Au.fourfourtwo.com recently infiltrated the Socceroo camp in Parramatta, Sydney to meet up with Socceroo star Brett Emerton. The Socceroos are still enjoying unprecedented media and public attention, set in motion following the World Cup. Indeed, Emerton and co. had just come off the back of sponsorship commitments with major supporters Hyundai (and can be seen below with the Hyundai Tiburon).

Brett, how is it being back in camp with everyone?
It’s been good so far, we’ve only been in here since Sunday, so it’s only been 24 hours. But it’s been great to catch up with some good mates and see everyone again. Everyone gets on pretty well, so it’s enjoyable.

Have you spoken to the new guys that are in camp? Are there guys here that you’ve never met before?
I mean, there are players that we’ve obviously heard of but haven’t actually met them yet. Since yesterday everyone’s just been coming in, in dribs and drab,s so we haven’t met some of them formally yet. We’ve got our first training session this afternoon, so I’m looking forward to that and meeting them then.

As a senior player, are you more conscious about bringing them in, so to speak, or does it just happen?
Yeah, I guess now as a couple of senior players we have more responsibility, we’ll try and take these players under our wings and try and teach them something. But I don’t know what! [laughs]

How has it been being back in Sydney generally? You’re such a Sydney boy at heart…
Yeah, been back in Sydney a week now, I’ve spent basically the whole time with family and friends. It’s always good to come back, no matter what time of the year it is, and I’ve been enjoying every minute of it. But I’m looking forward to playing in this game on Saturday night, it’s a great opportunity for our family and friends to come watch us play, obviously that doesn’t happen too often. Once that’s over and done with we’ve got a few weeks to enjoy everything before we begin our preparation for the Asian Cup.

Do you stay at the family home when you come back these days?!
Yeah… pretty much. Well, I stay within the area. Obviously when you live so far away you want to stay close to your family, but I don’t live actually with them! I’ve been living away far too long for them to actually put up with that! But it’s great to be back and spending some time.

What about Uruguay this weekend. What are you expecting? It’s a different Socceroos team, but they’ve got a pretty strong line-up...
I think they’ll be strong. Obviously the memory of losing to us a year and a half ago will be fresh in the back of their minds. So they’ll want to come here and put in a good performance and maybe get a little bit of revenge, so hopefully that won’t be the case.

Obviously we’re missing a few players like Viduka and Kewell, Timmy Cahill won’t be playing. But it’s a great opportunity for some of the younger boys and some of the A-League players to step in and show Arnie and the rest of the nation how good a player they really are.

How does that experience still rate? Do you still think about that night much?
Yeah for sure. I think that particular night, and the whole experience of the World Cup in general are the best experiences I’ve been involved with in football. So it was a great occasion and one that we’ll remember forever. No matter what happens on Saturday night though I don’t think it’ll be as good as what it was a year and a half ago, but I think we’re slowly developing a rivalry with Uruguay, which is good. They’re a quality football nation and they give us good, tough games which we need more and more of.

What about before the last game, with the jostling in the tunnel with the Uruguayans. Did that really happen?
To be honest, I think it’s all been blown way out of proportion a little bit. I mean they don’t intimidate us at all, and once you get out on the park it doesn’t matter which two teams are playing; it’s always going to be a very physical game I think. We didn’t expect anything less, and that’s what they gave us and I’m sure it’ll be the same come Saturday night. Even if it’s a friendly… I don’t think there’s such thing as a friendly game anymore.

Do you follow the Dutch League much any more, having played there yourself?
Yeah, I follow it. Not only because when you play in a country you have particular interest in it, but I’ve got friends there who I like to follow. Unfortunately they don’t televise it too much in the UK so I don’t get to see it, so I mainly just follow the results.

Were you happy with your personal season? What about Blackburn’s in general?
I was reasonably pleased. I think for myself it was a pretty good season, played a lot of games and performed quite well. As far as the team’s concerned, I think we can be reasonably happy as well, with a tough year injury-wise. We picked up three or four major injuries to key players who were out for the majority of the season, if not all of it. We had the UEFA Cup to play in this year, and the FA Cup, which we did particularly well in, went to the Semi Final, and to the second Round in the UEFA Cup. All in all I think it was a decent year, and we still finished in the top half of the table.

What is your preferred position now? We’ve seen you move between midfield and defence, as well as attack in different set-ups…
To be honest, I don’t have a preference, I enjoy playing midfield and defence and it’s nice to be able to rotate positions really, it gives you a little bit of variety. This year I played the majority of the year at right back and played quite well.

With Lucas leaving Blackburn… have you missed him as a team, and have you missed him as a team-mate?
Yeah, you always miss quality players such as Lucas, and he is a quality player so any team’s going to miss him when he leaves. Fortunately for us, we are quite strong in that department, so we’ve had players who have stepped in and done a great job as well.

Do you speak much to him now?
Yeah, obviously when he left the club, I was keeping a close eye on his results and getting in touch with him every now and then to see how he was doing. It was a relief for me to see they finally escaped relegation, so I can imagine what it meant to him. It was great to see him finally stay up, and I think they underachieved this year with the money the club’s got and the players they have already. I think next year they’ll probably be a force in the Premiership.

Did you watch the A-League Final, or hear many reports on it?
No, I didn’t get to see it unfortunately but I heard the reports… well, Archie rang me. He left about three messages! It was great to see such a great friend of ours doing so well. Maybe a little bit of a pity that the final wasn’t a little bit closer, but football in Australia is definitely on the way up. We can see by the attendances and the amount of interest. The A-League’s doing great and I intend to be part of it one day after my career hear is finished.

It’s been mentioned quite a few times that you’re one of the ones who is most keen. Can you give fans a possible year on when you will return?
I won’t put a year on it... but my wife would! [laughs]

She wants to come back?
Well, obviously Australia’s a great country to live and I want to come back as soon as possible, but I’ve still got a few good years left in Europe. But I won’t be coming back to Australia when I’m old and no good to nobody, put it that way. I think I’ll be back when I’m in decent condition and can bring something to the A-League.

You’re enjoying the weather here then?
Yeah, lovely. It’s not bad for the middle of winter. 24 degrees, it’s beautiful. Like I say, I can’t wait to move back and be part of the A-League. Who knows, I might even play for Sydney if Branko will have me!


Stand by for more news coming from the Socceroo camp tomorrow – including another exclusive interview featuring PSV Eindhoven’s Jason Culina. He reveals more of his thoughts on the A-League, Sydney FC, his dad and the likelihood of Philip Cocu heading to the harbour city...

And don’t forget to keep your eyes on 442Tube in the next couple of days too – we’ll be featuring some little clips of the boys.