With an Australia Cup in hand, Macarthur look to move past hellish offseason.
The Australia Cup has served as something of a poisoned chalice in recent years but given the hellish offseason that Macarthur coach Mile Sterjovski and his side has already endured, perhaps the footballing gods will stay their hand after their 2024 triumph.
Taking a lead they would not relinquish when Jed Drew beat the offside trap and cut the ball back for Marin Jakoliš to fire home, the Bulls secured their second Australia Cup in three years at AAMI Park on Sunday evening, joining their vanquished foes Melbourne Victory, as well as Sydney FC and Sydney Hakoah, as two-time champions. The 58th-minute effort was their only shot on target for the entire game, one of just six total, compared to the six sent in by Victory, who had 22 overall. But it was also enough.
In 2022, the club secured their first piece of silverware in their young history under the guidance of Dwight Yorke, who would depart the club in acrimonious circumstances a few months later. The following year, Steve Corica would lead Sydney FC to the trophy, only to be axed three games into the following A-League Men's season.
But after the offseason the Bulls have had, that probably sounds like nothing.
In June, the club’s talisman and captain Ulises Davila – the man who had lifted the trophy back in 2022 – had his contract terminated, alongside teammates Clayton Lewis and Kearyn Baccus, after his arrest over involvement in an alleged bet-fixing scandal the previous month. It sent the club’s name worldwide for all the wrong reasons, devastated the nascent profile and identity they’d built around Davila, and left the club reeling.
Earlier this month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport awarded Yorke $290,000 in compensation after finding it had breached his contract and sacked him without cause just 13 games into his tenure.
“It's been a tough offseason, so it means a lot,” said Sterjovski. “Everyone at the club -- the players, the staff, the office staff -- they've been working tirelessly to make the club better and to try and move forward from everything. To win the Australia Cup and to qualify for Asia means a lot to everybody involved. We look forward to playing in that competition again next season.
“Sometimes, things like that galvanize teams and bring everybody together. The players that we've brought in play a big part in that; they're great characters in the changing room, they're very positive, they teach the young boys, and they create that winning culture.
“We want to be successful in the in the league. We want to grow our fan base. We want to do all that. The people that we've recruited understand this and create the culture in our club. Us as a staff, we will do our best to try and perform as well as we can and help grow the club as much as we can.”
Even beyond all the off-the-pitch distractions, coming into the final the Bulls were looking underdone. Though they’d been able to see off the Newcastle Jets, as well as two of the strongest sides outside the A-League in Oakleigh and South Melbourne, on the way there, they came into Sunday absent several key contributors through injury – as well as new skipper Valère Germain after his red card in the semifinal win over Hellas.
But in the end, they did enough. Not a lot by any means. But enough. Goalkeeper Filip Kurto, again, was immense. The Pole had been vital in steering the Bulls past their NPL opponents in previous rounds but took things to another level against Victory, producing a series of vital saves to first keep the game at parity and then maintain the lead. He was deservedly named the Mark Viduka medalist as best afield post-game.
In front of him, a veteran Bulls defence defended doggedly and as a unit, providing a strong foundation for the young attack in front of them. Matt Jurman, Tomislav Uskok, and Ivan Vujica would hurl themselves about to lessen Kurto’s workload wherever they could.
At times, they would have to ride their luck – when you’ve only got 33% of possession and your opponents are dominating the territory battle, that’s inevitable – but when they needed to respond they did; two of the clubs new signings, Luke Brattan and Jakloiš, playing key roles.
And yes, especially for the final 32 minutes once they took the lead, they also displayed an obvious mastery of the dark arts – Kurto especially. When there was a second to be gleaned, treatment to be called for, or the pace to be slowed, the Bulls were ready to take it. And as frustrating as it was for Victory, for their coach Patrick Kisnorbo and the large contingent of the 13, 289 fans in attendance, it helped get them over the line.
Not that those in navy blue were short on things to be frustrated by on Sunday evening.
Their inability to find a way to put the ball in the back of the net was an obvious one. They had enough of it, in the right areas of the pitch, to win this game handily. Simply take care of business here and everything else is rendered moot and the Bulls don’t even get the chance to shithouse
Further, while referee Jonathan Barreiro maintained a high threshold for fouls for either side, Victory should have had a penalty 18 minutes when he was hacked down by Kealey Adamson, only for play to be waved on and, with no VAR in the Cup, for the defender to escape sanction.
“For me, it was pretty much one-sided,” said Kisnorbo. “ I don't know if Jack even had to make a save. It was dominant performance but we go away losing 1-0. A counter attack, which maybe we could have dealt with me better, on Kasey's side. But I can't be too critical. My boys were fantastic tonight, for pretty much the whole game.
"What I think is that the referees rely on it (VAR) so much that the doubt goes in their mind - end of the day they have to make a decision right there and then, because there's no VAR in the cup, right?
"I think with [the Bos decision], when you see it on the replay, it's very, very clear, very clear. But the ref didn't see it like that in maybe normal time - I don't know, you'd have to ask him.
"But I think definitely in his head there was doubt, because he doesn't know if it's 100 per cent (a pen) and normally in the game, you have that VAR to check. I don't know, you'd have to ask him, but that's how I saw it anyway.”
Of course, if one was a Victory fan, one who had just watched their side fail to find a way through a deeply embedded defence and find a crucial goal, there was also scope to be perturbed about the absence of Daniel Arzani from the teamsheet.
Fit and able to play if needed, the attacker was instead relegated to the stands by Kisnorbo, with the explanation offered that because he was suspended for round one of the A-Leauge Men season, it was important to get a look at alternatives. Never mind, apparently, that silverware and a spot in Asia were on the line.
Needless to say, a quick perusal of social media demonstrated that not a lot of Victory fans were accepting of that explanation. And for those that were, or were at least willing to entertain it for the sake of argument, the subsequent defeat didn’t paint the decision in the greatest of lights.
“It was just my decision. It was a selection decision that I chose,” said Kisnorbo. “Come round one he won't be in the game either, because he's suspended. We had to be ready for that scenario and I decided to do it today.”
The coach subsequently denied that there had been any kind of bust-up between himself and the Socceroos attacker in the lead-up to the game, as well as doused suggestions that the move could cause a rift.
"The issue isn't about Daniel, the issue is about the team - and it's about the team tonight, not an individual. Again, we should concentrate and focus on the players, the team, the squad. End of the day, I made a decision, and I stick by it.
“We're professional. That'll be professional. End of the day, it is what it is. Again, I made the decision and I stick by my decision.”
The last time Macarthur won the Australia Cup, of course, the subsequent season didn’t go quite as they’d planned – Yorke splitting from the team midseason and the side missing finals after Sterjovski was thrust into a caretaker role.
But now, heading into his second season as the Bulls’ full-time coach, the 43-time Socceroo is confident this time will be different.
“It's a different squad from [2022],” he said. “We have a different mentality. We've brought in players who have changed the culture in the team. That's super important in a club. We take all those lessons and we move forward.”