Central Coast Mariners’ A-League Men’s coach Mark Jackson spoke about how his side’s player empowered culture helped them win the treble in the 2023-24 A-League Men’s report.
By Mark Jackson
The culture that already existed was fantastic and it was up to me to build on that. The first thing that stood out for me was that you had a lot of young, hungry players who were receptive to learning. That didn’t stop after a honeymoon period; it got stronger and stronger. We introduced a new way of working with a lot of individual video. That was a big change for them, but they really took to it.
After a game in Perth, we tried something new. Normally after a defeat you want to say ‘you haven’t done this right and this right’, but we changed tack. We put players in groups and gave them ownership over a topic from the game. The coaches went out and grabbed a coffee then came back in and had them present back to us and the group.
That was a key moment because the players understood that they can be a massive part of understanding what we want and how we’re going to execute it. We continued that throughout the season. We didn’t always agree as players and staff. But I’m a big believer in listening to what the players have to say. They are the ones who cross the white line.
That manifested to the point where at half time in extra time of the Grand Final, I said to Max Balard: “I don’t need to speak, you speak. You’ve got this. You know what we need to do.” As a manager it got to that stage where you know the players have the answer on the pitch. It was the biggest game of the season but I felt confident to step back. The process to get there requires time and effort, developing that psychological safety where players feel confident enough to speak in team meetings. It’s not to say it’s right or wrong, but it’s our way of working.
Read more extracts from our 2023-24 A-League Men’s report
HINGERT: How to win back our trust
REDMAYNE: How Sydney FC’s Academy leads the A-League’s talent revolution
DOME: Our facility is a competitive advantage in performance and recruitment
There were numerous times during the AFC Cup campaign when players could have said ‘what’s going on here?’. No one moaned or said a word. We don’t have any egos in the dressing room. That became a big part of how we coped psychologically and physically as well.
We got stranded in Kyrgyzstan because of flooding in Dubai. I told the group we have to flip this negative into a positive for us. They could have stayed in their rooms and been lazy but we proposed we go for a hike in the mountains, and they were well up for it. There was an iconic photo of all the boys in their tracksuits on top of a mountain in Kyrgyzstan. We had it up in the rooms before the Grand Final. That typified how we kept turning these obstacles into positives all the time. It wasn’t driven by the players or the staff, it was the collective.
