The Loose Cannon - Issue 126

SOCCEROOS HEROES VISIT WOODPORT PS

After winning the Central Coast Mariners Sunday Funday initiative, Woodport Public School received an exclusive Q&A session with Danny Vukovic, Garang Kuol and Jason Cummings on their second last day of school.

take a couple of selfies, with students staying as long as 15 minutes after the bell to meet the superstars.

Arriving at the school just before 2pm, our players were swarmed by young Mariners fans, excited to hear all about their journey in Qatar, and how they made it into the world of professional football.

Over 200 students filled the hall, welcoming Vukovic, Cummings and Kuol as their hour-long Q&A session begun. Students ranging from year two through to year six asked numerous interesting and exciting questions, receiving answers from their heroes.

After answering all of the students’ queries, the trio got the opportunity to sign students merchandise, with over fifty children lining up to collect a memorable souvenir of the occasion.

With the end of the day only minutes away the whole school gathered around to get a photo with our players, swarming as close as they could as the photo was taken some ten metres above the ground.

The Mariners would like the thank Woodport Primary School for both getting involved in Sunday Funday and their hospitality during the Q&A. The lads had an incredible time meeting our youngest Mariners fans and potentially future players.

If your school wants to get involved with our community outreach program, keep an eye out for updates and information as we head into 2023.

Kuol, Cummings and Vukovic then got a chance to sign a few final autographs and

I remember clearly watching the game against Melbourne City in 2016 where a desperate last minute attempt to block a shot ended terribly for Storm Roux. In what could be defined as a freak occurrence Storm broke his leg, tore ankle ligaments as well as dislocating his shoulder. It’s unbelievable actually when you think about the chances of all that happening at once but sadly yes it did but that didn’t stop a career. Storm would return to pre-season training the following year and once again join up with the rest of the defensive unit.

the A-League All Stars in 2014 against the might of Juventus. As well as ability Storm brings experience and mental toughness and that is invaluable in the squad Monty has assembled in 22/23

From any point of view that you have to recover from a traumatic event such as that takes one hell of a lot of courage, spirit and as we like to call it guts! The medical side would have been obviously one part but the psychological a totally different ball game. When Storm returned to the club after a stint at Victory in my mind, as well as ability, it was also the experience both on and off the park that he brings to the table. I can’t even imagine the strength of mind it would take to fully commit to those 50/50 challenges week after week, but this man does it without fail.

Recently Storm celebrated 200 games in the A league which is a great achievement and more than that simply courageous. It has been quite the career to this point for Roux who has also represented New Zealand on a number of occasions as well as

SCAN TO PLAY NOW

MARTIN RAYNER AUTHOR

ACADEMY COACH PRFILE: LUCAS VILELA

®

Community Grants Macca’s

Fast track your sporting dreams

The Macca’s® Community Grants program provides athletes aged 14-18 with the opportunity to score $2,500 in funding, exclusive access to professional mentoring, and even a job at a Macca’s® .

After spending years in Brazil and Europe, Mariners Academy coach Lucas Vilela joined us on the Coast in 2020.

Fresh off the back of coaching for over half a decade in Sydney, his first role with the club was as an under 13’s coach.

Roles coaching the under 20’s, where he won the championship and narrowly fell in the grand final, as well as a position in the first team coaching staff, have left him as an established member of the Mariners family.

Vilela playing a role in the development of the likes of Cameron Windust, James Bayliss and Sasha Kuzevski, helping to produce the Mariners of the future

Now returning to the lads who he coached when he first joined the club, who now play for the under 15’s, Vilela is eager to see the talent that

he knows the squad have, along with a few exciting additions.

With the squad that he has, Vilela is ready to continue to help their development as they look to become Mariners first team players of the future.

PROUD SPONSOR OF THE CENTRAL COAST MARINERS

Applying for a grant is easy and you can do it all online. Scan the code to find out more or visit: MaccasCommunityGrants.com

steadfast.com.au

know the Journey – nectar triantis

At only 19 years old, Nectar Triantis is just beginning his footballing journey. Seven matches and four starts into his A-League career, the sky is the limit for the talented centre defender who has traded red and black for yellow and blue in 2022.

that her son received the proper education.

“It was all because of school times. Sydney was training in the morning, so my mum didn’t let me, they were training at night,” he said.

Football was always the path for Triantis, born into a family of 10, playing his first game for the Strathfield Strikers at just four years of age.

“Being one of ten, seven boys, you sort of get bled into playing football. From a young age I was always playing with my brothers,” he said.

“Being a Greek boy, I moved to Sydney Olympic growing up. I played with them for a couple of years before moving onto the New South Wales Institute for a season.”

“I ultimately made the switch because she wanted to make sure that I was concentrating at school. It was a big change for me, being only 15, but I think it was a good move. It is always nice to get some fresh grass, a fresh place and some fresh surroundings.”

After progressing up the chain in Western Sydney, Triantis finally received what he had always wanted, A-League minutes.

“Learning to cook and clean has been interesting. If you don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.”

The defender has also been presented with some big opportunities on the field recently, notably captaining the Young Socceroos this year. A remarkable achievement considering he had not played Australian representative football before that.

“All week Tom and I were talking about it. We share the same experiences so we could bounce off each other, knowing how we feel.

The defender’s goals are simple, both for the team and individually. Fortunately, he has an exciting young team to chase them with.

“With the team, we want to win the league,” he said.

“It was a good experience, getting my first international experience and captaining the team. To get the armband, I was extremely grateful,” he said.

“In saying that I knew that I had leadership qualities. I wanted to show the coaches that straight away.”

“Individually I just want to play as many minutes as I can to contribute to the team.

From then Triantis found himself playing in A-League academies, joining Sydney FC. His brother Peter had played for the club between 2012 and 2015, developing under the watch of the Sky Blues.

“I was actually a left winger when I was scouted by Sydney,” he said.

His time with the club was short lived, moving over to the West soon after, joining the Wanderers academy in 2019. His reason for the switch, his mum wanted to ensure

“I ended up making my debut for the Wanderers last season. Unfortunately, I was never able to really kick on and put my stamp on the team.”

Since then, the defender has moved to the Central Coast, the first time he has ever lived away from family. It has been a steep learning curve for the defender, but one that has certainly been valuable.

“It has been good, I have been able to concentrate more being by myself,” he said.

Having now played six games for the Mariners so far, a highlight for the defender was certainly his return to Commbank Stadium when we faced the Wanderers in early November. The youngster in the same boat as fellow ex-Wanderer Tom Aquilina, the duo keeping a clean sheet in the dominant 3-0 win.

“Personally, it was a really good experience. Great emotions. It is always good going back to your old club but getting the win in that fashion that we did, it is always great no matter the opponent,” he said.

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!

It takes a huge team effort on match days, and our home games wouldn’t happen without our dedicated team of volunteers working hard behind the scenes.

Central Coast Mariners would like to acknowledge the contribution of our wonderful team of volunteers and thank them for their valuable contribution to the club.

Thank you to each of our volunteers, from all of us at the Central Coast Mariners.

BOOTS FOR COOK ISLANDS

Hello Fellow Football families, We recently returned from a holiday in the Cook Islands and being Football Tragics we were able to find some local games to watch.

This is where our Fellow Football Families can help us.

At the conclusion of the first game we watched, U/15 boys, we noticed that when they came off the field they were removing their boots and shinpads to pass onto the next team to take the field, the U/15 girls. Then again when the girls came off the field after their game they removed their already twice worn boots and shinpads and passed them to the next team to take the field, the U/17 boys! This was sad to witness and totally unexpected.

We then had a chat to one of the referees about this situation and said that we would like to find some way to help out here. She recommended who we should contact due to there being some issues with the Official Association. After making contact we had a visit from the Sports Manager from the Cook Islands Sports & National Olympic Committee (CISNOC).

We will be collecting pre loved boots and shin pads for the next few months with our aim to get them to the Cook Islands in time for their 2023/2024 season.

If you feel that this is something that your organisation can help us with we would be happy to chat further regarding collection options. Yours in Football Sharon - 0437 149 069 sharon.pascoe@hotmail.com Wayne - 0403 702 130 waynepp59@hotmail.com

We made the decision to see if we could obtain pre loved, reasonable condition, football boots and shin pads to send back to The Cook Islands for distribution to those families/players who could not afford to purchase their own gear.

Algis Andrew H

Andrew S

Bailey Brendan Cameron Caroline Chris David Derek Erin Francesco Graeme Kim Liam C

Mason Matt Nick Pat Peter H Peter K

Phil Robert C Robert I Robyn Tibor Todd

Tony Vivienne

Thomas AQuilina brian kaltak JOSHUA NISBET

MAX BALARD SAMUEL SILVERA jason cummings matheus moresche beni nkololo harry steele garang kuol storm roux kelechi john jacob farrell matthew simon daniel vukovic michael ruhs cameron windust daniel hall yaren sozer nectarios triantis bradley tapp sasha kuzevski james bayliss dor jok jakob cresnar paul ayongo marco tulio