2022/23 = Best Season In Mariners History?

[FFC Mariner]

I think this is our greatest ever season simply given where our squad has come from,

Vuka : Club legend who returns home at 38 to captain the youngest squad in the league to the championship.
McGarry : Unwanted by our biggest rivals
Kaltak : 29 year old who had never played professionally
Triantis : Youngster who couldn’t get a look in where he was
Roux : Many fans were rather hesitant about his return
Nisbet : Smallest player in the league, written off by nearly all, Academy graduate
Balard : Academy Graduate
Beni : An unknown gem from the French third tier
Silvera : A youngster who we gave his first chance, then unwanted by our biggest rivals
Tulio : An unknown gem from the Brazilian third tier
Cummings : A player who’s career was in complete free fall
Farrell : Academy Graduate
Steele : Academy Graduate
Hall : Academy Graduate
Kuzevski: Academy Graduate
Theoharous : Unwanted by his old side, on the verge of quitting the professional game
Moresche : Scores the last goal in the grand final after rupturing his ACL right before finals last year.


I struggle to see how any A League championship side will ever match this squad in regards to this.

Simply incredible.

The McGarry deal sums up everything wrong with the scum and everything right about us. What a dumb deal for them to do.
CCM: Can we please take your really good left back?
Scum: What have you got to trade?
CCM:Well we've got this shitty RB out the back if you want?
Scum: Sold

 

[booney]

This season over 2013 for the simple reason that we play football I want to watch.
Arnies teams dont

I seem to remember in the 2012-2013 season we beat Sydney 7-2 and Melbourne Victory 6-2 so Arnie's team did have some attacking flair.However the football this year has been sublime and so many players really showed skills that the 2012-2013 team did not possess to the same degree.

 

[Michael]

Comparing 12/13 to 22/23…
12/13 we had every right to win the double, should’ve definitely won the premiers plate. That squad was mostly players in their prime or end of their prime years sprinkled with some exciting youth. Arnie put us in massive debt to get it done. We had a golden gen Socceroo in Sterj, prime Monty, rosey, Macca, pedj, hutch. Ollie was just hitting his prime years. Then that sprinkling of youth was wonder kids like maty, rogic, sains and Bernie.

This time around we had absolutely no right on paper to win anything. Plenty of us doubted certain players big time during this season. A team heavily reliant on academy graduates and new youth with a sprinkling of players over 25 basically all of which were heavily rejected from their previous clubs (obviously wrongly).

I dunno, we’re splitting hairs comparing seasons. They’re both incredible for different reasons.

 

[Michael]

The McGarry deal sums up everything wrong with the scum and everything right about us. What a dumb deal for them to do.
CCM: Can we please take your really good left back?
Scum: What have you got to trade?
CCM:Well we've got this shitty RB out the back if you want?
Scum: Sold

I love this.
Mcgarry was a weapon at the nix, scum ruined him in such a short period of time. Took Monty what? A month to get him going again, if that.
Sammy was an exciting prospect before, scum made him hate the sport. And well…. Look at him now.

Even Reno Piscopo is on track to be ruined. Papas and scum is a deadly cocktail for any decent player.

 

[Wombat]

The first season was wonderful to set the tone.
The 2013 GF win was quality and put to bed the bridesmaids but never the bride or chokers talk.
This season was by far the best it was built by belief and is what this Club is all about, it was so inclusive and was even more unexpected at the start of the season (except by a few optimistic believers) and it was so much a community win, not just in talk but in fact.
Simply the best.
Soak it up, you will not see its like again.

Ancient is a great bloke and a massive massive advocate for our wonderful club from ground zero.....but he lost his mojo this year for a while along with other great supporters like Meerkat and others.
How wonderful that us long suffering fans and staff (Shaun, Dan, Gabby etc) finally got an unbelievable return on our emotional investment.

 

[TC Redline]

To me this one beats them all. I look at the players we lost at the start of tne year in Birraz , Rowles and Miller arguably 3 of the best defensive positional players or in Millers case possibly the best attacking wing back in the league. Couple that with the loss of Urena and and extremely potent and emerging Garang Kuol during the year and even to a lesser degree Matty Simon defies logic that we recovered from losing them. To then grab bargain basement guys like Trinatis and Kaltak, Mcgarry mid season from the scum and the improvement in Roux , The taking a punt on getting Sammy firing again and who really thought that Tulio would be what he was when he first arrived or whether Moresche would come back from his ACL injury and some of us wanted Danny dropped during the year but didnt he really rise to the occassion as the year went on . Thats not even mentioning any of the kids that played and to me this was a massive over achievement.

That 2013 team was building each year with not too many changes and pretty much established stars however with this team a bunch of misfits with a few experienced players to assist is a truly remarkable achievement.

The A-leagues decision to sell the rights to the gf did assist us but to me it makes up for the Newcastle one we should have hosted and I absolutely loved being at A GF where the Mariners had 90% of the crowd which i cant ever see happening like this again. im still on a high and as a pure football fan the Premiers are the real champs however in Australia rightly or wrongly the majority care about grand finals so to me this one outranks all others.

 

[Ozhammer]

Comparing teams a decade apart is difficult, as you need to consider the standard of the leagues during those two times.

The 2012/13 team was consistent over a period of time but it still took them 3 years to win a GF, whereas this 2022/23 team achieved our second Championship off a much shorter run up and with arguably fewer established stars.

I am just stoked that we have added a second toilet seat to our trophy cabinet and in such style and have had our pride restored but the hard part will now be in maintaining the standards that the club has re-established.

 

[Mini In Bay 6]

I think its awesome that we are talking about how good we are again, as opposed to not.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Then you make a case for season one then. Anyone who was in Adelaide for that finals game would know what I am talking about.

You are correct Mick, I do make a case for season 1 and do not apologise. I was not in Adelaide but no one can forget Tommy knocking in that amazing goal to Knock out Adelaide. Pure genius. Anyone in the ground would have gone into orbit. Definitely the upset of the season.
I think age dims the memories and allows the emotions to return to a normal level.
This question should probably be asked in the future rather than so soon after the game.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Ancient is a great bloke and a massive massive advocate for our wonderful club from ground zero.....but he lost his mojo this year for a while along with other great supporters like Meerkat and others.
How wonderful that us long suffering fans and staff (Shaun, Dan, Gabby etc) finally got an unbelievable return on our emotional investment.

Thanks Wombat, but you tall horrible lies, I am really a grumpy bastard. Mojo is definitely on the way back. It is an interesting story. I will tell you if we meet some time over the next few months at Pluim or maybe I will send a PM.

 

[TC Redline]

Then you make a case for season one then. Anyone who was in Adelaide for that finals game would know what I am talking about.

I sort of rank season 1 and again this is only my opinion as close to this one but we did win the pre season cup that year so in my view i had higher hopes than this one hence why this one rates so high for me . I didnt go to Adelaide but loved the semi up at the Scum and especially the chant by our fans to the scum “ shit crowd shit club” which still rings true today.

 

[Omni]

I sort of rank season 1 and again this is only my opinion as close to this one but we did win the pre season cup that year so in my view i had higher hopes than this one hence why this one rates so high for me . I didnt go to Adelaide but loved the semi up at the Scum and especially the chant by our fans to the scum “ shit club shit fans” which still rings true today.

Also made the CWC final

 

[Forum Phoenix]

You have to rate them all for different reasons. Looking back I think I was probably more emotionally impacted in our first years and in our first GF win…

But I’ve enjoyed this season so much and for me this was the best football I believe I’ve seen from a Mariners team and that was a bloody epic underdog dream win.

And it’s amazing to think back to some of those crazy early Kuol games which already seem like another lifetime ago, but they were just electric. Add some of the magic of Tulio who while not consistent across the year, has for me been the most impressive creative mariners players we’ve seen. Then you have a new golden boot record. Return of Danny. Academy youth all stars. New discoverys and career rediscovery’s, all led by a true great Mariner in Monty. And it was a very, very, very special season.

So don’t ask which of my children I love most.

Time to launch the women’s team, win Asia and then back this season up.

???

 

[nero]

You are correct Mick, I do make a case for season 1 and do not apologise. I was not in Adelaide but no one can forget Tommy knocking in that amazing goal to Knock out Adelaide. Pure genius. Anyone in the ground would have gone into orbit. Definitely the upset of the season.
I think age dims the memories and allows the emotions to return to a normal level.
This question should probably be asked in the future rather than so soon after the game.

Was at the leaguesy for that game against Adelaide.
It went off.

We punched far above our weight for the first 10 or so years. In the end money was what brought us down.

Now we have an owner who can spend some and the best academy in the country so money shouldn't be our major stumbling block hopefully for the short and medium term.

 

[Meerkat]

Ancient is a great bloke and a massive massive advocate for our wonderful club from ground zero.....but he lost his mojo this year for a while along with other great supporters like Meerkat and others.
How wonderful that us long suffering fans and staff (Shaun, Dan, Gabby etc) finally got an unbelievable return on our emotional investment.

To be fair I didn’t lose my mojo quite as much as last year when I quit the season and threw out all my gear. (It only lasted about a week and fortunately my family retrieved it all from the trash.)

I do look back on some of my doubts and tantrums etc and feel suitably embarrassed, chastised and humbled. How hilarious to react like that after several seasons of just watching us lose.

The lesson I needed to learn was that worrying about the team and their performance was actually a worthless emotional investment. Monty, Serg and the club had it 1000% covered. ?

Supporting the team and the club is easy and we have been repayed 1000 over ??

 

[Wombat]

To be fair I didn’t lose my mojo quite as much as last year when I quit the season and threw out all my gear. (It only lasted about a week and fortunately my family retrieved it all from the trash.)

I do look back on some of my doubts and tantrums etc and feel suitably embarrassed, chastised and humbled. How hilarious to react like that after several seasons of just watching us lose.

The lesson I needed to learn was that worrying about the team and their performance was actually a worthless emotional investment. Monty, Serg and the club had it 1000% covered. ?

Supporting the team and the club is easy and we have been repayed 1000 over ??

You were whinging like a biatch. But thats ok....you are pretty so we forgive you lol.

TBF....we have all been burnt badly by this club in the past.....and most of the club decisions have been horrendous and always been the cheapest available option .....no matter the actual long term cost.

Now we have a stable owner, an experienced and switched on CEO and the best coaching staff in the AL.

 

[Paolo]

For all the 'Arnie put us into debt' narrative, the sell ons for Mat Ryan would have covered most of if not covered that debt in the following years.

 

[FFC Mariner]

For all the 'Arnie put us into debt' narrative, the sell ons for Mat Ryan would have covered most of if not covered that debt in the following years.

That went straight to someone's pocket.

 

[Meerkat]

You were whinging like a biatch. But thats ok....you are pretty so we forgive you lol.

TBF....we have all been burnt badly by this club in the past.....and most of the club decisions have been horrendous and always been the cheapest available option .....no matter the actual long term cost.

Now we have a stable owner, an experienced and switched on CEO and the best coaching staff in the AL.

I recall no whinging and never doubted them ?

But agree with the present summary.. 100%.

 

[scottmac]

For all the 'Arnie put us into debt' narrative, the sell ons for Mat Ryan would have covered most of if not covered that debt in the following years.

Yeah nah.....7yrs in the toilet says no