Sydney FC coach Steve Corica and Wanderers’ JP De Marigny go from Marconi teammates to derby rivals
One was a defensive hard man, the other a shy midfield young gun. JP de Marigny and Steve Corica were teammates at Marconi but now they face off in one of the most high-profile A-League games.
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They were teammates in the Marconi dressing room — the tough guy and the teen — but both driven and determined.
Two decades later, the same figures are pitched against each other in the derby, head coaches now but fired by exactly the same competitive tension.
Steve Corica and Jean-Paul de Marigny were both signed for Marconi by Remo Nogarotto, now a director of FFA but chairman of Marconi in what he calls the “halcyon days” of the NSL.
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“That was when the Marconi Club was colloquially known as ‘the Palace’ and I was fortunate to be football chairman for a fair slice of that era,” Nogarotto said.
“JP of course was more associated with the Berti Mariani era and ‘Bimbi’ (Corica) the Frank Arok era. They were two complete polar opposites in personality, playing positions and playing style.”
On one side of the dressing room was de Marigny, already known as a player not to cross when he signed for Marconi aged 25.
“JP may have been born in Mauritius but at Sydney City along with Frank Farina he was a ‘city slicker’,” Nogarotto recalled.
“He was a fierce competitor, never giving an inch to an opponent and while not blessed with great speed had a silky touch and wonderful vision.
“He and Ian Gray were the hard men of the Mariani years and were probably feared as much in their own dressing room as in the opponents dressing room.
“A tackle at training meant the same to JP as a tackle on match day.”
No wonder a teenage Corica kept his mouth shut.
“Bimbi came to Marconi after he was recommended to me by the late Eddie Thomson,” Nogarotto said.
“He’d come (via the AIS) from far north Queensland and in fact lived at my home in Castle Hill at the time for the first few months he was in Sydney.
“He was incredibly shy, the complete antithesis of JP, you could see he was in awe of the players around him and was incredibly respectful inside the dressing room.
“But he was super quick with the running gait of a gazelle. Wonderful touch and could finish clinically. I don’t think he was yet 18 when he debuted for Marconi and everyone knew a star had been born.”
For all the contrasts, Nogarotto could see similar traits in two men who by very different routes will coach against each other in the derby on Saturday.
“Both are fierce competitors – JP feisty, Bimbi in a calculated and understated way,” Nogarotto said. “Both are perfectionists.
“Oddly enough, while I always saw JP making the transition to the coaching ranks, I never saw Bimbi in that guise – but what success he has had.”
Originally published as Sydney FC coach Steve Corica and Wanderers’ JP De Marigny go from Marconi teammates to derby rivals