Just five days on from their landmark win over Tunisia at the World Cup, the Socceroos have continued to enamour the nation following the side’s historic 1-0 victory over Denmark to reach the Round of 16.
The result is a historic feat befitting the squad’s gargantuan efforts navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and two one-off playoff matches to reach the world stage, with the side more than matching the success of 2006’s ‘Golden Generation’.
Soccerscene chatted with Australian football legend, Football Victoria Hall of Fame inductee, and Football Coaches Australia Executive Committee member Gary Cole to discuss the significance of the qualification and how critical Australian football’s next moves are.
As a former Socceroo who has undergone all of the trials and tribulations of international football, how are you feeling with the team more than equaling the efforts of the 2006 squad?
Gary Cole: I’m just incredibly proud of what they’ve achieved thus far. The current team has a part of their brand “many journeys, one jersey” and we’ve all come from different backgrounds and different walks of life. The journey of the Socceroos has been from part-time player, possible teacher, possible bricklayer, through to the golden generation where many of them were playing in the EPL, through to the current generation and their different stories – but we all feel the same amount of pride when we put that jersey on and hear the national anthem play and you realise that you’re out there representing your family and your country. That moment never leaves you; it’s just incredible. I’m so wrapped for they’ve achieved so far and am hopeful for what they might achieve.
How significant is the Socceroos’ qualification to the Round of 16 for Australian football?
Gary Cole: It’s massive. We know firstly, how hard it is to qualify for the World Cup. This is our fifth in a row and our sixth overall but we had that massive gap in between qualifying in ’74 and through to 2006. It was such a long time and was incredibly difficult to get there, and then once you get there, you’re playing 32 of the best teams in the world, and there’s no one where game where a team gets a clean sheet or scores goals easily. For us, by world standards, to get to that Round of 16 is incredible and another great shot in the arm for the game in Australia.
What do you feel will be the impact on the wider Australian sporting landscape?
Gary Cole: That’s so difficult to predict. On my way to film my podcast yesterday I stopped for a coffee, I don’t read the newspapers and haven’t for a long time, but on the table next to me while I was waiting was Melbourne’s Herald Sun. And on the back page there were two or three pictures of the Socceroos and I thought “oh wow Herald Sun, it must be a World Cup”. In The Age there were double-page spreads of the AFL and the Australian cricket team and that sort of gives you a whack between the eyes as you remember where the media is at right now.
Will getting to the Round of 16 change people’s perception? Will it change the mainstream media? History says no, but it adds another layer of credibility to us and this is the world stage. We’re at the biggest sporting event in the world and have made the final 16. Everyone within the game knows it, many of the people outside of the game know, and then there’s a section of government that continue to ignore it. So, what do you do? You just ignore it and keep scoring the goals and hopefully one day we’ll get there.
T.O.G.E.T.H.E.R!!!!#GiveIt100 #Socceroos #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/XX9XdtKPri
— Socceroos (@Socceroos) November 30, 2022
Graham Arnold spoke ahead of the Denmark game about the need for a review into Australia’s youth development pathways in football. With the Socceroos reaching the Round of 16 and the Matildas hosting a Women’s World Cup next year, what do you feel is necessary from Football Australia and the Australian Professional Leagues to capitalise on the momentum?
Gary Cole: I think Ernie Merrick, as our Chief Football Officer, has a massive job because the pathways need freshening up. There’s no doubt there’s a whole bunch of confused people, and there’s organisations doing things in different ways.
We hang past the development of our players to A-Leagues and NPL clubs through their academies to private academies over the journey. We had a wonderful AIS and state Institutes of Sport and that played such a significant part. And we decided to do away with those and this was going to be the next best way of doing it – that’s proved to have a measure of success but maybe it could be more.
That’s what we need to do. We’ve got to get everyone (somehow) on the same page and determine the best way to help us develop our players. And I’ve got a bit of a bias because I’m on the Technical Committee of Football Coaches Australia. But if we want better players, we’ve got to have better coaches. You can’t have better players without investing in coaching development and not just licensing. Getting people their licence is great but it’s a bit like giving an 18-year-old a driver’s licence: giving you access to the road doesn’t make you a great driver, that takes a lot of time, effort, and in some cases mistakes.
We’ve got to help our coaches do better and in doing so our players will get better. If we can arrive at a point where there’s a more unified pathway forwards – that’s my answer in the short-term.
Having coached yourself and been a part of the executive committee at Football Coaches Australia, how significant of an achievement is this for Graham Arnold as a coach?
Gary Cole: Well, it’s just another huge pat on the back for an Australian coach. Arnie’s one of a growing range of male and female coaches that are performing on the world stage, and it seems like every month someone else pops up. The thought of Ange taking over in Japan and Scotland and “can he actually win it?” and then it happens, and then Kevin Muscat taking over in Japan and doing the same. And now Paddy Kisnorbo has gone to France, Tanya Oxtoby is at Chelsea, Belinda Wilson is in a women’s technical role in FIFA.
It just adds to this armoury of wonderful Australian male and female coaches doing great things around the world that we should hold up with esteem and look at how we got this lot through and how to get the next lot through. We could look at this right now and say it’s our ‘golden generation of coaches’. But unlike the players, how do we make sure we have the next generation coming through. We’ve got thousands of coaches licensed but how do we get them to do better. Hopefully, Arnie having this success and being celebrated is made all the more wonderful of an achievement if it’s then part of the overall truth of how do we develop coaches?
You’ve spoken with Mike Conway, the Socceroos’ Mental Agility coach, during their stay at the Aspire Academy in Doha. How influential has his work been in helping the Socceroos perform at their best in Qatar? What have been his insights from his experiences there?
Gary Cole: It’s fantastic that Mike is there, he’s obviously the CEO and founder of XVenture and Football Coaches Australia has a fantastic partnership setup with the FCA College that is a virtual world training course for coaches that is just absolutely sensational.
Mike has worked with Arnie at Sydney FC and now the past four years with the Socceroos and has been key. If you think about football, it was tactical-technical for a long time, then we added physical and strength and conditioning and sports science became really important. The best teams and coaches in the world understand emotional intelligence and that side of the game.
The fact that Mike as a coach and a teacher has that gift of all great coaches making the complex, simple would be key. The fact he has that relationship with Graham that goes back a long way is a contributor in all of this. He’s a wonderful communicator and he cares about human beings and understands that communication is integral to any team that wants to be successful.
