Doha: Don’t sleep on Australian football. Literally.
Thursday’s 2am (AEDT) start for the Socceroos’ World Cup showdown with Denmark isn’t the most appealing timeslot back home – but one of the heroes of their drought-breaking win, Mitchell Duke, has vowed it will be an occasion worth staying up for, and another showcase of the country’s under-appreciated homegrown talent.
Mitchell Duke wants more attention on the Socceroos and the A-League, beyond the usual World Cup bandwagon swell.Credit:Getty
A national audience of 1.7 million people tuned in for the historic 1-0 victory over Tunisia while pubs, clubs and live sites around the country – most notably at a heaving Federation Square in Melbourne, where thousands of revellers ripped flares and partied long into the night – were packed for one of the team’s most anticipated games in years, thanks largely to the quadrennial influx of fans who only tune in to watch them whenever the World Cup’s on.
But it’s easy at 9pm on a Saturday. This one will take a bit more commitment, but take it from Duke: it’ll be worth the sacrifice.
“I hope they can stay up a bit later and support us, and watch us, because I’ve got a great feeling that we can get the job done and make Australia proud, and get out of this group phase,” he said.
“My message to them is stay up, watch us, support us – otherwise, if you fall asleep, you’ll be waking up to some good news.”
Melbourne’s Federation Square went off on Saturday night.Credit:Twitter
Whatever happens, Duke is hopeful that the Graham Arnold’s unheralded group has already made a good case for the bandwagoners to stay invested long after Qatar is done and dusted.
The days of Kewell, Cahill and Viduka are long gone, but a new crop of hard-working battlers are quickly making names for themselves in Australian sport, with western Sydney product Duke, 31, a case in point.
Duke made his senior debut with the Central Coast Mariners under Arnold and wore the captain’s armband at Western Sydney Wanderers last year before a move to Japan’s second division. He is one of 20 players in Arnold’s 26-man squad who have come through the ranks at an A-League club, with eight of them currently playing their football at home – including one of Australia’s best performers at the World Cup, Adelaide United star Craig Goodwin, who scored against France and set up Duke’s winner against Tunisia.
It’s been a rough few years for the A-League as a consumer product, but Duke reckons the men’s competition, which resumes on December 9, deserves far more credit than it gets for its on-field standard – not just in Australia, where English Premier League-obsessed fans tend to look down their noses at it, but around the world too, where it is not taken seriously.
A few weeks before scoring against France and assisting against Tunisia, Craig Goodwin was thrilling his hometown crowd in the A-League.Credit:Getty
“It’s only going to grow and get more respect, the better we do on the [international] stage,” he said.
“Especially with the A-League talent performing on the world stage as well [which] is key to that, and so far, I think we’ve been doing a brilliant job. I hope it does turn more heads and brings more attention, because the game deserves it.
“I do think the A-League is very much underestimated and not as respected, globally, as it should be, because if you speak to a lot of foreigners that go to that league, they do say it’s a shock to the system about how physical it is and the quality that’s there.
“Hopefully, that just keeps growing the attention, and I’d love to see that happen as well, after this World Cup and be more in the conversation.”
Kye Rowles, who was playing in defence for the Mariners only last year but has slotted straight into international football like he’s been doing it all his life, said the strength of the Socceroos – and the number of euphoric moments they can produce for the nation to enjoy like Saturday night – is directly related to the health of the A-League
“It’s obviously great to have such support for the national team. You know the whole country is behind us on this stage,” Rowles said.
“But obviously, the squad is made up of a lot of A-League players as well, and they’re contributing massively to us moving forward and what we’ve already achieved so far.
“If we could get their attention for the league back home, it’d be massive for the future, contributing to those kinds of players getting into the Socceroos and continuing to build the national team to a higher level, and getting the A-League the respect that it deserves as well.”
