So given the early start to the season and the lack of major issues for the Mariners so far, I thought I would just discuss a few random thoughts that went through my mind (which is a really quick trip).

Graham Arnold's tenure so far

So public reaction to the naming of our new national coach was a little less than optimistic in the main part. This appears to be the natural reaction of many football supporters in Australia to any announcement, which is a little concerning in itself. This reaction reminds me of the general comments and opinions presented when Graham Arnold was appointed as the new manager of the Central Coast Mariners - not all of those opinions were from non-Mariners fans either.

Now I know it is a little early to start trying to realistically appraise the performance of the Mariners manager, but so far given that he has only taken over the reins since the World Cup has concluded, he is off to a good start. Now there are only 29 weeks left in the season so the chance of the Mariners relinquishing the top of the table from here is probably pretty slim, but I would have thought with the great success that GA has had so far, at least a few of the knockers may have come out and made a few concessions on the way the gaffer is handling this club. I am certain that the usual suspects that knock everything the Mariners do will never make a confession of being mistaken but I hope some of the Mariners supporters who were not optimistic will come forward. especially if the current form continues.

Gosford City Buzz Ahead of Sundays Game

The first game in Gosford of the A-league season 6 will occur this weekend and this week I thought I would get out on the streets around Bluetongue Stadium and get a measure of the building excitement for the coming home game. Luckily I work less than 100 meters away so I got down there during my lunch break each day and do a bit of an interview with some of the people (Fox Sports should have sent a camera crew with me for a bit on Fox Sports FC). I found that the excitement levels of the man on the street in the inner city of Gosford were not overly high...

Old Joe (one of the homeless guys lining up for lunch at the Donnison Restraunt) did not really have a high opinion of the Mariners. It appears he comes from Sydney and only comes up to Gosford for the winter months to get away from the cold. He was a bit of a Sydney FC supporter and he thought he may be a bit more representative of the sky blue supporters rather than the Mariners.

After Old Joe, I thought I would have a chat with some of the local business groups and get a feel for how excited they are about the first home game. I visited the Curry House on the corner of Donnison Street just up the road. The owner of this fine cuisine establishment was quite excited about the coming game. He has the extra staff lined up and he expects a big lunch and early dinner crowd on Sunday. Unfortunately he will not be attending this Sunday or any other weekend for the game as he will be running his business. So again maybe we should not include him as being a big part of the demographics for the Mariners.

To be honest I speak to a great number of people in the Gosford CBD each week and very few of them are Mariners faithful.  Given that there is no real strong interest around the stadium I had to ask how much community support the Mariners are generating at the moment. I did a little further research into the community support and programs the Mariners are running and how they would stack up against other sports in the Central Coast.

What did I find? I found the Mariners are continuing to lead the way in community engagement for professional sports teams. The Mariners are building what will be one of the biggest businesses in the Central Coast with the new complex at Tuggerah. I am sure, given the way they work with the community, this centre will be used for a large number of purposes outside of just training and accommodation for football squads.

Another thing I was most impressed with was the connection between the Mariners and local football clubs. This week the Mariners relaunched the ambassador program where each local club is assigned a Mariners first squad member (or Clarkey). These ambassadors are then available to the club for different events and purposes such as fund raising or presentation nights. This is a great way of getting the locals to embrace players and see them as locals even if they are not.

Last but certainly not least is the junior player memberships. This is quite incredible from the Mariners. Every junior player registered in the Central Coast football is given a membership to the Mariners. I am sure this drives memberships for adults or even just attendance numbers with parents taking the kids, but this is the best way I can see to convert the massive numbers of junior players into long term A-League supporters. I hope other clubs are looking at these types of initiatives.

The Mariners are definitely still engaging the local community.

Perez debut in the A-League

GA has stated that he is confident Patricio Perez will play this weekend (although I wish he would say yes or no now so I can drop him from my fantasy team if he is not going to make it). This could be a really exciting recruitment move for the Mariners and I am hanging out to see him play up close. But this presents GA with another problem, allbeit a nice one to have: With the whole squad playing quite well last week, who will he drop out of the midfield to bring Perez in?

Matt Simon is the obvious choice but his man of the match performance last week surely makes this very hard to do.  Is it one of the two strikers for Matt to move forward, but McBreen was strong and without Kwasi, we have two strikers with almost identical games. Does this mean we leave Matty in the midfield and drop someone else? Personally I would like to see Hutch given a rest just to make sure he does not think he has a mortgage on the first team position. Last year Hutch seemed to go through the motions and last week his touch was still not to a standard that he is capable of. All I do know is that this headache Arnold has is the best possible one to have.

Ramble Over.  Next week I'll get more focused, maybe.