Central Coast Mariners will commence its Hyundai A-League 2014/15 season with a bang, hosting arch-rivals Newcastle Jets in an F3 Derby in the opening round of the competition.
Central Coast Mariners will commence its Hyundai A-League 2014/15 season with a bang, hosting arch-rivals Newcastle Jets in an F3 Derby in the opening round of the competition.
The yellow and navy will go head to head against the Novocastrians – and potentially former Mariner Marcos Flores – at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday 11 October in what will undoubtedly be one of the most anticipated season openers in the Club-s history.
Indeed, there will be every opportunity for members and fans of the yellow and navy to get behind Phil Moss-s men in the opening five weeks of the competition, with the Club set to play its first five fixtures of season 10 of Australia-s top flight within New South Wales.
After the initial crunch clash against the Jets, the Mariners will host Wellington Phoenix (Round 2) before challenging Western Sydney Wanderers (Round 3) and Sydney FC (Round 4) away, and welcoming Perth Glory (Round 5) to Gosford.
In Round 6 the team will take on the competition-s new glamour outfit, Melbourne City, at Victoria-s AAMI Park. The clash against City will likely feature their star signings David Villa and Damien Duff, and will provide Central Coast-s contingent of travelling fans with the unique opportunity to witness the Mariners taking it to a Club reinvented and rejuvenated under their new foreign ownership.
In total, Central Coast Mariners will play host to 13 matches throughout the Hyundai A-League 2014/15 season. 11 games are scheduled to be played at Gosford-s Central Coast Stadium, and two – Round 10 against Melbourne Victory and Round 17 against Adelaide United – are currently marked as venues to be confirmed (TBC).
The Club can confirm that it is in discussions with Football Federation Australia (FFA) and relevant entities to look at hosting the Round 10 fixture against Victory at North Sydney Oval, and the Round 17 fixture against Adelaide United at Brookvale Oval, Manly.
With Central Coast Mariners set to release its 2014/15 Memberships next week, the Club wish to note that full season Memberships will be priced to include the Club-s 11 games at Central Coast Stadium, with interested Members given the option to add the proposed North Sydney and Brookvale clashes to their Membership.
Members who opt to add the proposed North Sydney and Brookvale fixtures to their Membership will be provided complimentary transport to and from the encounters, as well as dedicated Member Zones and Entrances at the respective venues.
Central Coast Mariners Chief Executive Officer, Mr Bruce Stalder, said that that Club is committed to playing the vast majority of games on the Coast, and that there are no plans to relocate the Club.
“Under the current ownership and stewardship, we will play a minimum of 11 regular season matches in Gosford per season,” Stalder said. “We are also continuing to develop the Club-s Centre of Excellence in Tuggerah, so there are certainly no plans to relocate the Club.”
“Any matches we play in the North Sydney area are there to help the Club become more sustainable. There is a relatively unengaged football community in North Sydney and many big businesses, so we are looking to grow the game, our brand, and our commercial revenues in this market.”
Due to scheduling clashes not involving Central Coast, this season the Club will not host a New Year-s Eve fixture at Central Coast Stadium. However, the Mariners can confirm that from 2015/16 onwards the Club-s annual New Year-s Eve fixtures on the banks of the Brisbane Water will return.
Central Coast Mariners boss Moss said his side will leave no stone unturned to be prepared for the start of the campaign against the Club-s traditional foes.
“It-s fantastic to open the new season – the Hyundai A-League-s tenth – with the most traditional local derby in the league-s history against Newcastle at our fortress,” Moss said.
“Effectively we have three derbies over the opening four round with the Newcastle game and then trips to Western Sydney and Sydney FC following the Round 2 clash with Wellington at home.”
“To open the season with two home games gives us an opportunity to start the season strongly and there will be no stone left unturned in having the players properly prepared for the first round.”
“Next season is shaping as arguably the toughest yet with several Clubs – led by the cashed up Melbourne City, Sydney FC and probably Western Sydney Wanderers – very active in the transfer market.”
“We added five new players to our roster during last season’s January transfer window & therefore I am only looking to add one or two more quality players during this off-season.”
“We were there or thereabouts last season & the players will be re-challenged in several areas both individually & collectively next season. I’m really looking forward to a full pre season with the squad this time around,” Moss said.
Moss outlined that the Mariners will commence their preparations for Hyundai A-League season 10 in July.
“The hard work begins next month, and with a busy but varied pre-season program with up to ten games planned I am confident we-ll be ready to hit the ground running on October 11,” he said.
“We have a tough back end of the season with seven out of our final 12 regular season games away from home and five of them interstate during what we hope will be another full AFC Champions League campaign should we get through the qualifying phase.”
“But they are the cards we have been dealt and it’s a challenge we will embrace as we always do at the Mariners,” he concluded.
