Adelaide City legend Damian Mori believes his dream of coaching an A-League club is a disappearing with time
ADELAIDE City legend Damian Mori seems to think he’s now too old to earn a coaching gig in the A-League after ending his tenure as the most successful boss in South Australian soccer’s second-tier competition.
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ADELAIDE City legend Damian Mori seems to think he’s now too old to earning a coaching gig in the A-League after ending his tenure as the most successful boss in South Australian soccer’s second tier competition.
After 13 years in charge, Mori on Wednesday decided to pull the pin on coaching the club, four days after a grand final 1-0 loss to Campbelltown City at Hindmarsh.
Despite winning four championships, two premierships, four SA Federation Cups, eight grand final appearances and leading City to becoming the first second tier club to topple a professional A-League outfit Western Sydney in the 2014 FFA Cup, Mori, 47, has only been headhunted twice by A-League clubs.
“I did get phone calls to see if I was interested in coaching an A-League club but that’s as far as it got,’’ said Mori on Thursday.
“I’m too old for an A-League coaching job now, I just want to have a bit of a break and then we’ll see what happens. I’ll always be grateful to what the club has done for me in the past.”
In 2005 Adelaide City was on shaky turf, a place where it has never been since winning its way to the top flight in the 1950s, four years after it was founded.
After late Adelaide City chairman Bob D’Ottavi announced the club in 2003 could no longer afford playing in the now defunct National Soccer League, Mori rescued the club from what was looking to be oblivion as a player/coach as SA’s most successful soccer club had to restabilise and refinance.
Mori, a salesperson at Best Bricks and Pavers, has been involved with Adelaide City more on than off for 26 years since legendary boss Zoran Matic wooed the then full back to the club from Melbourne Croatia in 1992.
He held the Socceroos goal scoring record for 12 years when he scored 29 times in 45 A internationals until Tim Cahill smashed his 30th Australian goal into the back of the net in 2014 with his tally now standing at 50.
Mori says he is totally satisfied with what he has achieved as a coach believing the standard has improved with new technology after he introduced GPS this year and video analysis a few years earlier.
“What the competition is probably missing is a few good A-League players coming back in,’’ Mori said.
“Coaching at this level there is a whole raft of challenges for part-time players but we made sure they were committed, I was putting in about 30 hours a week too.
“We would try to be as professional as we could and I think the standard has gotten better as we demanded more commitments from our players.
“But I have noticed over the years that crowds are falling and that needs to be addressed.”