LAST UPDATE | 1 May 2018
THIS IS THE kind of week that allows Roy O’Donovan to feel some sense of vindication for opting to take his career as a professional footballer down a road less travelled.
“I definitely don’t miss playing in minus four degrees in Oxford on a Tuesday night when you need to get a result because the manager’s job is on the line,” he tells us over the phone from Australia’s south-east coast, where temperatures this week will reach 27 degrees celsius.
On Saturday (kick-off at 10.50am Irish time), O’Donovan will aim to become just the second Irish-born player to win a championship medal in the A-League, Australia’s top tier of football.
This isn’t the path he envisaged after becoming the most expensive player in League of Ireland history in 2007, when Sunderland brought him to the English Premier League from Cork City for a fee of €500,000.
Four years since he left England behind by departing League Two club Northampton Town, however, the 32-year-old is certainly glad he made an unexpected detour.
“Over here, the sun is shining, there’s a good lifestyle and teams generally look to get the ball down and entertain the supporters,” says the Newcastle Jets striker. “Playing in my position, that suits me. It also feels like you’re actually striving for something, as opposed to fighting every week to keep your head above water.
“It’s still not very common for lads from back home to go outside the UK or Ireland to play their football. It’s difficult here because clubs can only have five foreign players. But one or two lads have been in touch with me about coming over. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.”
After a season playing under former Blackburn Rovers boss Steve Kean for DPMM FC in Singapore’s Premier League, O’Donovan made the switch to Australia when he joined Central Coast Mariners in 2015.
Although the Mariners remained at the wrong end of the A-League table for the duration of O’Donovan’s two-year stay, the Corkman enhanced his own reputation by scoring 19 times in 45 appearances. He was subsequently in demand ahead of the 2017-18 season.
When he decided to commit the next two years of his career to Newcastle Jets — a move which earned him a substantial wage increase, according to local media reports — there were some raised eyebrows down under. In addition to being the Mariners’ local rivals in New South Wales, the Jets had just sacked manager Mark Jones after finishing bottom of the table.
Nevertheless, O’Donovan was privy to a bigger picture. The Ledman Group, a Chinese company which manufactures high-tech LED products, had plans to revive the fortunes of the club after completing a takeover in 2016.
Ernie Merrick, a two-time A-League championship winning coach with Melbourne Victory, was put in charge of first-team affairs. The likes of playmaker Dimi Petratos, who recently earned his first cap for the World Cup-bound Socceroos, Venezuelan international attacker Ronnie Vargas, and young midfielder Riley McGree – whose scorpion-kick goal last week generated worldwide attention — were drafted into the squad this season.
The changes have brought about a dramatic improvement in fortunes for a club who spent the vast majority of the past decade languishing near the foot of the table since winning their only A-League title back in 2008.
“Obviously I played against the club a few times before I came here and I think they were probably just lacking a few players down the spine of the team; a little bit of quality and experience,” O’Donovan explains.
“They changed the manager and changed ownership too. The owners have money to spend so they went out and found some of the best and most experienced players they could get their hands on in the A-League.
“There have been plenty of changes — from the culture to the way of thinking as well — and luckily it all clicked together quite quickly. We’ve rode the crest of a wave this year and it’s been a bit of a fairytale really after the previous few seasons they had.”
On a personal level, O’Donovan could hardly have dreamt of a better start with his new club. In his league debut against Central Coast Mariners, he had a hat-trick before half-time at the expense of his former employers. In total, the former Republic of Ireland U21 international scored seven times in his first five appearances as a Newcastle Jets player.
However, a complex groin injury — supplemented by a two-match suspension for a red card — meant that O’Donovan ultimately missed just shy of half of his side’s games in the regular season. In spite of his protracted absence, he contributed nine goals from 14 starts to help the Jets reach last weekend’s semi-final, where they were 2-1 winners over Melbourne City.
“This time last year I was heading up to Sydney with a mate of mine to watch the Grand Final. Seeing the occasion up close kind of pushed me in the direction of a move. This is the kind of thing you want to be involved in — the big dance, as they say.
“Thankfully the move has worked out for me after a couple of fairly lean years, and I’ll get the opportunity to play in a Grand Final this weekend,” O’Donovan says ahead of Saturday’s clash with Melbourne Victory, which will take place at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium.
“It’s exciting. We usually have the same five or six reporters at the media day but there were about 40 or 50 there today. The tickets sold out within six minutes of going on sale. It’ll be a sell-out crowd of 33,000. I think our highest all year was about 22,000, so there’s a good buzz wherever you go around the place. It’s a great thing to be involved in.”
The standard in the 10-team A-League is oft-maligned in this part of the world, but O’Donovan is well-placed to assess its quality, having experienced the game at a wide range of levels.
After three seasons in the League of Ireland, he played in all four tiers in England from the Premier League down to League Two. The former Coventry City striker also had spells in the Scottish Premier League with Dundee United and Hibernian during his seven-year stint in the UK.
“Obviously everyone at home watches the English Premier League and a bit of the Scottish Premier League as well for Celtic. But take Celtic out of it and it’s a different league altogether. The Premier League in England is an unbelievable level of football with all the money that’s there, but there’s a big difference when you step out of that,” he insists.
“The Championship, League One, League Two, as you go down it becomes very physical and generally very direct, depending on the coach. It’s agricultural football, as such. The survival of the fittest.
“Don’t get me wrong, because there can be a bit of rough and tumble over here [in Australia] at times as well. But by and large it’s a footballing league. A lot of the players they bring in from overseas tend to be Spanish and Dutch, so they want to get the ball down and play. It makes for a good quality of football.
“I think it’s a pretty high standard. What it’s probably lacking at the moment is that there’s not enough teams. I think they’re planning on bringing in a few more in the next few years which would make a big difference, like it has done in MLS in America. But as for the standard itself, there are teams here who could compete well in the Championship in England.”
A handful of Irish players have tasted life in the A-League since its inception in 2005, including former senior internationals like Damien Duff and Andy Keogh, who’s currently captaining Perth Glory. However, only one Irishman has achieved what O’Donovan and his Newcastle Jets team-mates are aiming for this weekend.
The Brisbane Roar side that defeated Western Sydney Wanderers in the 2014 Grand Final included the late Liam Miller, who passed away in February at the age of 36 after battling cancer. O’Donovan and his fellow Corkonian had previously been team-mates at Sunderland.
“Liam was a really great lad,” O’Donovan says. “He did really well when he was in Australia and people speak very highly of him here. We were together for a year at Sunderland and he was at Cork City a few years ago when I trained with them to keep fit in the off-season. A genuine, down-to-earth guy who was taken way too soon.
“My heart goes out to his wife, his three children and all his family. It’s horrifically sad when you put it into that context. If I can emulate Liam Miller’s achievement on Saturday I’ll be a very, very happy man.”
O’Donovan, along with his wife Ellen and two-year-old son Alfie, will soon make the journey home for a holiday before returning to Australia ahead of next season. The plan is to have an A-League medal in his luggage when he lands back in Cork later this month.
He played in a League Two play-off decider at Wembley with Northampton Town, helped Hibernian to reach the 2012 Scottish Cup final and won a League Cup during his time in Singapore. His only previous league medal came back in 2005, when he was a member of the Cork City side who were crowned League of Ireland Premier Division champions.
“I certainly didn’t take Australia lightly when I came here,” he says. “I came with the ambition and drive to win things. It’s taken me until my third season — and a transfer — to get to my first Grand Final. They make a big deal of the Grand Final over here. It’s a big occasion. We’re delighted to be part of it but we desperately want to win it now.
“You want to make an impact on the game. That’s something I’m excited about. I’ve played in finals before, going back as far as my time with Cork City, and this is no more or no less exciting for me. It still gives me butterflies in my stomach.
“I missed nearly half of our league games, which was frustrating, but I’m planning on going out on a high. Hopefully the game on Saturday will define my season. I can’t wait to get out there now.”
