Okay so as this happened yesterday it could be regarded as old news but I and a lot of CCM fans were partying after such a great win - and it probably wouldn't have been safe for me to be in charge of a keyboard. Anyway back to the story...
Much has been talked about the Western Sydney Wanderers and their maiden season - and rightly so, they have come from literally nowhere to claim the minor premiership after stringing together 13 unanswered victories. However whilst much of the media was talking about how the Wanderers were looking for a fairytale ending, I think the real fairytale was for the Mariners to win.
They are after all the smallest team in the competition who despite punching above their weight have three times previously been beaten finalist - with an unfortunate reputation for choking after managing to loose that grand final against Brisbane despite being 2-0 up with 2 minutes to go. They have been in such financial strife again this year that the coach dug into his own pockets to help players pay their mortgages and groceries when there was a delay in getting paid. They play week in week out against teams with much bigger budgets and marquee players. Yet against that back drop they have again managed to exceed any reasonable expectation from even the most optimistic supporters. Without taking anything away from WSW and what they have achieved, I believe this is more deserving of the title "fairytale ending".
The match itself is still a bit of a blur to me. The two goals came courtesy of two of our more experienced players, Daniel McBreen (36 yrs old) and Patrick Zwaanswijk (38 yrs old) but as always it really was a team effort and some great defending that saw the Mariners win this game.
Despite putting to bed that awful "Central Choke Mariners" title and finally getting the win the Mariners players will not be able to fully celebrate for a while yet due to their hectic playing schedule. After they finished up the final on Sunday night, they had to get on a plane early on Monday morning to Korea where they will be playing in the Asian Champions League on Tuesday night.
Gosford Council have announced that they are looking to have a day of celebration for the players soon though so we'll bring you details of that here... in case you want to come along and join the celebrations. We'll also follow their progress in the ACL now the A-league season is over.
Come on you Mariners!!!
- Scott Copland
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