“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Macarthur FC can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2032
Macarthur FC take on the side everybody is chasing
Melbourne Victory arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Melbourne Victory in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Macarthur FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
23 matches without a win, and then this, against Central Coast Mariners. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Kosta Grozos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at Macarthur FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Esposito 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.
A 2‑1 win over Central Coast Mariners, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
At 17 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
Somebody else is better right now than Conor Tracey
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Macarthur FC can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Central Coast Mariners is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Coast Mariners have kept their man, and Macarthur FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words at Macarthur FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Esposito 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.
Michael Pratezina was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Macarthur FC have made the call to Western Sydney Wanderers. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Macarthur FC and Newcastle Jets have settled on $8.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Macarthur FC have done the hard part with Melbourne Victory, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Macarthur FC is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words at Macarthur FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Esposito 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luke Vickery trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Daniel Cooper's mistake
Everything agreed with Adelaide United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Macarthur FC asked and Melbourne Victory said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Esposito was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Melbourne City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The mood at Macarthur FC has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 12 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Macarthur FC can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Macarthur FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Macarthur FC is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Macarthur FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Esposito 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Macarthur FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kosta Grozos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Macarthur FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Macarthur FC will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Macarthur FC can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Macarthur FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Macarthur FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dean Harper commits to Macarthur FC for another 5 years.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Words at Macarthur FC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kosta Grozos 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Macarthur FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Massimo Luongo and Macarthur FC agree another 2 years.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Newcastle Jets? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Massimo Luongo and Macarthur FC agree another 2 years.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Macarthur FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Macarthur FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Macarthur FC dressing room was either.
In brief
Looking aheadThe leaders are next for Macarthur FC
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Macarthur FC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Macarthur FC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Macarthur FC will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Western Sydney Wanderers.