It proved to be perhaps the most revealing insight into the minds of two Socceroos who have been very much front and centre of the national team since the 1990s.

They are two of the most recognisable faces in Australian sport; two of the greatest-ever Socceroos and two proud Australians who’ve done the hard yards early in their careers to conquer English club football and the international stage.

In short, the star wattage is dazzling as Harry Kewell and Mark Schwarzer pose for a FourFourTwo photoshoot at the Sofitel hotel in Brisbane.

Pivotal in helping their nation reach a first World Cup in 32 years followed by a stunning performance at Germany 2006, the duo were again key to a second World Cup appearance in 2010 and now loom again as key men on the Road to Rio 2014. 

Now father figures in the national team, the 30-something pair from western Sydney clearly have a lot in common, and, a lot of respect for each other. So it’s no surprise they opened up on a number of issues. At the same time they showed a side we rarely see in public. But in amongst it all was a sombre warning about the future of the Socceroos.

And when these boys talk, you do tend to listen.

Twelve hours earlier, an exhausted Australia trudged off the Suncorp pitch to a rapturous reception from over 40,000 fans. They’d witnessed another Socceroo classic.

Six years to the day Australia fought back to claim a famous first-ever World Cup win in Kaiserslautern, the Socceroos once again showed Japan that mental toughness is one stark difference between the two sides as the clash ended 1-1.

And as ever, it seems, Schwarzer was imperious in goals while Kewell – who’d done the job in Muscat days earlier – was kept on the bench. Down a man after Mark Milligan’s dubious red card in the second half and down a goal against the talented Japan, those last 20 minutes said a lot about this squad.

Just days after Holger Osieck’s men had arrived from the stultifying heat of the Middle East, where the Aussies had ground out a 0-0 in their opening qualifier, Australia were being given their harshest test yet in qualification.

You got the feeling Japan were convinced a vital win on Australian soil was theirs for the taking. But this enduring Socceroo spirit stood up under the assault of Honda, Kagawa and Endo to drag the contest back.

A late penalty – albeit dubious – levelled the match. The Aussies could’ve even won it had Sasa Ognenovski’s effort gone in off the bar.

Brisbane, the morning after. Schwarzer and Kewell have arrived at a wood-panelled function room at the team’s hotel and are now posing in a selection of casual gear. The snapper is more accustomed to photographing supermodels and fashion shoots than superstar footballers, but being
a footy fan himself, Nick Scott looks like he’s in his element.

He jokingly asks the boys to ‘Work it, baby!’ eliciting much ironic laughter as the shutter clicks and the soft box pops and flashes.

With the shoot over, Kewell and Schwarzer settle into the comfy chairs with a view of the Brisbane cityscape.

In full and unedited, this is what Mark Schwarzer and Harry Kewell had to say in a conversation published in August’s issue of FourFourTwo Australia magazine with editor Aidan Ormond

 

 

Harry, Mark thanks for your time. We’ll start with a quick trivia question. When and where did you both first play together for the Socceroos?

Mark: [without hesitation] Saudi Arabia. I came on for 15 minutes. It was [coach] Eddie Thomson’s last game in charge.

FFT: Spot on…

Harry Yeah, I remember that game... ‘97?

FFT: ‘96…

Mark: October, ‘96, I know because I was there for my birthday a few days earlier.

Harry: Glad he can remember it!

Mark: I just remember it was unbelievably hot. John Aloisi was there. I remember the air-conditioning being on all the time.

Harry: I actually remember the hotel, it had table tennis in there...

Mark: It was a walk along an outdoor area before going into your hotel. It was so hot outside then you get to your room and it was, like, freezing.

How does all that compare to these days?

Harry: It’s completely changed. When I first stepped into it, the way we travelled the way we conducted ourselves. Everything was – how can I say? Even though we were professional players playing in very good leagues and for very good teams we were kind of like an amateur group coming together. Wild boys, turning up, playing a game of football - and usually playing some good football and winning – [but] even travelling around, getting different flights
and sitting back in economy.

FFT: Economy?

Harry: Yeah, it was the first time when I was travelling [with the national team]. And then eventually you started to see it all turnaround. We started having camps, staying a little longer, staying in nicer hotels, travelling business class and having the whole set up done properly. And from that, that’s where our football’s kind of evolved.

Mark: It’s completely changed. The whole environment, the set up and the running of the team has completely changed. It’s a lot more professional now than it’s ever been.

I certainly still wouldn’t be playing today if it wasn’t because at times you got to a point where the longer it went on, the longer it was not as a professional as you were used to playing in Europe, and the more frustrated you got and the more you thought, ‘Well hang on, what’s the point?’

But thankfully it changed pretty much around 2004/5 from a set up that wasn’t very professional where at times players dictated what time we trained – whether we trained in the morning or afternoon because they wanted to go out the night before – to now where it’s the way it is.

You can laugh about those things but how much of that is actually true? I heard the social side was pretty big back then...

Mark: 100% it’s true and it was frustrating because some players wanted to do that and wanted to go all the time and other boys were like, ‘hang on, this is just not what we do’. I didn’t want to say waste my time because that’s not what you do when you play for your country, but it was frustrating that you were giving up a lot of your time to play for your country and you wanted to do your best but there were a lot of things going on around you that didn’t allow you to do it. And that
was frustrating.

Harry: There were definitely no ice-baths [back then]. But again, things change and it’s changed for the better. You have to. If you stay back in those times your football is not going to improve and football’s going to go downhill. And it doesn’t take long for Australians to catch on about the European style and it didn’t take long for us to catch on. And once we did, we’ve got a pretty good thing going on now. The way it’s run and the way it’s all set up is very good.

You’re flying a lot more these days due to being in Asia, how have you adapted?

Harry: For me, footballers now have to learn about how to travel. It’s part of your job. Especially in Europe you’re playing abroad all the time. You’re travelling every third day near enough playing abroad. Then you go into the national team, okay, it’s a little longer but we’ve travelled back and forth now so it’s part and parcel of what we do. We know how to travel.

Talk us through how you travel in order to recover or prepare for games?

Mark: We went through a phase when we used oxygen masks but it’s now more a case of recovery. We wear compression garments, which is something I believe works really well. Harry wears them and quite a few other boys wear them. Ice baths too plays a bit part. The whole thought-process that goes into our travel schedule is very important.

Just talking about this last couple of games [away to Denmark in a friendly followed by
a trip to Muscat in Oman for a World Cup qualifier then to Brisbane for another qualifier against Japan], from moving from Oman and those conditions to recovery after the game and preparing and talking about when we should sleep, when we shouldn’t sleep to coming back out to Australia.

That’s all been part of the whole process and players have learnt. If you didn’t already know how you would travel and what best suits you; you were given a lot of guidance
as to what they believe was the best way of preparing for the games.

Harry, your Socceroo debut against Chile in Antofagasta,1996? As I recall a fresh-faced, mullet-styled teenager turning up…

Harry: (cue laughter all-round) No! I don’t think it was a mullet because I remember getting it cut off I think within a month of signing for Leeds …

Mark: I’m not laughing because I’m thinking what will be the next question
to me!

Harry: I went over to Leeds and I had the long hair …

Mark: Nah, it was definitely a mullet! (cue more laughter)

Harry: I had the hair and then I remember getting it cut off and no-one recognized me… it may have been a little bit longer but I don’t’ think it was a mullet. I’m sure it was not a mullet.

The game itself, didn’t you play against the likes of the great Ivan Zamorano?

Harry: Yes, I remember because I played left wing-back. I was excited. I knew Zamorano and what a great striker he was. And I remember the corner he scored off. Everyone had marked up and all of a sudden the number nine for Chile was free. And the other defenders said, ‘Harry pick him up’ and I said, ‘You want me to pick him up! You serious?’ What I remember he was a great jumper and he just got the better of me and scored from the corner. And we had a player sent off in that game which was a regular occurrence for the Australian team at that time. Like I said, we were wild boys …

Do you recall much about Antofagasta?

Harry: We started off in the city, which we’d been a few times before travelling to
the mountains. It was just in the middle of nowhere, but still a fantastic day.

Quite a few older, experienced heads were there that day, like Wadey [Paul Wade], Trimmers [Paul Trimboli] and Mehmet Durakovic. How was that experience and how does that compare to you now as a senior player yourself?

Harry: For me – and this is what I try to get across to the young boys – don’t worry about it. Think of me as a player who you want to take my role off. Because that’s what I did when I first walked into the squad. It wasn’t as if – look I paid them respect – but that was about it. I wasn’t going to travel all the way to South America and not play. I wanted to play. I kinda pushed myself to get out there and play. This is what you’ve got to teach the young kids. You know?

I’m still going to fight for my position but you know, get yourself out there and push yourself to knock me off. And this is the kind of message you want to send to the kids - because that’s what I did.

I’ve spoken with then captain Paul Wade who said you were very quiet back then…

Harry: I think I still am. I’m one of these people who just gets on and does his business. And I am a quiet person. I keep myself to myself and I’m very focused once I come into camp. There’s a role I have to play and that’s what I do.

 

The younger players these days are all aware of the “Kewell Aura” – this sort of mystique and huge public fascination about you. How does that reflect in the way the younger guys approach you now as a senior player?

Harry: Actually the question was asked in this camp, ‘Am I that bad? Am I that bad to come across?’ And some of the boys said, ‘Yeah, because you’re just very focused, you don’t talk much, you just do your thing’.

I don’t know… I had a couple of the young boys knock on my door for signatures when I was sleeping. I wasn’t too happy about that. And they felt that bad.

But I remember in one of my first camps down in London I turned up in the middle of the night, around 11pm and they turned around and said your roommate is already up there. I said, ‘OK’, and remember this is one of my first camps, and I asked who am I rooming with? And they said, ‘Mark Bosnich’. And I said, ‘Oh no!’

How was I supposed to knock in the middle of the night when he’s asleep, this young guy saying I’m going to room with you? So I just sat there and rang from downstairs and went, ‘Mark it’s Harry’. And he said, ‘Oh how are you?” And I said, ‘I’m rooming with you,’ and he said it was no problem.

I went, ‘Oh great’. Went up, knocked on the door. Nothing. Knocked again. Nothing.

I was thinking, ‘Oh shit, what’s happening here?’ Knocked again and next minute he’s come to the door and said, ‘What?!’ And I said, ‘I’m rooming with you’. And he said, ‘Oh, okay’.

So, the point was, I was nervous. I hope I don’t bring it across that bad to the youngsters. Look, I have a laugh with them and all that but again, it’s a job. You know? I’m still fighting for my position. So as much as I want to be friends with them, I’m fighting for my position. I can’t be too friendly because I still want to play.

 Schwarzy, what a debut back in 1993. Your first full game and it’s a do-or-die World Cup qualifier against Canada. Talk us through that experience.

Mark: My actual first game was in Edmonton in Canada. [Socceroo keeper Robert] Zabica got sent off after 18 minutes and I came on. But my first full game was in the return leg in Sydney. And I’ll admit it, I had a mullet [cue Harry laughing]. Hey I’m happy with that…

Harry: Sorry before we go any further. How old was I?

FFT: About 17…

Harry: And how old was he [when Schwarzer had a mullet]?

Mark: I was 19…

Harry: Big difference, man! Big difference. Look that was the thing though. Jason Donovan had one so everyone had one.

 

Did you see that game when Schwarzy made his debut?

Harry: I was training….

Mark: Actually, here’s a bit of trivia for you both. Who was one of the ball-boys that day?

FFT: A Socceroo?

Mark: Yes

FFT: A striker?

Mark: No. And he wasn’t in this camp but normally is…

FFT: Sydney-based?

Mark: Yes and he plays for the Socceroos now. Based in England for a long time, just came back. C’mon, I can’t make it any easier!

FFT: Emmo?

Mark: Yeah, he was a ball boy that day as a 15-year-old behind my goal.

Harry: I must have been there then. Every time Brett would’ve ball-boyed, I would’ve too. I’ve ball-boyed. In fact I walked out with Musky in the U-20s World Cup in 1993. He held my hand! [cue more laughter all-round].

Mark: You’ve never admitted that before…

Harry: I’ve always said that!

So Musky’s holding your hand – what do you remember?

Harry: All was doing was swearing! Just swearing…

Mark: Musky wouldn’t have done that!

 

Harry: He was like, ‘C’mon!” [mimics revving up the players]. And he had this big, kind of Craig McLachlan perm and he was just going for it and I just remember looking at him like that [mimics stunned look].

And Scotty McDonald walked out with me when we played Uruguay in Melbourne [in 2001]. He was either there or walked out with me.

Schwarzy, it was a tumultuous time with your debut with Bozza dropping out at late notice and you being called up late then getting on after a red card early. How do you recall that time?

Mark: It was the biggest point in my career because I’d gone from playing an NSL the season before that and we’d won the league and got goalkeeper of the year. It was a massive sort of learning curve and push forward for me. Then all of a sudden get called in late for the national team. From going to turning up very late to sitting on the bench in Edmonton and 18 minutes later coming on. I remember sitting on the bench with Paul Wade – and that was the first time Wadey had been dropped by the national team.

And I remember sitting there talking with him, looking at the crowd, counting the flags and all of a sudden Zabica gets sent off and suddenly I’m on here. To then getting the nod two weeks later to play in my first full game.

It was a huge occasion as it was. To go that far in the game and to equal the score 2-1 from the previous leg to thinking this is going to a penalty shootout and nobody giving you a chance because you’re so young. This 19-year-old kid in his first full international to making two saves and the rest is history as they say.

Look, it was very, very different in those times compared to say, fast-forwarding to 2005 and obviously the games were different in a sense that 1993 was to qualify into the final stages of World Cup qualification while 2005 was to qualify for the World Cup. There were a lot of similarities and parallels with the two dates but again there was a slight difference in the way the two were received.

When that media spotlight is shone so bright what’s your take on it?

Mark: Football at that time [1993] wasn’t that huge. It was kind of like on the side of the front page. It was still very much Rugby League with football in the background a little bit. Even fast forward to 2005 we all had to get on planes the next day and get back to Europe. So it was kind of like you enjoyed the euphoria on the night. But the one regret I have about that night is that we couldn’t stay back for three or four days and really enjoy it. You just had to get on a plane and play for your club the next weekend.

Can you retell your favourite moment in your Socceroo careers? Is there one?

Harry: I’d have to think about that. I’ve had some great times. Whether it’s just having a laugh on the bus… because there’s a certain kind of chemistry in this team where you don’t get that elsewhere. Maybe it’s Australians getting together abroad. And even though in England when we were all playing [at club level] everyone had respect for us but it was always, ‘You are the Aussie guy’. You know? You wouldn’t say much but you’d always work hard and this and that. And we always kind of had that.

But when we got together, there was something special. Everyone would be talking with everyone. Everyone would be laughing. You get in the change-rooms and everything that you were, you just put aside. You were just coming together with mates and like having a kick around the park again and just enjoying it and having a laugh.

I’d have to say that’s a great memory for me. The camaraderie. There’s a lot more – especially with the nights out and all that kind of stuff – as well as some of the games we’ve played in. We’ve played in some fantastic games where we were complete underdogs and we’ve turned it around. But literally [the best moments have] always just hooking up with the boys. It’s always something special.

Mark: It’s kind of that common ground. We’re very unique. I think we’re probably the only nation on the planet which plays games across such a wide stretch of the globe. We generally got to travel the furthest. Generally it’s the same with teenagers who leave Australia to go overseas. Living so far away from your family and really creating a new life for yourself. It’s very unique.

I think when players get together in Australia there’s that bond as well but it’s not as strong as when they leave Australia and they get an understanding of what it’s like being overseas, what it’s like to be alone and try to prove to people we’re not just a cricket nation or a rugby nation. But we’re a football nation now –  we’re starting to evolve and really turn some heads. And that’s one of those things that’s really unique.

Another thing I find very interesting with us– compared to other countries and other players from around the world and particularly what I see in the UK – is there are so many players out there who play for various teams don’t want to play for their national team. They actually don’t want to do it – they’d rather have the summer off.

Yeah it’s great having a little holiday [in the off-season] and we do get it but we’re all very passionate about playing for Australia and very, very committed to Australia. And that’s something that’s very unique.

FFT: Harry, your thoughts on that?

Harry: Again, I think we’re on the same page …. Er, actually I just switched off! [cue more laughter all-round]. I was thinking about something else… I didn’t really hear the actual... Don’t think bad of me there, I was just in another world. I was thinking about something else!

What were you thinking about? But Schwarzy makes a good point about the commitment and time taken from your schedule…

Harry: Look, in the football right now you’re lucky to get four weeks off. And you deal with it. You’ll go back to your club and they’ll know you haven’t had a long break so they’ll ease you into pre-season. But it’s work at the end of the day. You’re getting paid to do a job that you love so at the end of the day there is no rest period. Sure, you’d love to have six weeks off. I’d be the first person to say, ‘six weeks off, rest up’. But you can’t - even when you’re on holidays you can’t rest off.

 

 

Mark: I’d be scared to have six weeks off. I wouldn’t know what to do… It still takes you four or five days to wind down. Even now [just 12 hours after the Socceroos played Japan in a World Cup qualifier] I’m thinking, ‘OK, what are we doing today, are we training? Where are we going?’ It’s kind of like that – it takes me five or six days to wind down then I’d probably have two weeks of being completely rested. And the last week or so I’d be thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I’ve got to start thinking of doing some work in training, I’ve got to be right for going back to pre-season’.

Harry: You’d probably have a period of, say, two weeks, where you’d do completely nothing. But in that two weeks you’d still maybe go play golf, you’d play tennis, or some sport activity just to keep you going…

Let’s talk player development in the national team. We’ve been lucky to enjoy the contributions of this so-called “Golden Generation” of Socceroos. What’s your take on this next generation coming through who’ll likely be the back-bone of the Socceroos for years to come?

Mark: I think we’re on a little bit of a cross-roads. We’ve got a sort of group of players who’ve played in the A-League or gone over a little earlier before playing in the A-League and are the ones supposedly taking the next step, you know, up to the national team.

But at the moment, none of them are playing regular football. And that’s that transitional period. When I first went overseas I spent two-and-a-half years without playing regular first team football. So it’s kind of
one of those transitional periods for some of these guys

Harry: But that’s a different thing in that you’re a keeper. It’s a different ball-game…

Mark: For sure, as an outfield player you’re generally …if you’re in the squad and get an opportunity to come on and off quite regularly but as a goalkeeper you don’t – you either play or you don’t play generally.

But I think at the moment we’re at a period where this group of players are either going to make it or they’re going to come back to the A-League or go to a lower league to start playing games. So we’ve got some players who’ve got ability and talent but at the moment that’s it because they’re not showing it week-in-week-out. And they haven’t as yet had the opportunity to show it week-in-week-out.

Harry does it worry you?

Harry: You know what? I won’t sit on the fence. I’d say yeah. These young boys have got talent. They’ve got a lot of what we had as youngsters.

Do they have the same desire?

Harry: [pauses]. That’s the difference, I think. You say the golden generation, the players who’ve played for the big clubs and are still playing there. There’s something different about them that. As a footballer who is single-minded, you want to play. And you see a lot of young players coming through now that they play maybe half a game for the first team then they don’t. As soon as they’ve played that half a game they think they’ve made it. You know? And it’s a shame. They get that nice car, they get this they get that and they think, ‘Oh, I’m there now’. That’s the biggest foul in football really. It sends them on the wrong path straight away.

Too soon, too easy?

Harry: [pauses] When I grew up, it was tough. You know? I started off cleaning footballs, cleaning boots, doing the whole process of learning my trade and I think that’s a big thing. I think you need to learn your trade. You need to start from the bottom and once you get a chance you think to yourself, ‘Well I ain’t going back down there again. I want to stay up there’. I just think the young kids here, they’ve got all the necessary skills but I don’t think they know exactly how to use them yet. And a lot of the clubs they choose are maybe not the right clubs for them. But then that’s down to them. You’re a young man you’ve got to make your own decisions. I haven’t made the right decisions in my career but you live and learn by them – and that’s the only way you can learn in football. But they’ve got it – they just need to tap into a little more.

Schwarzy, agree with that? Maybe that ruthless desire some of you older guys have isn’t as prevalent?

Mark: 100%. Because, you know times have changed and it’s like anything we’ve experienced how football can be and what it used to be like playing for the national team and how difficult it can be. You didn’t have a lot of respect when playing for your country when people didn’t regard you very highly when you were overseas.

The younger guys are coming into a national team that’s a ‘brand’ now, aren’t they…

Mark: 100%. It is very much like Harry says a lot of younger players these days, because of the money in the game and players get rewarded very, very quickly and often get rewarded for doing very, very little. And it’s actually more detrimental to them rather than doing them any good most of the time. And that’s probably one of the hardest things for these younger players coming through to understand. It’s not always guaranteed that if you go overseas and join a club that you’re going to be playing regularly for your national team. I’ve always said you’ve got to be playing regular first team football to warrant selection in the national team.

I know they’ve all come along at different times in your careers and in the national team’s history, but who is the Socceroo manager you look back on as being the best?

Harry: Hiddink for me. He for me knew the game inside and out and he knew how to get the best out of us. I mean, when we were training I could see how he was looking at players, how he knew how to push players, how to get the best out of players but he knew when to stop it as well, because we’re quite feisty. So we’re happy to throw challenges in and he can ride them but he knew when to stop it. But he just knew how to play the game.

Would you agree with Harry?

Mark: …l mean big managers make big decisions whether or not you’re happy with them or not. That’s just a fact of life whether you’re playing in a club team or a national team. He [Hiddink] changed the whole mentality and ethos of the national team. Without a doubt. We went from being a team that over the years really I thought lacking in discipline and direction in a lot of ways to some would say possibly going the other way when it came to discipline and direction.

But he was in it for a very, very short period of time, perhaps only around seven or eight months with the national team and he had a goal. And that was the only goal he ever had and like Harry said he knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish. And he knew by looking at the players looking at the team he knew a system he wanted to play. He had an idea of what the best he could get out of players and that’s what he went for and he was driven for that.

I don’t know whether he could’ve continued to manage the team like he did for a longer period of time. I think for that period of time it was the best possible opportunity.

It was a great experience and obviously my experiences and relationship is well documented over the years in regard to how I felt about it all [being dropped at the World Cup] but as a manager he was very good, very switched on and knew exactly what he wanted, what he wanted to accomplish and how he wanted the team to play.

You know, even carrying on from that and a lot of people didn’t like Pim [Verbeek] but I thought he again had a goal and an objective and we accomplished it. From the outside world no-one’s said it was easy to qualify for the World Cup and I think that’s been lost in potentially with his persona and the way he communicated with the media and outside world. But what he accomplished you can’t take that away. And the way we accomplished qualification for 2010 was excellent. Again that’s continuing on again. What we’ve done since then we’ve been able to carry on that similar ethos with the manager and the way discipline is in the team and that’s continued with Holger [Osieck].

He’s very much his own man and he makes his own decisions. It’s all about trying to get the best result for a game and not necessarily thinking, ‘OK these are my best players and regardless of the situation I’m going to play them’. He’s looking at each game individually and going, ‘Alright, at this moment in time I need these guys and that’s what I’m going to do’. And that’s what he does and it’s worked well for him
so far.

Harry names Hiddink, who would you name?

Mark: The three that we’ve had most recently stand out the most, without a doubt. And don’t get me wrong, Frank [Farina] gave me the chance to come back into the national team after a long time and Eddie Thomson gave me my debut so there’s a lot of history there as well. But these last three managers have been very influential in the whole direction of the way the game’s evolved in this country.

Harry, I was there that day you arrived at Melbourne airport for Melbourne Victory. Schwarzy, did you see that?

Mark: No I didn’t

Harry: Don’t lie! [cue more laughter]

FFT: You must have!

 

 

Mark: I looked on YouTube and all I could find were videos of Harry playing for the national team in his long mullet.

Harry: Oh sure…I’m sure he saw it all.

Mark: My Mum said it was in Woman’s Day.

Harry did you know about the mayhem about to unfold. it was like Lady Gaga arriving!

Mark: I’ve never heard you described as Lady Gaga [cue laughter]

Harry: I’ve been fortunate enough…

Mark: … To meet Lady Gaga?

Harry: No! I’ve been fortunate enough to walk out to two lots of crowds where you can be appreciated. Obviously to turn up at Melbourne after the long flight and you’re sitting there and the doors open and you could hear just all this ranting and you think, ‘What’s that?’. You know?

So you had no idea what was brewing?

Harry: I had no idea. And then after a while the police started surrounding me and I’m thinking ‘well’s what’s going on?’ So I asked and they said there were a few people out there. I actually thought it was my Mum, just to welcome me and all that. But I had all my luggage and as you come out you can just hear them start singing and all of that. And just before the doors completely opened then bang it just hits you.

You know, it’s just [pauses]… I don’t know. I suppose you can have all the stuff in the world but something like that you’ll always remember. And my flight was delayed and I think the fans were there since 5am and I didn’t come out till 7am.

FFT: 7.12am actually!

Harry: Oh, okay [cue laughter]. And that’s what I mean. A lot of people got up very early and I can only thank them. I don’t know unless you’re there. It’s like when you score, it’s a great feeling when you look up and see the crowd roaring and they’re feeling your passion, it’s something special. I go back to 2005 when we qualified. One of my favourite pictures is the team running. I actually stand there and I’m behind for a quick second. But I actually stood there and actually watched. So when John [Aloisi] put it in and then that split second…

Mark: I was actually quicker than you and John! Do you remember that?

Harry: But don’t forget you don’t run in the game! They make me laugh they come in [the keepers] and say, ‘When are we training next?’ You serious? I just ran 13km in a game in stinking heat or freezing cold and you’re like, ‘Yeah it’s okay’!

But going back to that night... I had a chance when John scored to take it all in and it was exactly like that day [at the airport]. You wish you could step out of it and look at it from a higher view. It happens in an instant and that’s when you look back and think when it’s on TV, ‘Well that’s just fantastic’. And teenage girls screaming which of course happens with you Schwarzy…

Mark: Mine are the older ones – the mothers and grandmothers! [cue laughter].

Harry: I can’t put it into words. It’s something that’ll always be dear to me, when you get a reception like that. You kind of think, this feels great. This feels where want to be.