ZAC Anderson inked a two-season deal with the Central Coast Mariners in May, and is not only eager to play, but learn during his stay with the yellow and navy.
ZAC Anderson inked a two-season deal with the Central Coast Mariners in May, and is not only eager to play, but learn during his stay with the yellow and navy. The part-time law student caught up with Jess Norton this week, talking about his move to the Mariners, life on the Coast and his delight that team and room mate Jimmy Oates can cook!
As a new arrival at the club, how are you fitting into life on the Coast?
I-m really enjoying it. I-ve come from the Gold Coast so it-s nothing too new for me but I-m really enjoying it. It-s a beautiful place to live and the boys have been really nice to me and I-m fitting in really well.
What is it like working with Graham Arnold?
Arnie is fantastic. I-ve only been working with him now for a couple of months but he-s a fantastic man manager and going forward he-s going to be fantastic for my future.
I hear you are roommates with Mitchell Duke and Jimmy Oates. How-s that going? Are you getting on each other-s nerves yet?
It-s worked out really well. When I first came to the club I didn-t know who I was going to live with and Jimmy invited me into his home. I-ve lived with them now for about a month and it-s worked out really well. Jimmy and Dukey are both fantastic blokes and it helps that Jimmy can cook a little bit as well. I-m really enjoying living with the boys.
What do you make of the Mariners as a club so far?
It-s a fantastic club. It-s my first club change, so I can-t speak for the clubs but from Gold Coast to the Mariners it-s been a fantastic change for me. The environment at the Mariners is second to none. It all makes it so much easier when the playing group is so supportive and you-ve got the coaching group wanting to push you and make you a better footballer. I-m really happy to be here.
What are your goals for the season? There-s obviously an opportunity for you to fill Alex Wilkinson-s spot and there will be some competition with Trent Sainsbury perhaps?
Absolutely and that-s welcome. In every squad you want competition for spots and it-s lucky for myself that Wilko-s moved on. It does open up a door there for opportunity to slot into centre back but obviously there-s a few boys going for that position. I-ll just keep working hard and stay fit and hopefully if an opportunity comes, I-ll take it.
You-re studying law part-time. How do you manage that? It-s obviously a plan for life after football?
I-ve been studying law for a few years now and obviously it-s a tough degree and I-m doing that out of Brisbane still. I really enjoy doing something outside of football. Obviously football is a short-term career and hopefully I can play football for a number of years yet but I do enjoy doing something out of football and the law side of things definitely interests me.
With the club already qualified for the AFC Champions League again, you must be pretty excited about that?
It was definitely a big decision for me to come to the club. The ACL is a fantastic competition and the boys are going to have a big year. I-m really looking forward to it but first things first we have the A-League season to attend to and we need to concentrate on that. But I-m definitely looking forward to putting our best foot forward in Asia.
Although we are still a while off, how do you expect the club to go this season?
Obviously, this club has high expectations and the club has done really well over the last few years especially when Arnie has come in and I don-t think it-s going to be any different this year. I know the boys have been training really well, we-ve only been training for a few weeks but there are plenty of positive signs and we need to stay injury free and we-ll do really well this year.
Finally, the club has a large focus on community events such as the Ausgrid Club Nights. It must be good to interact with local kids?
I love doing the community stuff. Coming from the Gold Coast, it-s a bit bigger community and I think especially on the Central Coast, it-s more of a smaller-knit community. I live in Terrigal, so living in a smaller place and interacting with the community is really important especially for a club like the Mariners. The supporters of the Mariners have been fantastic over the last couple of years, the community has really turned out and supported the boys and that-s a credit to them. Hopefully this season it-s the same and we can get lots of fans out and hopefully our memberships can improve and we will be successful for them.
