Heartbreaking injuries as professional land Matt Park at Myrtleford

BEAU GREENWAY: Where did you start your career?

MATT PARK: I grew up in Frankston and played most of my juniors there up until I was about 11 or 12. We then moved to Warrnambool and I signed with Bulleen in the Super League, so I used to travel through on the train three hours every weekend to play the games. I made a decision I wanted to take my football to the next level so I actually moved out of home and went and lived my Nan and Pa for a couple of years because they were still in Frankston. I stayed at Bulleen and was always playing a year above, but I decided to drop back down and went to Berwick in the Super League. I think I won the Super League four times. At the same time I was in Victorian sides.

BG: When did you start earning higher honours?

MP: When I left Berwick I joined the VIS (Victorian Institute of Sport) with (former Melbourne Victory coach) Ernie Merrick. Some of the boys there included (A-League stars) Kristian Sarkies, Adrian Leijer, Matt Spiranovic and a couple of other boys that went on to play professionally as well. When I was at the VIS we used to play against a mix of under-20s and senior premier league sides. We'd train Monday, Tuesday, play a game Wednesday, weights Friday and train Saturday morning. Pretty much every day after school I'd be on the train from Frankston into Melbourne. Very early on in 2004 I was with the under-16s and we went to America and played a couple of games, but I never got selected in any more squads. They had a lot of tours and World Cup qualifiers, so I made the decision to leave the VIS after two years because I thought I needed senior football. I played with Frankston Pines in the premier league for six months and I got selected for the Australian under-17s side under Ange Postecoglou. Ange came and watched me play seniors and I think it was that decision to led to me making the final Under-17 World Cup squad.

BG: Did you get much of an opportunity at the World Cup?

MP: I came on against Mexico and Turkey. We were a bit unlucky, we did quite well. We lost 1-0 against Turkey in the first group game and they were European champions at the time. We didn't cop a goal until about the 80th minute. I still remember to this day I had a chance to put us 1-0 up. Turkey had a guy called Nuri Sahin who was already playing in the Champions League for (German club) Borussia Dortmund. We had Mexico the next day and they had Giovani dos Santos who I think was at Barcelona at the time. I think he won top-goal scorer at the tournament and they ended up winning it. We played Uruguay in the last game. I didn't play in that game but we won that game 2-1. It was a great experience and we had a lot of guys that obviously went on to play for the Socceroos in that squad. It was unreal just to be at a World Cup and play in front of 20,000 in big stadiums in South America. To think that I've been coached by Ange Postecoglou at one time, who is obviously one of the best coaches Australia has had, is pretty cool.

BG: You then spent a number of years abroad as a professional in Scotland, how did that come about?

MP: I came back from the World Cup and had a month left of school, so I finished year 12. I had an agent who organised some trials and I borrowed some money off my granddad to pay for a one-way ticket and went over to Scotland hoping to find a contract. I was at Hearts for two weeks and they offered me a contract. At the time I signed, I think they'd won the first nine games of the year and were sitting top.

ALSO IN SPORT:

BG: Did you play top level in Scotland with Hearts?

MP: I played in a youth cup final against Celtic in my first year and the following year I sat on the bench in a UEFA Cup qualifier for the seniors and a league game, so that was a pretty big buzz. I think I sat on the bench about 10 times over the course of seven years and played in quite a few friendly games. I got to travel with the squad for UEFA Cup qualifier against Dinamo Zagreb (in Croatia). I played a friendly game against Austria Vienna over in Austria and a few German second division clubs.

BG: You didn't quite crack it for a senior game at Hearts and then were then loaned out to East Fife. How was that?

MP: I was at Hearts for about four years and I think I was just about to make my breakthrough in the seniors and that's when I did my ACL for the first time. Call me naive but I was only 20, maybe 21 at the time and I didn't really know there was a knee injury that serious that would put you out for 12 months. At the time, I was sitting on the bench and I thought I was going to make my debut the week before, so I thought the next week coming was going to be it. There was a reserve game on the Tuesday and I literally went to control the ball and sort of had to jump two centimetres. I landed and it felt like my knee snapped in half. When they said they thought it might be my ACL, I was thinking when you break your leg you're out for six weeks or nine weeks, but they said it would be nine to 12 months. It was devastating. I then went on loan to East Fife and we did quite well. They were a second division side at the time and we beat Dunfermline in the third round of the League Cup and Aberdeen away on penalties in the fourth round and we played against Kilmarnock in the quarter-finals and we were unlucky there. That night against Abderdeen in the fourth round is considered one of the best ever victories in the history of the club.

BG: Most people know you as a striker around here. What was your role in Scotland?

MP: I was a left back in Scotland and played quite a few games at centre half. Before I went over I'd say I was a left midfielder. I was just a big boy winning headers in Scotland, so you end up creeping down the back. It took me a little while to learn my role at left back, but I enjoyed it and used to love getting forward.

BG: How did it end at Hearts?

MP: It was a little bit awkward. They sent me on loan again for the last six months of the season (in 2011) and I did really well. I thought I'd come back next year and it was going to be my chance. Over that seven years I was at Hearts, I think we had about nine or 10 first team managers, so it was a bit of a crazy period. They had a pre-season tour and I thought I was going to go, but I wasn't selected in that squad. After training, I went up and spoke with the coaches and said 'if I'm not going to play first team here, I want to be released because I want to play first team somewhere else.' They sort of said 'we still want you, we want you to get another six months experience'. The left back at the time Lee Wallace was the captain and he was Scotland left back as well, but they were expecting to sell him in six months and I was going to come in and they were going to give me my chance. I told them I'd do what I can in the next six months and come back and see how it goes. A month later those coaches ended up getting sacked. When a new coach comes in and you're on loan and haven't really played first team, you sort of get overlooked. I had six months left on my contract and I was going to get released. I was either going to go to England or there was a team in Hong Kong that were interested. I went in and discussed my release with Hearts on say a Friday because I had two weeks left on my loan at East Fife and couldn't actually leave until then. I finalised the deal on the Friday, played on the Saturday and did my ACL again. Hearts were still good because I was still contracted with them and I got the operation done on my knee straight away.

BG: Do you ever think what could have been if not for those knee injuries?

MP: You can't go saying what you think you would have done when you haven't done it, but I still think I'd be playing at the very highest level. Some of the players I played with, I had no doubt I was just as good, if not better than some of them that have gone on and done very well in football. At the same time, there's thousands and thousands of kids that have got the same or similar story to me. Sometimes it's a bit of right time, right place and you've got to have that bit of luck you always need in life. I still had unreal times.

BG: How do you sum up that whole experience in Scotland?

MP: Still to this day, it was the best six or seven years of my life. I still remember moving and I knew I was going over to the UK to trial for a contract, but I didn't know every professional club in England and Scotland had its own youth team that was professional as well. They train every day, twice a day, that's their job and they get paid for it. I used to love it. We'd go in early and set up training for the senior team. You're with 20 other boys your own age that are all good at football, so you've already got that in common. You train, pack up and have lunch. You might go to a weights session and then train again in the afternoon. After training, because you're in another country and there's a lot of other international boys, you end getting together with them and mucking around. They're like your family at the end of the day. To think you get to do that and get paid for it at the same time. I still remember when they gave me my first pay cheque and I remember thinking 'I can't believe I'm getting paid to play soccer and that's it'. I couldn't quite comprehend it. I used to get up on my days off early and Edinburgh is such a beautiful town and I'd go and walk around and sightsee. I was lucky enough to get put up with a family and I'm still in contact with them quite a bit. They made sure I tried all the food, so I had plenty of haggis and stuff. It's actually not too bad to be honest (laughs).

BG: When did you come back to Australia?

MP: It's all a bit of a blur but I think it was towards the end of 2011 when I did my knee for a second time and that was when it was sort of all over and I came back some time in 2012. I was looking to finish my rehab in Australia and there was a few A-League clubs interested in having a look at me. Mentally I wasn't all there and I ended up taking a break from the game for a year or year-and-a-half. Two years later I ended up in Myrtleford.

BG: Did you play anywhere else in between?

MP: When I first came back I signed with Dandenong Thunder and I did about four weeks of pre-season and quit. My knee wasn't giving me trouble, I think it was more mental anxiety to be honest. I was worried I was going to do my knee again. I took a year off and played with local club Mornington with my mates and had a good time there.

BG: You moved to Beechworth for work in 2015. Were you told Myrtleford was the closest club?

MP: I remember I moved down on the Sunday and it was a Tuesday and I felt like having a kick. I wasn't sure at the time what was closer out of Myrtleford and Wodonga, but I think Myrtleford was closer by about 10 minutes so I thought I'd go down there and have a kick. There was only about six or seven of them, it was pretty shit (laughs). I thought I'd give them another chance on the Thursday and I think Jayden (co-coach Jayden Vescio) took training on a Thursday night and he seemed to know what he was doing and it was half decent compared to the Tuesday.

BG: The Border's NPL side, Murray United, had only just been formed as well? Did you consider playing there?

MP: I actually emailed Murray United before I moved down and had an interview with Pedro (Afonso). If I had of stayed in Melbourne, I was probably going to go to one of the top sides in the NPL and start playing at the top level again. Murray United asked me to come in and have a meeting. I still wasn't moving up for another eight weeks and this was well before the season started. I came down thinking I was going to have an official meeting. Pedro was standing out in the middle of the pitch and I went over and said hi and thought we'd go somewhere a little private. He sort of waffled on and said, 'I think you're the type of person that would really fit in and I think you'd be able to get a game for us'. I was thinking 'we're in the country, who have they got around here?'. I was a professional less than 24 months ago and here he is telling me he thinks I'll fit in. Obviously you start talking about cash because in Melbourne you're fetching $1000 a week easily at the top level. He said they were a new club and he could offer me $100 or $150 a week. I asked was that training twice a week and he said it was three times a week. I was thinking that would barely cover petrol money from Beechworth. Then he nudges me in the ribs jokingly and says 'but, it's $150 man of the match bonus, so you could be walking away from here with $300 some weeks as if it was this unbelievable amount. Then I asked him where were they expecting to finish and he said 'we're looking for promotion'. I thought to myself this guy has offered me $150 a week and he thinks he's getting promoted. I knew Melbourne football at the time and there is no way in hell you're getting players for $100-$150 a week and getting promoted. If you want to get promoted you're going to have to have a whole squad of players on between $400 and $800 a week. He asked me if I wanted to come in and meet the boys but I left and he said 'we'll be in contact'. He never contacted me again until I signed with Myrtleford and played six or seven games. He messaged me again and said, 'we'd like to have you down to trial with us next year in the pre-season' and I thought 'is this guy serious?' I knew they were struggling at the time and here he is asking me to trial for them. I sent him a message and told him I wasn't coming down to trial and they could have a look at me when I was playing for Myrtleford. But if they were still talking about the same kind of money as earlier in the year, there was absolutely no chance. He sent back a text saying, 'if we think you're a suitable enough player I'm sure we can find a package that suits both parties' and that was really the last conversion we had (laughs).

BG: So you were pretty content to stay at Myrtleford after that?

MP: There was no point moving to the country to be going back to Melbourne every second weekend and still training three nights a week. I was happier at Myrtleford. I still wasn't getting paid at Myrtleford in that first year, but they offered me the coaching job in the second year and I was getting a little bit to do that. After my third year (2017) when we'd won two (cups) in a row, (Goulburn Valley Suns coach) Craig Carley had a serious chat with me about wanting to go over there and I was very close at having a crack again and playing at the top level, but I had too many things going on with my business and we had a good thing going on at Myrtleford. I enjoyed coaching the boys and decided to stay at Myrt.

BG: You helped deliver the club its first AWFA cup in your first year coaching with Jayden Vescio and won the league Star Player. That must have been pretty special?

MP: I broke my leg in the quarter-final against Melrose and missed the cup final. It was our first one and it was disappointing to miss it. I started weighing things up, 'I've got bad knees, a broken ankle', but I came back the following year and we won the league and the cup again and I felt fine. We ended up winning it again the next year.

BG: Has Jayden been a good partner in crime?

MP: You could say we're best mates. The amount of times we've had to talk about things and spend time together. You wouldn't coach with someone for four or five years if you didn't have a good relationship with them. There's plenty of times where you have to compromise, so if we didn't get along it just wouldn't work. We've certainly had to work hard, we've put in the hours to get where we are. We really enjoy it. I think we've got a much younger squad now and we enjoy that side of it. It's not just about helping them out football wise, it's being that older person to help them out in life and show them the right way.

BG: You suffered a third ACL injury in the pre-season last year, but defied the odds and came back to help the side reach another cup final. How did you manage that?

MP: The body went one way, the knee went the other and that was it. I thought I wouldn't play again, but I made a comeback last year. I don't know if it was silly or not, but I ended up going alright. The first two times in Scotland was my right knee and this time was my left knee. Obviously I can still play, but I'm only at 50, 60 per cent. I want to get surgery done, but I can still function completely normal in terms of everyday life. With my job (as a coach) with Little Kickers, I'm very active with the kids and if I was to have my knee done, I wouldn't be able to do my job for three, four, five months. I'm not in a position to do that. Mind you, it would have been nice if I knew coronavirus was coming and I was going to have six months off to be able to get it done (laughs). It will happen eventually.

BG: You took on the club presidency at the end of last year. Do you really feel a part of the community now?

MP: I wasn't really expecting to be playing when I first moved here and I've got really involved again. I bought a house in Myrtleford three years ago so I've been involved in the community for quite a while. I saw an opportunity that the club could do some things outside of football. I wasn't planning on coaching this year. It was my first job as president and I couldn't find a coach (laughs). I haven't really had too much to do with all this (COVID-19) stuff going on, but things started off well behind the scenes and hopefully that continues.