As so many times before, it was a moment away from the public eye that said everything about Matt Simon.
In the final seconds of the Mariners’ AFC Cup semifinal second leg victory on April 24, with a history-making place in the final secured, Simon stepped away from the pitch and a few paces down the tunnel at Central Coast Stadium – overcome with emotion at his club’s achievement.
His club. The Mariners’ history is studded with key figures who have helped what is arguably the A-League Men’s smallest team achieve remarkable things, but Simon is up there – and his contribution grows by the day.
Central Coast’s most prolific scorer as a player is now the club’s sporting director with what is surely one of the wider remits in world football. On any given day you might find him squeezed behind his desk to deal with an enquiry about one of his players, but could equally be holding a drill up a ladder at the training ground, or driving to Sydney to pick up a bed for the academy players’ share house.
That’s why there were tears in his eyes, briefly, as the scale of the Mariners’ achievement in getting to the AFC Cup final (against Al Ahed in Oman at 2.00am AEST on Monday) sunk in. A football team representing a proudly parochial community of some 300,000 people had become only the third Australian team to reach an Asian final.
It’s an epic achievement in itself, made even more remarkable by the fact that the coach and many of the players that won the A-League last season have moved on. As one of the constants in a year of flux, Simon’s role has been crucial – and for a few seconds, the intensity of it all bubbled over.
“There was a fair bit of emotion flying around,” Simon tells footballaustralia.com.au with his usual understatement. “It was just a feeling of elation really, and an amazing feeling of pride.
“I think you care so much when you come from an area, when your family is there, and you see young players from the area come through the club and become part of the first team.
“You don’t really have a job description at the Mariners, it’s just a case of everyone working together as one and seeing where that gets us.
“People on the Coast understand that. Everywhere we go the players get recognised and appreciated. There’s a buzz around the club because of the role it plays in the community.”
Having played 16 times in the AFC Asian Champions League, Simon well understands the physical toll an Asian campaign takes on a squad, especially this year when the AFC Cup has for the first time been played concurrently with the A-League season.
Somehow Mark Jackson’s squad have just secured the domestic Premier’s Plate in addition to reaching the AFC Cup final, surviving on a mix of euphoria, belief and seemingly limitless reserves of energy.
“Credit to the players and coaches but perhaps most of all the physical staff because they’re the ones who’ve made sure the players can keep backing up when we’ve played so many games,” Simon says from the departure lounge at Sydney Airport on the way to the AFC Cup final.
“I know how hard it is to keep going, let alone to keep winning. But the mood is so much about not being done yet. We know what we set out to achieve, the goals we set ourselves, and it’s all about the mentality this group has.
“If our flight’s delayed, if there’s an issue with our baggage, whatever it is, the players just get on with it. That’s the thing that makes me most proud, how the boys are rising to the challenge. They’re loving every game at the moment.”
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It was early on a sunny autumnal morning a year ago when this columnist arrived at the Mariners’ training ground at Tuggerah on the Central Coast, with a brief to shadow then-head coach Nick Montgomery in the build-up to the A-League Grand Final.
But the most striking sight of the morning was Simon perched atop a stepladder, rivet gun in hand, as he painstakingly built a roof structure on what was going to become the first-team gym area.
A week earlier he had worked through the night alongside club chairman Richard Peil and Peil’s nephew to build something similar for the youth team; in his back pocket, meanwhile, was a printout of an emailed offer that would ultimately lead to Nectar Triantis’s lucrative transfer to Sunderland, ready to discuss with Montgomery and Peil.
The Mariners’ own Matt of all trades isn’t fond of delegating a problem, it’s fair to say. “Whenever I'm talking to him on the phone, he always seems to be doing something that's not his job,” says Josh Rose – teammate of Simon at the Mariners for a number of years and now coach of the club’s U20 side in its academy.
“He will always do something to make life easier for a youth player or an A-League player or for Mark Jackson or whoever it is, he’ll do anything possible to make things easier for them to do their job to the best of their ability.
“It’s so important that attitude if you want to drive that culture of effort and hard work. I use Matty Simon as a big example with the U20s, a lot of the time, of what it takes to succeed.
“For them to see what he does day to day is just great to have around the club. Even as a player he was one of those guys in a dressing room who would literally do anything to help the other players in the team.
“Physically, he made sure he was 100% all the time, but you just knew that he would do anything to make your game better and make you a better player.
“That's the sort of guy he was. I remember when he got his move to Korea (in 2012), in the dressing room everyone was so happy for him because he wasn't about his own individual achievement. He was always about the team rather than himself. He was always fantastic to have around, one of the best guys you could have in the change room to be honest.”
Having lived there himself now for most of the last 15 years, Rose understands the resonance that the Mariners’ sporting director has with the local community.
“The Central Coast is a little bit different, and this is something I reiterate to the U20s a lot, in that they’re the sort of community or fan base that appreciates effort,” he says.
“Someone like ‘Simmo’ is so appreciated among Mariners fans, because he's 100% involved every day. He wasn't the prettiest player, but you knew what you were going to get with the amount of effort.
“As a coach myself now, you understand why someone like him was appreciated so much.”
Written by Tom Smithies for footballaustralia.com.au
AFC Cup Final Match Details
Al-Ahed vs Central Coast Mariners
Monday, 6 May 2024
Kick-off: 2:00am AEST
Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, Muscat, Oman
Live on 10 Bold, 10 Play
