Some Golden Soft Sombrero Moments with Brad Maloney Maloney on the off-season… Diegos: " Thanks for joining us during your off season. At this time of the year the Diegos would imagine that you would be out with the boys nightly, doing the 'Ricky Ponting - Bourbon and Beefsteak' shuffle at the home of all feisty end of season male bonding sessions, King Cross in Sydney? Maloney: " No way Diegos. I try and stay out of that place. The newspapers here in Sydney register any incident at that establishment on the infamous 'Bourbon metre'. So I don't really want to be a part of that." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Maloney: " It was a great award to win but the last thing I felt like doing was to break down in tears. It certainly was a great feeling to receive the award. There were a lot of people I really wanted to thank, too many to get through in such a short time. To tell you the truth, I just wanted to get up and out of there as quick as I could." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Diegos: " Just as Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson indulged in a session of tongue wrestling on stage at the World Music awards, did you at any stage feel like pashing TV celebrity, Tracey Holmes, the MC for the night?" Maloney: " Let me assure the Diegos that I would've put it on her but she went away to quick for me. I think she knew I was coming." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Diegos: " After having such a good season you must have felt pretty confident that you had a good chance of winning the award. Of the other nominations, whom did you think was the biggest threat and was there any player on the list you felt was a 'real dud' and shouldn't have been nominated?" Maloney: " I don't think that there are any real 'duds' anywhere in the league. All five nominees on the night were worthy selections. Of the nominees, I actually voted for Con Boutsiannis, Paul Trimboli and Pablo Cardozo. I thought it was great receiving such an award when you're competing with so many fine players." Diegos: " Are there any players that you just can't stand playing against and in true precious, prima donna, award winning style, the Diegos want you to name names?" Maloney: " You're out of luck Diegos, there's none that I can think of. I think there are one or two that get up people's noses, not just mine but all players, with their on field antics and with the way they behave sometimes. I think that is part of sport in general though." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Diegos: " The club went through a lengthy slump during the middle part of the season. It seemed Farina's job was on the line and to be honest, the Diegos had condemned the Stallions to the glue factory. It's history now that the boys were able to turn it around. What led to the slump and how would you sum up the team's first season under Frank Farina?" Maloney: " We suffered a lot of injuries and suspensions throughout the middle of the year and without making too many excuses, it had to play some role in the team not doing so well. In one or two games we had to virtually play with the youth squad. In one of those Sydney Olympic thrashed us 5-0. We were very inexperienced at times and perhaps, a little naïve. Heads went down quickly and we seemed to accept loss too easily during this period. There were rumours about Frankie's job being on the line but I think that they were a little premature, even though we were going through a bad trot. I think the club and the board at Marconi have stood by him. I don't think his job was ever in doubt during the year. It may have been a different story if by the end of the season, we were still lurking at the bottom. We always maintained faith in ourselves and I always believed that we were never really out of it. With the last 6 or 7 games to go we gave ourselves an aim of winning at least 5 of those games, which we managed to do. That teed us off for a final's birth, finally finishing 4th on the ladder. It was a fairly good effort coming from 10th or 11th on the turn." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Maloney on goal-scoring… Diegos: " You are a goal scoring midfielder and from memory, you scored one of the goals of the season with an acrobatic, mid-air, cock the bolt back and let fire, scissor kick against Sydney United. Is this something that Frank encourages you to do and how does Francis Awaritife take it when you decide to shoot rather than pass the ball to him?" Maloney: " Frankie (Farina) encourages me to get forward as much as possible. It has become my role this season to support the strikers, get into the box and get on the end of things. If it's not me that finishes things off, we hope it'll be Franny (Francis Awaritife), Kris Trajanovski or Sean Babic. I've had the luxury of having good players behind me doing excellent defensive work. Players like Darren Mc Donald, Marcus Phillips, Mark Babic and Chad Gibson are all great performers who do a lot of the graft work, which allows me to get forward. It's been a strategy that Frankie has encouraged and I think it has been successful for us." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Diegos: " On the Socceroos front, you haven't had much of a look in, even though you did come through the ranks as a well credentialed Youth International. When you saw the boys front up against the World XI at the opening of Stadium Australia, how does it make you feel?" Maloney: " I would always love to play for the Socceroos. I believe if your form warrants selection then you'll get picked. Any player playing in the National league should aspire to play for his country. Having said that and looking at the line up against the World XI, I don't think anyone can argue that that wasn't the strongest Australian squad we've ever had. All those players are established players in Europe and all worthy selections for the team. I think it was fantastic getting those boys together, particularly Paul Okon and Ned Zelic. As far as the future is concerned, if they are going to select an Australian based squad, of course I'd like to be involved but whether or not it happens remains to be seen." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000
Diegos: " Australian raised, Italian international, Christian Vieri has just transferred from Lazio to Inter Milan for a lazy $75 million and Mark Bosnich has recently scored himself a $17.5 million, 4 year contract with none other than the great, Manchester United. In an irrational moment, do you ever kick the cat and scream into the mirror - it should have been me?" Maloney: " No not really. I was overseas for a short period just after the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. I spent a bit of time in Holland and Belgium. I thought I performed reasonably well and actually signed a contract with a first division club in Holland but unfortunately couldn't get a visa to stay. So I came back to Australia and just started playing here again. It didn't work out for me and I'm not going to cry about it. I'm reasonably happy with what I'm doing now. I'm happy with my situation and status at Marconi. I think its fantastic that Aussie boys are making a name for themselves on the world stage and making a great living out of the game. Our boys are now up there with some of the best players in the world. I don't think anyone can argue that Mark Bosnich is not in at least the top 10; perhaps top 5, goalkeepers in the world. Good luck to him. Christian is another one who has made a name for himself. He was one of the top scorers in the World cup and clubs are willing to pay big dollars for these type of players." Soft Sombrero Moment June 2000 |