After the departure of club lynchpin Matt McKay, Brisbane Roar midfielder Massimo Murdocca is now the mini maestro who makes the country’s best side tick.

Firstly, congratulations on the unbeaten record, how do you look back on that achievement now?
It was disappointing that we could not go on with it. For it to end so suddenly after we broke the record was the really disappointing part – we thought we had a good shot of going pretty far with it. When you look back on the tough times I have had at the Roar in previous years and then see that we have gone 36 games unbeaten, you have to take that! Overall, very proud of what we have achieved.

How have you found playing in the Roar midfield without Matt McKay by your side? Has it changed your game?
With Matty leaving, that changed the whole team. I was always on the right side, but since Matty left I have been swapping and changing around. So from week-to-week I don’t know where in the midfield I will be playing. Everybody has to adapt to these things and that is what I am doing at the moment – adapting to different styles in midfield. So every player has to be ready to play in any position.

Having seen Matty go overseas, has that spurred your desire to do the same in the near future?
It is great to see him go over – it shows how far you can go with your career. Matty and I were in the same boat for a couple of years and I was up there with him in terms of performances before breaking my leg [in 2009]. He has really progressed year-by-year and now he has finally made it. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if I hadn’t got hurt, maybe I would be in a similar situation to Matty. But you can’t look at it like that, everyone has a different path. After the leg break I feel like I’m finally starting to hit my straps physically again.

After a few key players left, there was a concern that Brisbane might struggle. That certainly hasn’t happened – why?
It has always been about what Ange [Postecoglou] wants and he has been very clever with the players he has bought in to replace the guys who left. The new guys have settled really quickly. People say Mohammad still has time to try and adapt as he is so young, but in my opinion all of the new guys have adapted from day one. We really gelled together quickly and we saw that through the opening rounds.

Another major difference is you are the team everyone wants to beat – Sydney played their best all season against you – how do you go about handling that?
What encouraged Sydney’s performance was our lack of performance – we were off our game that day and it helped them a lot. We have to concentrate on persisting with the way we want to play. If we move away from that, we will bump into real big problems. We have to stick to our structure and philosophy, and what we have done for the past 18 months – then there is no reason why we could not return to our winning ways.

You represented Australia at various youth levels, how much does making a Socceroos cap rank in your career aims?
For this season, from the first day of pre-season, my ultimate goal has been to stay healthy and not get injured again. That has been a success so far, as I have not had any mishaps. That has been a boost to my confidence, both in games and at training. That is different to last year, where I was constantly thinking that I might pick up an injury as there always seemed to be an issue. That had a lot to do with my recovery from a broken leg. There are still a lot more rounds to deal with this season and hopefully they can be injury-free. If I can be successful in that department, my performances will be my focus next year. The Socceroos is a tough one – you have to be on your game for the whole season. If I can start next season injury-free, then anything is possible after that.

This issue focuses on how smaller footballers have come to rule the game. As a smaller player yourself, how did that affect the development of your game?
Every time I felt I was progressing in my career, there would be a coach come up to me and explain to me that I should not listen to what people are saying about my height. I never really used to notice that type of negativity from anybody! So people were being negative behind my back about my size, which is an issue that should not matter in football. Whether you are tall or short, you have your own ability and strengths. I like to think that my agility and ball control are my strengths. Those characteristics have got me here.

How important is it that you are at Brisbane, a club whose playing style suits a smaller, ball-player like yourself?
I was chatting to [Besart] Berisha about this the other day. He was talking about how my game would not suit another A-League team. He asked how I could play in a side which knocked the ball long. I thought about that and it is hard to figure out what would happen in my career if I played at another club and if I would just fall away. Being in a team that likes to play the ball along the ground and never goes long, that is the perfect thing for me. I am very grateful that Ange came along, as if another coach had joined and told the boys to knock it long, I would have got lost. I probably wouldn’t be talking to you, I would probably be in one of the local leagues!

This article appeared in the February 2012 issue of Australian FourFourTwo magazine. To buy back copies of this issue call 03-8317-8121 with a credit card to hand.

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