"You win them over by winning games" - Diles enters the crucible that is leading Melbourne Victory
His interim tag removed, Victory ALM coach Arthur Diles knows that there’s no hiding from the expectations that come with the role - both on a week-to-week basis and when it comes to silverware.
His status as Melbourne Victory men’s coach upgraded from interim to permanent, Arthur Diles knows that there’s no hiding from the expectations that come with the role, on both a week-to-week basis and the ultimate need to restore the club to its historical place atop the A-League Men’s summit.
Appointed as interim following Patrick Kisnorbo’s sudden exit just seven games into what was supposed to be a three-year deal last month, Diles was formally named the tenth permanent coach of Victory’s men's side on Friday, upgraded to an 18-month deal that will take him through to the end of the 2025-26 campaign.
Initially landing in Melbourne as an assistant under Tony Popovic and then retained following Kisnorbo’s arrival, his familiarity with the club proved the key factor in his appointment — the timing and circumstances of the coaching vacancy seeing the 42-year-old emerge as best placed to lead the squad in the eyes of Victory officials.
“We thought through that process when we appointed Arthur as the assistant over 18 months ago,” Victory director of football John Didulica told AAP and JDL Media. “We thought we needed to bring somebody into the business who we felt had enough upside and enough capacity to step into a more senior role if that was needed.
“Having observed Arthur over that 18-month period, he's impressed me at every point. He's played a pivotal role in instilling the game model that we want to play, he's totally bought into seeking to elevate talent from the academy into the first team -- it's a big part of what he's passionate about in football, and something that we are too. He's won the broad respect of everybody at the club, not just the staff, but also the players. The players have got a lot of affection for him. They've embraced him since he's taken over the helm. So I think if you look at those three pillars, it's a really good running start that he's got to make this year a successful one.”
Victory’s confidence in Diles was retained even with the opening six games of his interim stint failing to produce a win, a run finally snapped with a 2-0 Big Blue triumph over Sydney FC last week.
But while it bears noting that it can hardly be said that he took over in anything close to optimal circumstances and the side’s underlying numbers still showed signs of promise, this adverse run of form has led to scepticism from supporters on their prospects this season and Diles’ aptitude – the coach wryly joking on Thursday that media was speaking to Victory’s Uber driver, after a since-corrected edit made to the club’s Wikipedia page.
And he knows there’s only way he can truly convince the Victory faithful, and the broader Australian football cognoscenti, that he’s the man for the job.
“You win them over by winning games,” Diles told AAP and JDL Media. “Being successful and making sure that they see 18 people every week in the match day squad that are doing everything they can to work hard, first and foremost, and to work with a purpose and to get a result. I think when fans see that, they don't care who the coach is because their reward is the result at the end of the game.
“It's a results-driven business, and that's what people look at the end of the day. They don't want to pick up the paper and see what [a loss] the day before. You can't hide from that.
“I don't think there's been many games where you can go down and say, we should have lost that one, and definitely should have lost that one. In that regard, there weren't any real red flags for me that made me worry about my job or worry about moving forward. I was pretty confident that it's a matter of time, if we keep doing the right things, that it will turn.
“And for me, it hasn't turned yet. It’ll turn when we've had a good run of games and a great month with points and performances.”
Ultimately, however, it’s not just winning games that matter at Victory — it’s winning trophies. It’s a high bar, perhaps even an unfairly high bar at times given that some of their recent seasons would be celebrated by several other teams in the league. But it’s a bar the club has set itself, both through their actual historic performances on the park and in their off-field mythmaking. And as of late, it’s one they’ve not been meeting.
Across Victory’s first 15 years in the A-League Men, Victory averaged a trophy just under once every two seasons, winning four titles, three premierships, and an Australia Cup, as well as qualifying to compete in Asia eight times. In the five seasons since Kevin Muscat’s exit, however, they have won just a single trophy – an Australia Cup trophy secured under Tony Popovic in 2021.
Certainly, they’ve come agonisingly close to adding further silverware during these lean years. In 2021-22 they finished just a point back of premiers Melbourne City and they came within minutes of winning last season’s grand final, only for their hearts to be broken by a late Central Coast fightback. They also reached the final of the Australia Cup during Kisnorbo’s brief tenure, only to fall to Macarthur.
But as the old saying goes ‘That and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee’. And while the colloquialism may have long been ruined by inflation, what is very real is that Victory will make it seven seasons without a title should they fail to climb the mountain in 2024-25, while their premiership drought will move an even decade if they’re unable to capture the plate.
“That's a long time and for a club of this, that's probably too long,” said Diles. “But that's more motivation for me and the current playing group to do everything we can to bring success to the club.
“What does success look like? Ultimately, it means silverware, qualifying for Asia, or both. We've never hidden behind the fact that that's our objective and our target for this year. That was the objective at the start of the year and it’s no different now. That's our motivation and that's where the club needs to be. And I think when Melbourne Victory is in that position, the league's in a great place too.”
Diles’ 18-month deal to lead Victory is just that, per the club’s managing director Caroline Carnegie, not some pact masquerading as one thing while containing enough options or get-out clauses to render the headline length meaningless. His appointment was accompanied by confirmation that Nick Stavroulakis, who coached Rockdale Ilinden to an NPL NSW premiership in 2024, will join his staff as an assistant.
“Part of the thinking behind that [18 months deal], is that our job, and Arthur's job, is not just to have the mind on this season,” Carnegie told AAP and JDL Media. “So absolutely, we want to win a trophy this season, and then we want to be in the Australia Cup final so we are in ACL2. Then we want to qualify for ACL Elite, and we want to do all of those things. But we have to have our minds on now and on the future.
“We need to make sure that we've got somebody at the helm who has the runway and the bandwidth to make sure they're not just making short-term decisions. They also have their eye on the long term for Melbourne Victory. We're already starting to plan for next season, as you can imagine. So that's part of the mechanic to that.”
Victory announced the signing of defender Lachlan Jackson on a deal that will take him through to the end of next season earlier this week and Diles noted with some level of relief that many key members of the squad remained under contract for next season.
Didulica, meanwhile, said that he was open to adding more players during the midseason transfer window – which closes on February 12 – but that he wasn’t in a rush to do so, reiterating his previous stance that Victory’s squad was capable of winning a title as it was currently constructed.
“If the opportunity presents itself, and we think the player can help us for the long term, we'll look at that,” he said. “I'm really comfortable with the squad that we have and its ability to achieve things this season. But there are two weeks left, if something crosses our paths – and we're always looking under rocks to see what we can find – and if something we think can help us long-term, we'll act now.
“But I don't think we need to bring in any additional players now to help us win the championship this year. I think the squad that we have now is more than capable of doing that.”