Wanderers coach Marko Rudan refused to face the media after 7-0 loss

Wanderers fans wanted answers after a record club defeat to Melbourne City but the coach instead refused to front the media.

Wanderers head coach Marko Rudan was a press conference no-show(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The Western Sydney Wanderers are in full blown damage control after their record 7-0 loss to Melbourne City at AAMI Park on Tuesday night with coach Marko Rudan refusing to attend the post-match press conference to address the biggest loss in the team’s history.

Instead Rudan’s assistant Jean-Paul de Marigny was offered up as the sacrificial lamb in farcical scenes to face the music from the media.

A club spokesperson later confirmed Rudan, who recently re-signed until the end of 2026-27, had not lost his job, but gave the bizarre excuse that he couldn’t attend the press conference because he was in a team meeting at the time.

However, that alibi made little sense because there is never a set time for post-match press conferences to take place. Quite the opposite - they very much work around a coach’s availability after a game and can sometimes take up to an hour after the final whistle to commence.

And it flew in the face of de Marigny’s answer when he was asked if there was a reason for Rudan’s absence post-match.

“Nah. Not really,” de Marigny said.

“Let’s speak about the game.

“It’s pretty simple. I’m here now to ask questions so I don’t think that’s irrelevant at this stage,” he said when asked why Rudan didn’t attend the press conference.”

Wanderers head coach Marko Rudan was at the Melbourne match (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images) (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

De Marigny also confirmed that Rudan’s snub was not health-related.

Rudan’s failure to front the media was an incredibly poor look coming just 17 days after he completed a three-game suspension for an outburst which questioned the integrity of A-League referees.

Since his return to the dugout, Western Sydney have lost three games in a row for the first time under his reign, shipping 14 goals in the same period to drop out of the top six.

When it was put to de Marigny that Rudan avoiding the media was a “poor look”, he responded: “I’ve got no comment about that. I’m here to answer questions about the game.”

In Rudan’s stead, it was up to de Marigny to offer a message of hope to the club’s devastated fans after their record-equalling A-League loss.

“I think it’s important that we all stick together, that’s important throughout the whole football club,” he said.

“It’s important that we continue to work and to get out of a situation that we’re in.

“We need to find solutions with no excuses and we have to have the mentality to make sure that we create an opportunity for everyone to make sure that we get into that top six. So that’s the mentality that we need to have.”

The Wanderers assistant said there was “a lot of hurt in the dressing room” following their thumping defeat.

“There’s a lot of soul searching and we’ll do that in the next few days,” he said.

“It was a difficult night for everyone ... that’s from the top to bottom, and our responsibility is to make sure we’re ready for the next game.”

In May, Terry Antonis was released by the Western Sydney Wanderers after not playing a minute of the 2022-23 season.

Tonight, he scored against them from halfway.

WATCH 📽 https://t.co/ikwpk5gRDppic.twitter.com/Em0SzTHqqB

— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) March 12, 2024

The moment of the season, let alone the night, came in the 82nd minute when City’s Terry Antonis scored one of the greatest goals in A-League history from the centre circle. After not playing a single game for his former club Western Sydney last season, he made sure he let Rudan know about it by charging towards him and giving him a “call me” phone hand gesture.

“I think that’s football. If you’re telling me he had a hard time at the Wanderers, yeah, OK,” de Marigny said.

“He scored a great goal, celebrated the way he wanted to celebrate.”

And at halftime, Rudan made the unprecedented move of making five substitutes all at once after shipping four goals before the break.

“Firstly, it’s tactical and also looking that there’s short turnarounds and giving players every opportunity to make sure that they get selected for the next game,” he said.

Originally published as Wanderers coach Marko Rudan refused to face the media after 7-0 loss