FourFourTwo Australia: What is your best and worst memory from a grand final?

Archie Thompson: That’s easy, the worst one was when I did my knee in the 2010 grand final loss to Sydney. I don’t remember anything from that game, I mean nothing… maybe because we lost there.. but that was definitely the lowest.

Best, probably… oh the five goals, can’t go past that, but then I was even happier when we won our second one and then the third one. It’s the ones we’ve won are the ones I’ve loved the most.

FFT: Is the pressure on Sydney considering what they’ve achieved in the regular season?

AT: When you look at the season Sydney has had and the format that we have with finals, it’s on them because they’ve created history this year and it would almost be forgotten if they lose because you only remember the winner. Victory have got nothing to lose, they’re going in as underdogs and have been written off, but it’s one-off days.

Last grand final, we won 3-0. They just got bullied from the first minute and that could happen on Sunday where they can’t handle a dominant, physical Melbourne side and the tables could turn and all of a sudden it’s ‘oh my god’ and then you’ve forgotten how much history Sydney created this season, it doesn’t mean anything unless you win the grand final.

FFT: You won in 2007 and 2009, once you got to 2015, did you get used to it?

AT: Oh no, I don’t think you could ever get used to it, it’s really special because it’s so bloody hard to get into a grand final. There’s so many good teams out there, reasonably even, except for this year, there’s too much of a difference in class. I found in previous years teams are lot closer, so every team has a goal at the start of its pre-season which is winning it.

It’s so bloody hard to get there so you got to embrace it. Who knows? I know we went through a little drought there when we won our last one against Adelaide, it was a gap of six years so they don’t come every year, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best team. Sometimes you don’t pass that last hurdle to get to the grand final.

FFT: What does the Big Blue mean to you?

AT: There’s just something about playing against Sydney, it doesn’t matter where, we’re all mates off the pitch but as soon as the whistle goes we hate each other. We want to win and that’s what it was like and I loved scoring against Sydney. We’ve had some huge clashes over my time, games we looked like we’d lose then we come back and win.              

FAN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED ON FFT FACEBOOK

Clint Harrod asked: Do you plan to get into coaching or prefer the TV pundit role?         

AT: That’s funny because when you’re on Fox you don’t see what the actual coaches see. You know a lot about the game, you can read the game it’s all the technical stuff… formations, positioning and when you’re a coach you can see that and give a better analysis of certain situations.

It’s hard to get that out as a player, if you have that coaching experience, you probably find it a bit easier to say what you see. With the coaching side of things, I didn’t know if I was going to be a coach or if I wanted to do it.

Ever since I’ve gone to Murray United and I’ve played and trained with these younger guys that haven’t had the level of coaching I’ve had. Once I say to them ‘I think your run should be onwards or don’t do this..’ when you see it happen and then you see it work and they say ‘thanks Arch, thanks for your feedback’, for me I was buzzing, I’m thinking ‘hey I would really love this’.

I can see why some players embrace that coaching role because it’s really nice to be able to say something, they listen and you watch it and it works. For me now I’m doing my coaching classes in June, just because I’ve got that passion to coach.. I don’t know what level yet but it’s definitely there, I didn’t know it was there until I went to play at grassroots level.

CH: Would you coach any A-League team apart from Melbourne Victory?

I’d like to be involved at Victory, because what I want to be able to do, I want to help Victory as much as I want to help everyone. I want to help the club I love so I know there in the early stages of building a youth structure, I’d love to be a part of that. That’s where I want to be, I want to be at the club I love.

Ibrahim Santangelo: How many goals do you reckon Sydney FC will win by?

AT: I bleed blue brother. But it’s not the sky blue, it’s the dark blue. For me it’s Victory all the way.

Baza Kanaza: When you played American Samoa, did they give you four match balls for scoring the 13 goals?

AT: Nah only got the one, I should’ve! I should probably see if I can.