Joey Schirripa’s season came to an end at the weekend when Manly United lost 2-1 against Sydney Olympic in their elimination semi of the Telechoice Premier League.

The midfielder has impressed for Phil Moss’s side during a successful campaign where United at one stage were Sutherland’s main rivals for the league title.

His form caught the attention of Sydney FC boss John Kosmina who took both Schirripa and Cole on trial during the club’s pre-season with a view to pick one to fill the final spot in his limited player roster.

“As with any player who gets that close, I was disappointed that I didn’t sign for Sydney, there’s no doubt about it,” admitted Schirripa.

“Especially coming awfully close and then having Sydney opt for someone like Colesy where they felt they needed his style of play at the time.

“They were lacking a little bit on the right side also and me traditionally being a left-sided player, in the end they needed someone who could also play on the right.

“But the experience with them was good and life goes on.”

Schirripa spent his earlier playing days competing in the NSL during its final years in existence, also enjoyed a brief spell with Sydney FC during the first season of the A-League.

“I had four years in the NSL with Northern Spirit, Newcastle [United] and [Sydney] Olympic, so I had played at the highest level in the country before the A-League popped up.

“I found the NSL standard very similar to that of the A-League but when I spent that first year with Sydney under Pierre Littbarski and Ian Crook, I really enjoyed it.

“I was on a short-term deal there for about 3 or 4 months and it is just unfortunate that I got injured, which kind of cut it short."

The Manly midfielder conceded there is a chasm between the standard of the top-flight of Australian football and the state competitions, which he believes is largely the result of the contrasting semi-professional structure of the two tiers.

He added: “There is a big difference between the state league and the A-League now, there’s an obvious step-up.

“I’ll agree with the rest of the boys that you can’t dedicate your whole time to being a footballer.

“I’ve got a job through the day which means I have to go from work straight to training. My days begin at 7 in the morning, I work close to 10 hours during the day and then go to training for 3 hours. I can’t build my life around football because unfortunately, it’s not my sole income and not full-time.

“So any player who is coming from the Premier League into an A-League club midway though the season or at this time of the year is going to be disadvantaged.

"The A-League boys have been training day-in-day-out for three months, fine tuning their weaknesses and strengths, while we’re working away like normal folk - like the average punter - and then training at six.”

From a personal perspective, Schirripa believes the limitations of such a lifestyle had a major impact on his chances at signing with Sydney.

“I couldn’t have dedicated my whole time to Sydney and they knew that and that’s probably an advantage that Colesy had, being able to dedicate his whole time to it.

“Unfortunately I was in a position where I couldn’t afford to spend all day to train, so that might have played a big part.

“But I guess hindsight is a beautiful thing. What’s happened now is done and dusted, I’m a pretty big believer in destiny and fate and obviously for some reason it wasn’t meant to be.”

When asked to compare himself to Cole, Schirripa gave a fairly diplomatic response.

“In a way we play a similar game but technically I think I’m just as good," he said.

“If I had anything over Colesy it’s my experience; I’ve spent years playing at different levels in the country but I understand he’s spent time overseas too though.

“I think it’s hard to compare and say whose a better player because we are fairly different in some ways but just as Shannon said he thinks he can compete in the A-League, so do I.

“I think if my chance had come around I would have done a job just like him.”

Nonetheless, the midfielder has enjoyed his season at Manly and is appreciative of the efforts of manager Phil Moss throughout the campaign.

“On a personal level I’ve known Mossy [Phil Moss] for many years now, I played football with him at Northern Spirit.

“So Mossy’s been really good for me, he knows my game fairly well and we discussed my game on a regular basis and he gives some really good insights.

“The good thing about Mossy is that he tries to run a very professional ship down at Manly, he keeps everything really well organised and he’s very passionate about the game and about coaching and even though we’re semi-professional we tried to keep it as professional as possible.

“It starts from the coaching side of things and Mossy does set a professional atmosphere up from the start.”