THEY may not have the largest fan base in Australia nor do they have the best team in the land of Aus, but Central Coast Mariners and everyone involved have done a damn fine job since they were accepted into the league.

It’s been mentioned numerous times that Don Matheson is planning to model the club around the Mariners, heck even their chairman admitted it. “Ours is a model they want to replicate,” Lyall Gorman said in relation to NQ.

And it’s not hard to see why either, two grand final appearances, last season's Premier’s Plate and even the occasional sell-out here and there. Not to mention the way in which they have connected with the community, showing up at junior clubs to sign autographs etc. They also proudly boast being only the second club to post a profit in the A-League after Melbourne Victory.

With all this most probably in Don Matheson’s mind, it may not be a coincidence Don decided to put his all his faith in a former player who has only ever been a right-hand man to help steer yet another small club to success. If it was not already, it later became evident whose footsteps the club from up North would be following after yet another former Mariner joined the club’s coaching ranks when Stewart Petrie accepted Ian Ferguson’s offer to become his assistant.

We face a similar battle to which the Mariners had to fight when they first began life in the A-League, convert or at least get through the turnstiles a large majority of rugby league obsessed fans. You could say the Mariners have almost executed this perfectly; they had an average attendance of over 12,000 last season and are believed to top the league when it comes to sponsors. Now it’s our turn.

According to Ian Ferguson, player recruitment so far is going almost exactly to plan, albeit a few hit and misses. Admittedly the current squad of 11 is not looking the greatest; we have signed some ordinary players along with a few injury-prone and out of form ones. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the January Transfer Market is the next step in Matheson’s ‘master plan’ in which he is planning to sign some of the overseas Aussies who are struggling for game time. It may have also had to be adjusted recently to include Scott Chipperfield after Jade left for Korea.

So despite all the criticism aimed at the club in recent times I think we’ve done well in the decision to model the Central Coast Mariners.

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Clint Bolton’s understudy Justin Pasfield has officially joined us on a two-year deal.

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