Hiariej signed with the Mariners in the off-season after a 10-year career in Holland.

The Dutchman has played nine of the club’s 10 fixtures in this campaign, missing yesterday’s 1-0 loss to Melbourne City with injury.

Asked about his adjustment to the A-League, Hiariej told FourFourTwo: “It’s a league where every team can win. Everybody can beat everybody, which is different to Europe and that’s a really nice thing in the A-League I think.

“(After upsetting Sydney FC) Sydney are still a good team and maybe are favourites for the title. But if we are good we can beat Sydney, we can beat everyone and it’s the same thing for our other opponents.

“The standard is different to Europe, here it’s more fighting and a physical game. Here the players are stronger. Europe is more (about) tactics. But I’m a player who needs to play football so it’s good.”

The 29-year-old has built a strong partnership in centre midfield with fellow Dutchman Wout Brama.

“We’re working good together and I think the midfield is important for the team,” Hiariej said.

“We’ve done a good job so far.”

The Mariners currently sit in fifth position on the ladder after an ambitious off-season recruiting program that included a major squad overhaul.

“We got 11 new players or 12,” Hiariej said.

“From the first XI there are a lot of new players, of course we train everyday with each other, but you learn the most from the games when you play for points. And I hope now that we learn and know each other better, we can build on to the next games.”

A Dutch U21 international, Hiariej spent a decade with Eredivise club FC Groningen.
The midfielder said he will be supporting the Socceroos at next year’s World Cup after the Oranje failed to qualify for Russia.

“I watched Australia’s game (against Honduras), I was really happy,” he said.

“I’m going to support to Australia for the World Cup. Holland needs to improve in general. Also in the Eredivise because we are losing some European spots as well. It's not going better with the Dutch football but I think in the future we will be improving.

"The quality players like Robben, Sneijder and van Persie, they're getting old now. Some new people have to stand up and that's not what it is until now. There are some good, quality players coming through but you can't compare them to the big players of the past.

"And that's maybe a difficult thing for Holland. But hopefully we get some new talent."