A film crew has been given unprecedented access to the reigning Premiers as they battle to retain their crown throughout the most anticipated season in Australian football history.

Originally planned as six half-hour weekly episodes, producer/director Nick Piper told au.fourfourtwo.com it could be extended given the level of interest.

“In terms of the actual shoot, the access we’ve been given has been far greater than we ever experienced,” Piper said.

The Code: Life with the Mariners opens with boss Graham Arnold and goalkeeping coach John Crawley plotting the downfall of Sydney FC, resulting in the Sky Blues 7-2 shellacking at Bluetongue Stadium in round 5.

Sponsors, players, staff and family were among those attending Monday night’s advanced screening of episode one at Vmax Screen, Events Cinemas, Tuggerah.

Afterwards Fox Sports personality Adam Peacock described the production value and content as “amazing”.

“I was expecting something pretty good and it exceeded that,” Peacock said.

“It’s so well shot and so well put together, and knowing from a television background how hard those things can be to put together and how much work goes in to say, a minute or two minutes, it’s high quality stuff.”

 

au.fourfourtwo.com gives you the first public glimpse of what to expect from the series shot over nine months…

Peacock expects some of the characters in the Mariners’ squad to feature prominently throughout the series with Adriano Pellegrino tipped to emerge as the club’s “funny guy”.

While the club’s off-field financial dramas are likely to be touched on in latter instalments the main focus will be on the football and those that make it happen on the park.

This is the fourth in the series by Onion TV which has tracked the highs and lows of rugby’s HSBC Waratahs, Queensland Reds and netball’s Adelaide Thunderbirds.

And Piper said the relatively short turn around compared with previous editions was the only downside to the project.

“There’s a real energy with football in this country,” he said. “My production team comes from all backgrounds - none of us were football people, as in following it religiously. We came to it with an open mind really and we’ve been well rewarded.

“There’s a real thirst in the football community for everything really – thirst for content, thirst for press, thirst for talkback – anything that’s football related.

“For that reason I think this will rate a lot better than previous series. I think the eyeballs on it will be greater. I think we’ll get a lot more supporters of other teams watching than we’ve had previously.”

Central Coast Mariners Assistant Coach Phil Moss gave the first episode his tick of approval.

“The guys have done a fantastic job, very professional, and I am not ashamed to admit there were goose bumps there watching certain scenes,” Moss said.

“As Nick (Piper) has said from the start, it’s about celebrating what the Mariners are all about.”

Piper and his two-man film crew will continue to follow the Gosford outfit for the rest of the season.

With the Premiership hanging by a knife edge, and Western Sydney Wanderers in the box seat to lift the Premiers Plate, Piper admits this is one story that still has plenty of twists and turns.

“We’ll know the ending before we see it on TV but we’ll be experiencing it in a whole different way to what we’ve been exposed to previously,” he added.

The director has been blown away by the down-to-earth nature of the players and coaches at the Gosford outfit despite careers that have taken many of them around the world.

Filming the rise of playmaker Tom Rogic, snapped up by Scottish giants Celtic this year, has given the film crew a glimpse into the global reach of the game.

Given all that, Piper was surprised by the lack of pretension in football.

“I’ve been driven to games by players,” he said. “In the previous three seasons the rugby players in particular were very much wrapped in cotton wool and it was very much about ritual and the team.

“The inner sanctum can’t really be breached but with the Mariners, they’ve been very welcoming - just getting so close to the players and the coaches, we’ve never had that before ever.”

Backed by Central Coast Tourism and the NSW Government through Destination NSW and its Regional Tourism Partnership Program, the first episode airs on Fox Sports 3 and 3HD at 7.30pm Wednesday.