Vukovic retired.
Hell of a career.
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I was expecting him to announce it in his captain speech after the match. Felt like he was going to.
Bloody champion.
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Last nightās GF finale was insane & one of the all time greatest Aus football moments.
I think locals will be talking about that night for years to come. Could be a real defining moment where the Mariners & football really become the #1 team of the Coast after being a neglected NRL region for so long.
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He did have a brief moment where he looked like he was choking back tears.
Glad he didnāt though. Would have made it all anout him, and bring the professional he is, he knew it wasnāt the right time and place.
The next day, once heād had a couple beers to nurse the hangover through the celrbration at Erina Fair was probably the right time for it.
The team certainly knew however.
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Aside from a silly brainwave early in his career (some say Mark Shieldās arm hasnāt stopped hurting since) heās been one of Australiaās greatest goalkeepers. Never had the international or overseas career of Schwarzer, but he truly deserved to have it.
He deserves all the accolades and praise. An utter professional on and off the field, if he was guarding the old onion bag between the posts you felt safe as houses.
An absoloute privilege to have him play for Sydney and whilst it was for only a season, it was an unforgettable season. Part of a legendary team.
The league will not be as good without him playing in it, but the Mariners goalkeeping youth are going to be in the safest of dinner plate sized hands. Absoloute King.
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I sort of forgot he played over in Belgium for a few years, wining the Belgium first division and Belgian Cup. As well as the player of the year for Genk.
What a career, 10 major trophies by my count
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We got 850k for him from Genk.
Absoloute bargain they got. We shoulda stuck a 2 in front of that.
Big for the Mariners. Heās spoken about how much heās enjoyed it so good to see him sign a long contract. Been a great signing
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Thatās quite a coup. And if he continues in current form, they will get good money for him.
Yeah thatās a great bit of business, heās a great player.
Diving team didnāt want him? Yes, Iām bitter.
Despite all their recent success, prize money and transfer money, Mariners arent in a good spot financially. Can only iamgine what that means for some other teams
Yep - relatively low costs (but also relatively low commercial income), lots of prizemoney, lots of transfer fees, still bleeding.
Problem is that the league (and each of its clubs) needs to project confidence rather than pour a bucket of shit over it all.
I would think you wouldnāt want to include prize money when making an assessment of a clubs financial health, anyway.
But yeah must be frustrating. Whats their path to growth? Attendances could be better, I suppose. Other than thatā¦ Itās hard to imagine them pulling huge, juicy sponsorshipsā¦ Their player sales revenue has been good, but Iām sceptical about its long term trajectoryā¦
Thereās also just the basic fact of owning football clubs - itās a vanity exercise. Itās like owning a boat; the only way to make a small fortune is to start with a large fortune.
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Well Peil says in that email that his goal is to make the club self sufficient, so super rich vanity sugar daddies are off the table, apparentlyā¦
Iām sure owning your own ground would make a big difference.
At the moment all of the clubs are paying a council or company to play out of their ground and donāt get any benefit from the concessions sold at their games.
Not saying that owning the facility would see them break even but it would definitely lower the overheads.
Free grounds are hard to find. All the others cost a lot of money to own and maintain.
I donāt know that ownership would necessarily be cheaper.
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