Adelaide United defender Michael Marrone reflects on the Reds’ maiden A-League title and his grand final injury four years on
Michael Marrone was on the cusp of helping Adelaide United to its maiden A-League title in a bittersweet grand final this time four years ago. Now he’s running around his Hills property alone, wondering when he’ll next kick a ball.
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A ruptured Achilles tendon in Adelaide United’s maiden grand final win sent Michael Marrone home in the back of his car as the championship party ramped up.
But four years on, the injury has inadvertently increased demand for the unassuming right back’s autograph, even during an enforced late-season hiatus.
“I really missed out on celebrating,” said Marrone, who limped off in the 73rd minute of the Reds’ breakthrough A-League title-decider at a packed Adelaide Oval in 2016.
“A lot of the players had played together for a quite a while and we had such a good run with such a good bunch of blokes.
“But the pain started to really kick in after (the match), so I got in the back of the car with my leg up, went home and that was it.
“A couple of days later we had the celebrations in Rundle Mall, but I showed up afterwards on my crutches.
“So fans had all this (team signed) grand final memorabilia without my signature on it, because I wasn’t at anything.
“I’ve had a lot of people chasing me up for signatures on stuff since.”
Marrone missed just three matches in Adelaide’s championship march, which culminated in the stunning 3-1 success over Western Sydney in front of 50,119 spectators.
Despite sitting out the first half of the following campaign after surgery to repair the physical setback, the bittersweet triumph remains the high-point of his 12-year top flight career.
The one-cap Socceroo should be gearing up for United’s last regular season clash in Brisbane this Saturday, ahead of what he hoped would be his fifth finals series with his hometown club.
Instead, he is slogging it out on cross country runs in and around his 9ha Adelaide Hills property in a bid to maintain fitness during the A-League’s coronavirus postponement.
“Because we’ve played 80-90 per cent of our games … if it means playing behind closed doors, that’s fine,” said Marrone, in favour of condensing the fixtures into three-four weeks.
“With the virus and the travel restrictions, they can’t just keep travelling interstate every week or every couple of days so it would have to be in one spot.
“A lot of players are just keen to get it done and dusted.
“The weird thing is being at the end of the season, but not being able to complete it.
“We went from preparing for our next game and training normally, and then the next day we came into a meeting saying ‘that’s it, go home and we don’t know when we’ll see you next’.”
The Para Hills product said he had complimented his individual workouts with “life fitness” since Reds players and most staff were stood down without pay on April 1.
He had spent more time renovating the converted shed at Scott Creek he has lived in with wife, Melody, and three-year-old son, Micah, since 2018.
The couple has also had its hands full during home lockdown with the newest addition to the
family, two-month-old daughter Florence.
“There’s plenty of things to keep busy which I think helps,” Marrone, 33, said.
“I’m doing at least 10km a day, even on the days I don’t run, because you’re always walking around doing stuff like collecting wood.
“I went and picked up some soil the other day and that was the first time I’d been out in about two weeks.
“We do the once-a-week shop at the market and it’s pre-made, so we just pick it up.
“We’re pretty sorted up here.”
The COVID-19 suspension of play coincided with a concerning Adelaide form slump.
Marrone, who claimed a record third FFA Cup with the Reds in October, said his teammates had expressed their intention to turn results around during group meetings on Snapchat.
The 185-game United veteran called for a form reversal similar to that of the title-winning squad, which lost just once in 21 outings after going winless in the opening eight rounds.
He said enjoying a few drinks with teammates, while watching Melbourne Victory’s goalless draw with the Roar hand Adelaide that year’s Premier’s Plate, was a defining moment.
“It really felt from then on that it (championship) was just going to happen,” said Marrone, part of the 4-1 semi-final demolition of his former club Melbourne City a fortnight later.
“Momentum and belief in this kind of league has so much going for it and we had a lot of boys that hit form at the right time.
“It’s not like we were smashing teams, but it just felt comfortable winning.
“It didn’t matter in the grand final even if we were 2-0 down, I felt like we were just going to get back up.
“I felt like we were never going to lose.”