"I threw up on my way home from the game the other night. I had to pull over three times and I spewed my guts up," the new Sydney FC player told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"Straight after the game I felt exhausted. I think that was the main reason. So there I was, in a Maccas car park next to a dumpster in my Sydney FC suit spewing my guts up. Not too glamorous, eh?" the 24-year set-piece specialist said with a laugh.

The increased intensity compared to the second tier state league – where he was signed from Sydney Olympic - was rammed home to Cole who said he felt he "had no time to rest during the game".

But his contribution showed why he was named in FourFourTwo magazine's Ten Best Players Outside The A-League feature three months ago.

"The only time I could rest was when I was walking over to take set pieces. Melbourne kept the ball pretty well which made it hard too.

"And you can't hear each other, you have to yell instructions," he added of playing in front of 16,000 plus fans in the 0-0 draw.

Throwing up aside, Cole is revelling in the fact that, as he says, "I get up in the morning to go do the thing I love every morning.

"And Kossie's got a great sense of humour. Even though he gets the job done, he's a fun guy to have around."

But Cole isn't laughing about the crossover in league scheduling which has seen him miss out on this weekend's NSW Premier League finals. His club Olympic plays Manly and the Blues will be missing their star wingback.

"It's a strange situation. I've worked so hard with those boys all year and now I'm missing the finals. It's not the A-League or state league clubs' fault there is this overlap," said Cole.

The player hopes the FFA can work out a scheduling solution in the future. As it stands, it effectively sees the state league clubs penalized three times.

Not only do they lose their best players but they lose them at finals time. What's more in NSW, a fixed transfer of $3000 hardly rewards this increasingly important breeding ground for developing stars for the A-League.

Milan Blagojevic, Cole's coach at Sydney Olympic, admitted he has mixed feelings about his former player's ascension to the big league.

"I'm really glad for him. He looked comfortable and composed and he walked away with a memorable debut," the former Olyroo and Heerenveen star told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"We don't want to stand in players but it does mean we are weakened," he said. Ironically, FC's Chris Payne is also a product of Manly and is in a similar boat.

The pair are just two of a number of state league players who've been called on in season four of the A-League. Seven have been called up from the NSWPL alone, including Pedj Bojic at the Mariners, Ray Younis at Adelaide and David D'Apuzzo for the Mariners.

At Perth, Scott Bulloch and Mark Lee have made the step up to the Glory while in Queensland, they've mined a rich seam including Michael Zullo and Robbie Kruse last season and Tommy Oar, Tim Smits and Adam Sarota this year.

And with the A-League set to expand to 12 and perhaps even 14, the state leagues will be an increasingly valuable supply line.

Cole hopes the clubs' fixtures won't overlap as they've done this season and penalise these clubs, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet in the low-rent world of state league footy.

But for the moment, the only thing on Cole's mind is the Central Coast this Saturday. It looms as another exciting NSW derby, but the versatile wingback says he may not even make the starting line-up.

"When I got back on the training park on Monday, I realised how tough it was going to be to get into the side for Saturday's game," he said.