Who’s the best young player he’s ever coached? What was up with the goatee? And has he spoken to Craig Foster recently? Your questions answered by Ange Postecoglou.
Page 3 of 3 | Single page
Let’s be honest, the A-League’s been shit so far. Do you think so?
Perry Jackson, Sydney
The last round [round three] wasn’t great, I’ve got to agree with him there. The A-League now has come to a point where it needs to take a step up. Now the expectations are that fans want to see some good football. People have experienced the razzmatazz and sat in the Dome or SFS in big crowds but now they want to see the product. This year will be an interesting year to see which clubs and players can take that next step. I think the recruiting over the first few years has been very haphazard. Teams have just picked players to fill rosters rather than actually thinking about who they should sign. And there are a few clubs who have been left short in areas because they haven’t done their homework. I think the Victory were the only club to have done it well last season and they ran away with it because they went out there and recruited a bunch of players who would do a job for them and fitted into their style of play. And some of the other teams let themselves down badly in that area. But the teams will hit their straps and the second half of the year will be better.
Do you have any ambitions to coach in the A-League?
Will Cooster, via email
Yeah I think so, if there was the opportunity. And that’s the difficulty of professional coaching in this country – you can go from a national team to… well, what’s the next stage? The good thing is that we have a professional league now but there’s only eight jobs. I want to stay in Australia for a little bit longer, I don’t want to go overseas. I’m 42 which in coaching terms is not that old and the A-League is an exciting league, especially with the Asian Champions League aspect to it. There are some real challenges to it that I would like to get into but I’ve always said with coaching, it’s not the kind of career that you can plot out what you’re going to be doing in five years time. It just doesn’t work that way. When I got into coaching I got the South Melbourne job when I was 30 and if someone told me you were going to coach South Melbourne and then the national team, I would’ve laughed because I had no idea where it was going to take me. After two weeks at South Melbourne we’d lost two games and I was almost out on my arse! So you just don’t know what opportunities will arise. Sitting here at the moment I’d love to get an opportunity with an A-League gig but then something might come from overseas that I can’t turn down.
Who is the best player you’ve coached?
Aussie Pride, via website
That’s a tough one because a lot of players had different attributes that made them great to coach. If I broke it down, the most technically gifted player I’ve coached would be [Melbourne Victory’s] Kaz Patafta. We went to a World Cup and he looked totally comfortable on the ball and I was constantly amazed with the things he could do. In terms of an all-round players, I’d say Nathan Burns, Matt Spiranovic and Carl Valeri are the other three that looked comfortable at that elite level.
Who is Australian football’s next young big thing?
Emma Turner, via email
Where we are at the moment you would have to say Nathan [Burns]. I think he’s taken to the game well and he’s got a great temperament. He’s a country boy and he doesn’t let anything faze him. He went to the U17 World Cup in Peru and he scored in the tournament which is no small thing. But again, because the emphasis was on me and the fact we failed, people just glossed over any good performances from the players. People are saying Burnsy has shot onto the scene but he didn’t – this was 2005 when he scored against Uruguay in the World Cup and I can tell you that other countries were looking at him then and saying he was a good player. You can see the way he has taken to the A-League and in the first few weeks I think he has been the league’s best player. He’s the one player I’d pay to watch at the moment. Of course there are so many obstacles that a young player has to overcome to make it but I think he has the attributes to make it. I believe that a player really has to establish themselves in a league before they go overseas. I played and coached in an era where Mark Viduka at the age of 19 was the top goalscorer and player of the year in the NSL and he dominated the league. Paul Okon dominated the league. Mark Schwarzer was outstanding as a young goalkeeper and Brett Emerton was player of the year in the old NSL. So they all dominated the league over here before they went overseas. I think if nothing else it proves to the player themselves that they’re someone. Bresh and Grella played for Carlton when they were 18, 19 years old in a team that made the Grand Final. They had that mentality in them before they went overseas. And it wasn’t just off the back of one year, they’d been playing like this for two or three years so when clubs signed them, they signed them as first team players. I really worry when players have only played one year here and haven’t dominated the competition but done OK and then dash off overseas to become squad players. I just don’t think they’re helping their careers. And it’s a pretty good indication of where you’re at as a footballer if you can dominate the A-League, and if you can’t impose your will on games then maybe it’s not your time yet.
Why did you get rid of the uber-cool David Brent goatee?
Adchopper via website
I think you’ll have to ask my wife that! The mullet and the goatee were big at one stage but I don’t know what I was thinking. It all started back in 1990 when we won the title under Puskas and we made a decision as a team that we weren’t going to shave until we won it. From there I went down the goatee path, others had the full beard – the Grand Final shot’s a cracker with 11 guys with beards, except for Paul Trimboli who couldn’t grow any kind of facial hair if he tried. And I just kept it after that. And it’s one of the major regrets of my life. But after I shaved it off, there were so many people who have known me my whole life saying “Geez Ange, you look great” that I said, “Why, if I looked so bad before, did you let me wear it for 15 or 20 years of my adult life? Why did you let me walk around like that if you thought I looked better without it?” It’s one of those things that will always come back to haunt me. I suppose the one positive was that after I shaved it off I got about fairly anonymously. It was amazing how many people didn’t recognise me.
Perry Jackson, Sydney
The last round [round three] wasn’t great, I’ve got to agree with him there. The A-League now has come to a point where it needs to take a step up. Now the expectations are that fans want to see some good football. People have experienced the razzmatazz and sat in the Dome or SFS in big crowds but now they want to see the product. This year will be an interesting year to see which clubs and players can take that next step. I think the recruiting over the first few years has been very haphazard. Teams have just picked players to fill rosters rather than actually thinking about who they should sign. And there are a few clubs who have been left short in areas because they haven’t done their homework. I think the Victory were the only club to have done it well last season and they ran away with it because they went out there and recruited a bunch of players who would do a job for them and fitted into their style of play. And some of the other teams let themselves down badly in that area. But the teams will hit their straps and the second half of the year will be better.
Do you have any ambitions to coach in the A-League?
Will Cooster, via email
Yeah I think so, if there was the opportunity. And that’s the difficulty of professional coaching in this country – you can go from a national team to… well, what’s the next stage? The good thing is that we have a professional league now but there’s only eight jobs. I want to stay in Australia for a little bit longer, I don’t want to go overseas. I’m 42 which in coaching terms is not that old and the A-League is an exciting league, especially with the Asian Champions League aspect to it. There are some real challenges to it that I would like to get into but I’ve always said with coaching, it’s not the kind of career that you can plot out what you’re going to be doing in five years time. It just doesn’t work that way. When I got into coaching I got the South Melbourne job when I was 30 and if someone told me you were going to coach South Melbourne and then the national team, I would’ve laughed because I had no idea where it was going to take me. After two weeks at South Melbourne we’d lost two games and I was almost out on my arse! So you just don’t know what opportunities will arise. Sitting here at the moment I’d love to get an opportunity with an A-League gig but then something might come from overseas that I can’t turn down.
Who is the best player you’ve coached?
Aussie Pride, via website
That’s a tough one because a lot of players had different attributes that made them great to coach. If I broke it down, the most technically gifted player I’ve coached would be [Melbourne Victory’s] Kaz Patafta. We went to a World Cup and he looked totally comfortable on the ball and I was constantly amazed with the things he could do. In terms of an all-round players, I’d say Nathan Burns, Matt Spiranovic and Carl Valeri are the other three that looked comfortable at that elite level.
Who is Australian football’s next young big thing?
Emma Turner, via email
Where we are at the moment you would have to say Nathan [Burns]. I think he’s taken to the game well and he’s got a great temperament. He’s a country boy and he doesn’t let anything faze him. He went to the U17 World Cup in Peru and he scored in the tournament which is no small thing. But again, because the emphasis was on me and the fact we failed, people just glossed over any good performances from the players. People are saying Burnsy has shot onto the scene but he didn’t – this was 2005 when he scored against Uruguay in the World Cup and I can tell you that other countries were looking at him then and saying he was a good player. You can see the way he has taken to the A-League and in the first few weeks I think he has been the league’s best player. He’s the one player I’d pay to watch at the moment. Of course there are so many obstacles that a young player has to overcome to make it but I think he has the attributes to make it. I believe that a player really has to establish themselves in a league before they go overseas. I played and coached in an era where Mark Viduka at the age of 19 was the top goalscorer and player of the year in the NSL and he dominated the league. Paul Okon dominated the league. Mark Schwarzer was outstanding as a young goalkeeper and Brett Emerton was player of the year in the old NSL. So they all dominated the league over here before they went overseas. I think if nothing else it proves to the player themselves that they’re someone. Bresh and Grella played for Carlton when they were 18, 19 years old in a team that made the Grand Final. They had that mentality in them before they went overseas. And it wasn’t just off the back of one year, they’d been playing like this for two or three years so when clubs signed them, they signed them as first team players. I really worry when players have only played one year here and haven’t dominated the competition but done OK and then dash off overseas to become squad players. I just don’t think they’re helping their careers. And it’s a pretty good indication of where you’re at as a footballer if you can dominate the A-League, and if you can’t impose your will on games then maybe it’s not your time yet.
Why did you get rid of the uber-cool David Brent goatee?
Adchopper via website
I think you’ll have to ask my wife that! The mullet and the goatee were big at one stage but I don’t know what I was thinking. It all started back in 1990 when we won the title under Puskas and we made a decision as a team that we weren’t going to shave until we won it. From there I went down the goatee path, others had the full beard – the Grand Final shot’s a cracker with 11 guys with beards, except for Paul Trimboli who couldn’t grow any kind of facial hair if he tried. And I just kept it after that. And it’s one of the major regrets of my life. But after I shaved it off, there were so many people who have known me my whole life saying “Geez Ange, you look great” that I said, “Why, if I looked so bad before, did you let me wear it for 15 or 20 years of my adult life? Why did you let me walk around like that if you thought I looked better without it?” It’s one of those things that will always come back to haunt me. I suppose the one positive was that after I shaved it off I got about fairly anonymously. It was amazing how many people didn’t recognise me.
Related Articles

Ange: Still a place for Lucas in Brazil

Ange to launch hunt for hidden gems
