Melbourne City would get the job done at home, having already proved to all and sundry they were the A-League’s best team by finishing top of the ladder. The proof will be in the pudding. Aiden O’Neill’s expected return from injury will be a huge bonus and stiffen up a midfield that was beaten at Allianz Stadium. Needs to ensure Socceroo Jamie Maclaren, who had just 13 touches last Friday night, is involved more in the game.