Phillips, from Coffs in NSW, was a decorated NSL player, playing for two decades and winning the famous 1997 Brisbane Grand Final for the Strikers against Sydney United at Suncorp. He was also a Sydney Olympic legend having played for the club for over a decade.

After his career ended, Phillips has had 20 years in the coaching game.

He famously won an NSL championship in 2002 with Olympic in Perth against Glory in front of a massive crowd at Subiaco. He also won an NSL Premiership the following year.

Phillips is a real all-rounder: working in high performance, Technical Director/Coach education, head coach national league teams,  National Youth teams, W-League, Tom Sermanni’s assistant at 2009 Asian Cup with Matildas and as a commentator with Fox Sports, Astro Super Sports and ESPN Asia as commentator/ pundit/ writer.

He is currently working as TD for North Coast Football, and working for FFA delivering advanced courses across the country.

Sawtell’s finest recounts some of his tales from the coaching life here and abroad.

PIGS, WIND AND BAREFOOT FOOTBALL

Aido, Tonga brings back some bizarre memories…

I was their national coach around 2001.

The clubs in the league, they’d travel by boat across the islands to play in the league on Saturday mornings.

If it was too rough, the players couldn’t play as the boats wouldn’t sail. A fixture would be off. An entire team wouldn’t be able to play because it was too windy on the water!

My first game in charge of the national team was against a local club side.

When I turned around to the bench to make a substitution, I saw my subs had no boots on.

When I asked them where their boots were, they pointed to the pitch and said they’d lent their boots to the players on the pitch in the starting XI.

The club sides would play in bare feet.

SING WHEN YOU'RE LOSING (22-0!)

We played Australia in a World Cup qualifier in Oz. And of course, they had to play the games in my home town Coffs Harbour. 

FIFA regulations state you must wear shin pads and boots. So we basically spent our budget and ordered 20 boots from Fiji. They cost $5 each pair.

So the day before we had a session in our new boots and for some players, it was the first time they’d ever worn boots.

Our first game in a World Cup qualifier was against Australia, and all my players had blisters from their new boots!

We lost 22-0.

So we’re on the bus back and I’m absolutely gutted.

But it’s Tongan tradition to break into song. They love their church singing over there but after a 22-0 loss, I wasn’t exactly ready to break out in joyous song!

I was getting phone calls from the BBC. It was a huge story as we’d set a new world record! Though not one we wanted to be known for.

PIG OUT

Socially, it was interesting in Tonga. 

We’d be taking pigs to parties as a present to cook and feed everyone.

Pigs back then would roam the streets and backyards, basically everywhere.

FIFO COACH WITH ROOS

I worked as Director of Schools Development in Queensland during my Strikers days. I ran courses across the state.

One time I had to run a course in Quilpe, which is in the middle of Queensland in the cotton farm fields with a small population.

One of the farmers flew in on his plane to Brisbane airport on a weekend, I jumped into his plane and he flew to his backyard.

His backyard was his runway.

I walked in and there were kangaroos in the house! Obviously, they weren’t taking my course.

I then ran the course in his backyard for local farmers who wanted to learn how to coach and flew back to Brisbane on Sunday afternoon.

"WE'RE PLAYING 4-4-2!"

I coached Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia's second division in 2016 and we were flying.

But with us second on the ladder and bound for the top division, the committee in their wisdom decided they wanted to change things.

They weren’t happy with our 4-3-3 system. They wanted to go back to a 4-4-2 and change our international players.

Which meant Andrew Nabbout and Joel Chianese - who everyone knows have gone on to do really well in their careers since - were sacked.

Our two leading goal scorers across the whole league and they wanted to fire them!

They wanted to bring in two new players. The Vice President of the club and major sponsor wanted me to front the committee and tell them it was my idea to sack the two players because I wasn’t happy with them and we wanted to change our formation.

I refused.

So he took everything out of my control, picked the team, played 4-4-2 and brought in his own players. He told us when to train, how often.

I was a dead man walking.

I had a one year contract, I saw the season out but losing those two players for the squad was a major mind shift.

The squad couldn’t believe what happened. We finished fourth.

FANS MAKE A STATEMENT

The fans at Negeri were so furious about what happened with Andrew and Joel, they actually cut a water buffalo head off and planted it on the door of the club’s football office!

The head of a water buffalo!! 

Imagine going to work and seeing that in the A-League!

The fun and games of politics in football in Malaysia.

TAYLOR'S FAN FAUX PAUS

On a lighter note! Taylor Regan was captain of the club at the time, and hugely popular.

He went to the fans after a game following the Nabbout and Chianese sacking and started singing with them, chanting and clapping his hands over his head.

The fans loved it.

What Taylor didn’t know was the fans were chanting to get rid of the committee.

“Reegs” didn’t know what was going on.

Our team manager could see what was happening and mortified, sprinted over to get him out of there!

Taylor had no idea…

QUIET BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH EL PRESIDENTE

I worked with the AFC in the coach education department.

The President of AFC at the time, Mohamed Bin Hamman, would often come to the office. This was before all the FIFA allegations surfaced.

And if it was your birthday you got to sit with the President, have your cake and have lunch with the President.

It was his way of appreciating what you did.

Of course, you weren’t allowed to speak to the President.

You just sat there and ate in silence.

He was a powerful man and he did a lot of good things for AFC.

But interesting times were soon to follow in the AFC.

SPY GAMES IN NAM

Soon after Tonga, I was offered Fiji National team and agreed to terms. But the day before I was to fly, I rang and said ‘sorry not coming’. I was not ready to step back into coaching.

Fortunately, an opportunity in Vietnam came up (Andy Harper actually made contact with Da Nang City FC for me).

I was offered Director of Youth Development. And with two young kids and a willing wife, we were off on another adventure!

Almost three years in Vietnam. The wife loved the adventure, made great friends but only recently we found out we had spies - it was a communist country after all - move in across the road to spy on our movements!

I laugh when I read about this Leeds spy scandal. We actually had three years of it!

We loved Vietnam but from a football perspective, I needed something more.