Brisbane Roar legend Thomas Broich reflects on his A-League career

AFTER seven glorious years, Thomas Broich’s status as a Brisbane Roar legend was cemented when he was the first inductee into the club’s Hall of Fame.

Thomas Broich. Picture: Jono Searle

AFTER seven glorious years, Thomas Broich’s status as a Brisbane Roar legend was cemented when he was the first inductee into the club’s Hall of Fame.

He reflects on his A-League career:

What are favourite memories from your Brisbane Roar career?

I loved the 2014 grand final win against the Wanderers.

Why that one over the other two grand final victories?

Because of the atmosphere, and how competitive and how intense it was. We had to work so incredibly hard to get back and then win it.

Thomas Broich celebrates a goal for the Brisbane Roar. Picture: Jono Searle

Anything else stand out?

There was a time under Mike Mulvey around the Christmas/New Year in the 2013-14 season when we beat Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory 5-2 and 3-0 away from home. The football we played those days was unreal.

How can the Roar recapture such past glories? It has now been three years without any silverware.

There’s not much missing. I think we need to be a bit more courageous. Whenever we take a game to the opposition we look good. Our success was built on backing ourselves 100 per cent and we haven’t been able to do that the past couple of years.

Your status at the Roar has been further cemented by being the club’s first Hall of Fame inductee.

It’s a massive honour for me.

Did you expect it?

It took me totally by surprise. The club told me that something was happening at the awards night, but I didn’t expect this.

Are you sad that your last game for the Roar was the 1-0 semi-final loss to Melbourne Victory … a match you weren’t involved in until the final 25 minutes?

Yes, sort of sad because it doesn’t do it justice. Against Victory, realistically we did not create a single goal chance. That’s a semi-final and that’s not reflective of our true potential. We’re good enough to go there and dominate from the opening whistle. That was the mindset behind our success. Yeah we had games where that didn’t work, and we still lost games but we were really unafraid. The moment we get that back, it might be the missing piece.

Ange Postecoglou started the Roar revolution. Tell us about that famous meeting over a coffee in Germany in 2010 when he convinced you to join the club.

He spent a whole day driving in the car to meet me. He was on vacation and he had his wife with him. It obviously meant a lot to him, so it meant a lot to me as well. The way he was talking was really visionary. The thing I didn’t realise to the full extent was that he meant it. I hear all the coaches use all the same phrases, but he was able to pull it off as well. He went beyond those phrases.

Despite the Roar’s on-field success during your time here, off the field it has been a battle for the club in terms of financial problems and finding a true connection with the people of Brisbane. How frustrating has that been?

It gutted me at times. We made three grand finals, three semis and a quarter. In seven years that’s some record, but we haven’t really strengthened the club in that time in terms of crowds, memberships, financial stability, having an academy, reaching out to the community, even political connections. It feels that we missed a big opportunity.

Thomas Broich was the first inductee into the Roar’s Hall of Fame. Picture: Jono Searle.

How can the club rectify this?

It’s never too late. We need to get a lot more business people on board, a lot more politicians on board and reach out to the community a lot more because we can’t just rely on our success on the park. It should be the other way around. You build a club and success is almost the byproduct of that process.

Would a second A-League team in Brisbane help the Roar?

It would be a good thing. There’s rivalry in the city then, there’s a lot more talk about football. It generates a lot of interest. We need a better conversion rate in terms of getting all the juniors that are involved in football to the level where they still follow the sport when they become parents themselves.

Who was the best player you encountered in the A-League?

Players come and go a lot. It was always different players in different seasons. Bes (Besart Berisha) is someone you don’t want to play against. He’s the embodiment of passion. That winning edge that he’s got — it’s incredible. To come up against that is terrifying. Then there’s Corona. The football intelligence and touches he brought to Brisbane was unbelievable. He was a huge loss, but then we brought in TK (Thomas Kristensen). He’s an awesome player too and we looked a better team overall this season.

How do you sum up your time in Brisbane?

It was a hell of a ride. A lot of good times, bad times and I think I learnt a lot. I met a lot of inspirational people. I’m just grateful.

What are your plans?

I really want to travel, enjoy Brisbane, maybe go to New Zealand for two weeks, go to Fiji for a week … that kind of stuff. There’s a lot I still want to do in Brisbane. I feel like going home to Germany. I want to reconnect with friends, family, German football, and then hopefully come back and be a coach one day.

Originally published as Brisbane Roar legend Thomas Broich reflects on his A-League career