Like Spagnuolo, the demise of the Fury has marked the end of Gareth Edds’ football career. Having rejected approaches from rival A-league clubs during the 2010-2011 season Edds was eager to remain at the Fury after returning to Australia from England with his family. “I didn’t expect it to happen. I could have stayed in England but I chose to come back expecting to extend my career, unfortunately it worked out the other way.”

Unable to find another A-league club immediately after the demise of the Fury, Edds says it has been an extremely difficult period. “We always had hope it was going to hang around [the Fury]. The feeling you get when someone turns around and says that is it, the club is closed... you are left in a position where you are lost.

“It was so difficult – you are used to playing. Throughout my career in England I didn’t stop. You are always thinking about how you can make yourself better, then suddenly you have to work out how you are going to survive. How am I going to keep my family going?”

Far from turning his back on the game, Edds opted to stay in Townsville and establish his own football academy – the Gareth Edds Soccer Academy. Edds says he had always planned to move into coaching after his playing days were over, but had not planned for it to be so sudden. Thoroughly enjoying his new career, Edds says he feels most for the younger members of the Fury squad who have so far been unable to find new clubs. “For some it was their first experience in the A-League. At the end of the day I have played a lot of games. I have had a career. Some of these kids haven’t had a chance to start their career.”

Like Edds, North Queensland product Matt Ham decided to hang up his boots and pursue a  new career after the demise of the Fury. The goalkeeper is pursuing a career in Sports Science and after much soul searching is now undertaking a Masters. “When the decision came to pan us, it kind of took all the motivation and wind out of my sails to get back into football,” says Ham. “I had to look at what the hell I was going to do and I decided to do my Masters. As I thought my playing days were over it was the next best thing to be involved with athletes to train them. Trust me, it was a very hard decision and it has taken me a while to get my head around not playing footy and knuckling down and studying.”

Ham says the season had many difficulties both personally and as a club. Having seen serious injuries ruin his previous spell in the A-League with Brisbane Roar, the Fury was the second chance he had been seeking. However, injury struck again and his season was ruined when he sustained a serious knee injury at training. “The uncertainty over the future of the club played havoc on all of us. We had futures to secure; some boys had families. It was tough to be involved in,” adds Ham.

Teammate Nikas agrees that the insecurity surrounding the club affected performances on the pitch. “In the last few months guys were turning up and you could see their minds weren’t on training. It was like ‘does anyone have any news on the Fury and what is happening?’,” says Nikas. “It was difficult but maybe if we had played a bit better and things were on our side, and say, we came fifth, maybe it would have pushed the FFA not to kick us out.”

Ham says that other factors besides the uncertainty surrounding the club had a major impact on the Fury’s performances. Chief among these was Coach Franz Straka. “The coach was very poor,” he says. This may come as a shock for some fans considering how popular Straka was at the Fury. “He had a great affinity with the supporters but I believe he lost the dressing room quite early in the season with his poor tactics, training sessions and treatment of players, especially the young ones.”

Ham says he is not one to criticise coaches just because he may disagree with them, but feels Straka had such a negative influence on the playing squad it was impossible for it not to impact on performances.

“He singled out players for his failings as a coach and his dictator mentality stopped other coaches and staff from doing their jobs. For instance, our pre-season was taken out of our strength coach’s hands – doing weird resistance circuits and swimming and other weird things,” adds Ham. “Our injuries were deemed not serious enough when the physios thought otherwise and sometimes we were punished for being injured.”

Teammate Adam Casey agrees with Ham’s assessment of Straka and says the public perception of the Czech coach was very different to the reality. “Franz was good for the fans but his strategies didn’t help us at all. We weren’t coached well and many of the decisions he made on tactics and training sessions were very weird.”

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