The Central Coast Mariners Post
Squad19 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gabriel Cléùr
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Central Coast Mariners lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Feb 2029
Christian Theoharous puts it in writing
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Central Coast Mariners, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Central Coast Mariners
Haine Eames and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Central Coast Mariners training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel da Silva is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match17 Feb 2029
Central Coast Mariners find a way past Wellington Phoenix
Wellington Phoenix made Central Coast Mariners work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces19 Feb 2029
The crowd has taken to Nahuel da Silva
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Alex Badolato in the eights
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Harry Steele left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Harry Steele will call it something else in private.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Riley Powell kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
- The dugout Christian Theoharous gets picked when it counts
- Squad The first one for Nahuel da Silva
- The dugout The form table has caught Dean Evans