Steve Corica: Auckland FC Coach previews the A-League clash against the Brisbane Roar

Auckland FC return to action this weekend after the international break. 

They made quite the statement in their last clash, the NZ derby against the Wellington Phoenix, winning 2-1 despite only having nine players on the field.  

This weekend will see them take on the Brisbane Roar, looking to cement their place at the top of the A-League ladder. 

Auckland FC Coach Steve Corica joined D’Arcy to look back at the derby performance and preview tomorrow’s clash.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Time for a taste of football now. Auckland FC return
to action this weekend. Had a bit of an international break.
Great statement in their last match in the derby versus
the Phoenix. They won two to one. They had nine
players on the park extraordinary. This weekend they take on
Brisbane Raw and they're going to try and cement their

(00:34):
place at the top of the A League ladder, a
place they're very familiar with through their first season. Steve Corriker,
here's the coach of Auckland FC. He joins us now
to look ahead to the match up tomorrow evening. Steve
joins us now today, Steve, you will yes, very good,
Thank you enthusiastic as always. It's kind of a hallmark

(00:55):
of Auckland FC, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah? I think so.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
There's obviously a lot of good things going on at
the club, and top of.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
The tables makes it a little bit easier to be
happy in it.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
You must have that that creeping death behind you though,
going You've been top of the table before and you
never walked away with the chocolates. Does that does that
haunt you much, Steve or not?

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Well that's not true though, because we won the premiership
last year.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, but you didn't win the big dance, did you.
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
You're there.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
You're winning the premiership in your first year. That's that's
one of the trophies to be won. So you know,
we're very proud of that. So obviously the Grand final
is important as well. But what it does show is
we're the most consistent team over last season.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
But it's obviously a different year this year.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I'm not trying to downplay your success. It was like Steve,
I'm just being the media. You know what we're like, right,
you must be a well are you welling to support it?
I like Motor Sport, But if I tell the absolute truth,
I'm actually wearing a Phoenix top as we speak. But
there yeah, wow, you know, I think the healthy competition

(02:03):
between the both of you, it's brilliant. It's been a
high lot of the league and I look at all
the other trans Tasman leagues go why aren't you doing this?
This is so important for local football and you would
have seen the surgeon that since you arrived.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, last year was bre and obviously in the derbys
the crowds were amazing. I think, yeah, hopefully, you know,
we get similar to this this season, so there's that.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
There is definitely is a rivalry now.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
You can see between the coaches, the players, what it
means to the players, the supporters.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
You know, it's derbies are best.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
You know, and we've got three of them again this season,
and I'm obviously we're happy to get one over them
again at.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
The start of the year.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
We play them a game in three weeks, so you know,
we see every game is a different situation, and we'll
be at home and hopefully we'll have a sold out
crowd like we did last year, which would be great.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
You got one over them in the first up and
some didn't. You what a game it was.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Yeah, a lot happened in that game obviously. Yeah it's
hard to break down, but you know, with two two
men sent off, Yeah, it was a difficult game for us,
but you know, we didn't have to score any more goals.
We were leading at the time and we just had
to defend for our lives, which you know, full credit
to them players that were out there.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
They were awesome, mate, they were brilliant.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, you've got to be really proud of that because
as soon as a guy started getting seen obviously, I
don't know how you're supposed to defend this with what
you've got in front of you, but you did. I
mean you're an attacking guy. Your team play that that
kind of football, so it's about it go back on that.
That's enormous sense of pride for everyone, right, Steve.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Yeah, we'll take a lot out of that game. Obviously,
you know, with ten minutes difficult enough, but to go
down to nine and to still keep you know, them
not scoring was amazing. You know, I think the boys
have great belief defensively, they really put in a good
shift for not only themselves their teammates as well. And

(03:59):
you know, obviously the club that was that was brilliant
really from them.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Plainly you've got targets on your back. What's happening next
as you're taking on Brisbane now, no pressure. I started
a seven league multi last week and in order to
cash and you guys need to win. Can you carry
that with you?

Speaker 3 (04:19):
Do our best? I can tell you that much.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Yeah, we've got three home games now on a row.
Obviously we want to try and make the most of them.
This one's going to be a tricky one for us.
You know, we've got two suspended, we've got two.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Out injured, three out injured at the moment.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
You know, we've got Jesse Randall and Francis Deverese only
just arrived back this morning from international duty.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
So it's a tricky one.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
But you know we we've got I think we've got
really good depth in the squad. It's going to show
this weekend. You know, obviously, you know with some players
coming in for their first first games because of the
injuries and suspensions.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
So you know they'll be right up for it.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
And you know some younger boys that will be on
the bench, which you know they've been desperate to get
game time and maybe this.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Weekend could be the could be the week for them.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
He'd struggle to calm these guys down because they'd be
absolutely fizzing to get out there and play on debut.
So part of your role, I'm presuming is to just
calm be fun or do you just let them go
and say knock yourself out.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Well, you know, young.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Boys are always very enthusiastic, so sometimes you just let
them go and you know, as long as they stick
to the structures. But you know that you know there'll
be a couple of players maybe you know they are
a young a little bit and inexperienced in the A League,
but you know what comes with that is that enthusiasm
and and you know that work their excitement around the

(05:41):
group as well, which is which is fantastic and hopefully
they do get time this weekend.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
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