Craig Moore
It wasn’t meant to be this way. Queensland Roar captain Craig Moore’s A-League debut in the opening round of the season had been touted as the return of the prodigal son. From English Premier League and Socceroo World Cup glory to the Sunshine State, it was the feel-good story of the off-season. Instead, the return turned into a horrible nightmare.

Moore’s first ever club game on home soil ended on 68 minutes when he clattered into Adelaide starlet Nathan Burns. A second yellow then a red card were brandished by referee Ben Williams as ugly scenes broke out on the park.

“Frustration got the better of me,” recalls Craig Moore some months after his sorry trudge down the players’ tunnel at Suncorp Stadium. “It was my first game and I wasn’t happy with the way it had gone for us and was eager to do well. In the end I got a second yellow which I was disappointed with at the time. There was a little bit of contact. These things happen.”

His coach and former national team boss Frank Farina took him aside and had a word the following week and since then, Moore has been measured. Clinical. Efficient.

As he says, it’s not about being fantastic, it’s about being consistent. “I don’t want to be a player who doesn’t do well. If anything, I showed I still have a fire in my belly,” he says of his red card. “I want to come back and win things, I’ve always been like that. The day that leaves me is the day I should hang up my boots.

“I didn’t have the full pre-season like the rest of the lads and I’d come off quite a lengthy break. To be honest, I was a bit underdone. Being honest is Craig Moore’s stock in trade. It’s why he’s so respected. He’s an intelligent, no-nonsense professional whose experience at 31 is proving invaluable for Queensland Roar.

That’s why Moore doesn’t distance himself from comments made earlier in the season about how the A-League needs to improve on the park.

“There are improvements to be made and for me, those improvements are in the thought processes,” he argues in his unique Scottish-Australian accent. “Seeing passes before you get the ball. The leagues in Europe, the one- and two-touch football – it’s impressive because people know their passes before they get the ball. For me, this is one area that we need to improve on. And at times, that’s very hard to coach because it comes down to a player’s instinct.

“But it’s important to push that and try to educate players to know what they are going to do before they get the ball, because that tends to slow the game down.”

Coincidentally, around the time Moore made these comments, the FFA released its National Football Development Plan. In it, the FFA advocates a nationwide plan for junior footballers to play on small-sized pitches. Moore supports this concept.

“This would definitely have a positive impact on younger players. That education of playing in tighter areas… And remember, no-one can travel as quick as the ball can. The best teams can move the ball.

“A lot of the training needs to be in possession in tighter areas. You really need to learn to hold onto the ball in tighter areas. The decision making has to be quicker. Otherwise you’re going to get caught,” he adds. “It’s about knowing your options before you get the ball and it’s also about other players getting in early positions to want to take the ball as well. It works both ways. You need the movement off the ball as well.

“At the Roar, we’ve been working hard on when we win possession, we try to maintain that rather than trying to play killer balls straight away. You work hard to win the ball so you try to keep it.”

However, keeping Australia’s best young talent is never going to change, forecasts Moore, who left Australia when he was 17 after starring in the 1993 World Youth Championships. He says it’s a fact of football life for this part of the football globe.

“Obviously our game will come on in leaps and bounds over the next few years. But the unfortunate thing here is we’re still going to lose the likes of your Burns and [Bruce] Djite. Because I can’t see clubs in Australia being able to compete financially. And Burns is way ahead of anyone his age right now.

“Let’s face it, young players’ dreams are to become professional footballers and do well for themselves. As long as we continue to improve and educate players, that’s the most important thing.

“I see the same potential as to what I’ve seen in the UK in terms of ability. Though in Europe they become a lot more streetwise, a lot earlier than here. Younger players here are a little more naïve but in a good way. For example, knowing how to kill the game off and not let teams get back into games in the last 10 minutes.

But Moore’s also keen to point out the positives. “I have been impressed by the standard. It’s been better than anticipated in terms of the ability of the players.”

Apart from a controversial six months in 2005 at Borussia Moenchengladbach, which released Moore after he had a falling out with management, it’s been a career that’s seen him play in the English Premiership with Newcastle and the Scottish Premiership at Glasgow Rangers where he got to play in the European Champions League. Oh, and he’s a World Cup goalscorer too.

“It was a strange thing, but I had no nerves,” he says of his first half penalty against Croatia at the 2006 World Cup. “I’m normally quite nervous before a game, which I feel is a good thing because you know you’re going to have a good game if you have nerves. It was adrenaline with that penalty. I knew we needed to get back into the game as soon as possible. It was a great opportunity and my thoughts at that time were just to make good contact with the ball.

“I was very, very confident but I’ve also shown you can miss them,” he laughs, in reference to his miss against the Newcastle Jets in round nine this season.

Moore is a firm believer that the key to the Socceroos’ success was Guus Hiddink’s brutal fitness regime.

“We were in unbelievable shape. We couldn’t have been any fitter to be honest. He worked us so hard that after training, players were just in bed sleeping trying to regain all their energy for the next session.

“What he brought to the squad was fierce competition and competitiveness for places. And that’s always a good thing, whether it be club or national team football. It wasn’t a training session, it was like a game. You played under match conditions.”

Over the years, the Aussie spirit inside Socceroo camps has been a key to Moore’s love of the Green and Gold.

“There were times when maybe you go through tough spells at your club, or maybe you just needed that bit of variety. That was always a fantastic time to meet up with the boys and hear all the stories. It’s always good times and that was the real buzz about meeting up with the national team. Other national teams, like England, I feel as if the last thing they want to do is actually meet up together.”

However, Moore sounds like a man who has almost certainly come to a decision regarding his beloved Socceroos.

“If I committed myself 100 percent I’m sure I could do it. But I just believe, being back in Australia, for me to do it properly, I’d have had to have stayed in Europe.

“Realistically, you need to have come off the back of a big season of European football at the elite level. It’s one of those things. My gut feeling at the moment is no matter who comes in, I’ll not look to be a part of that.

“I’m not somebody who wants to play a bit part. I believe I’m still good enough, but being back in Australia with a long off-season… I do believe you need to be playing at the highest possible level to translate that into the international scene.

“I’d rather be in a position where I walked away on my own terms rather than somebody tapping me on the shoulder. I just feel it’s not 100 percent at the moment but the memories I have from the 2006 World Cup are going to be very hard to repeat.

“I feel I’ve achieved everything I set out to achieve. Not too many players win the Champions League or the World Cup and I’m just another who falls into that boat. But I’m very happy with what I’ve achieved.”

Besides, he’s not missing the UK. Not much, anyway. “I’ve done it for 14 years and there comes a time for me when enough’s enough. I had a good crack at it, but I’m more than happy to come back and hopefully have an impact on other players who have the same dreams as I did when I was a young boy.”