Mariners seem to be going nowhere and for the second time in three years the team from Central Coast finished rock bottom. The lack of quality recruitments during the off-season and the philosophy of coach Okon to trust many youngsters proved wrong decisions and throughout the campaign Yellow and Blues kept conceding cheap goals, while at the same time they struggled big time to convert the chances they were creating.
The warning signs were there from the off with Mariners opening the season on a five-game winless run that included heavy 1:5 home defeat in the local derby vs. Jets. However, some false hope of much better campaign was restored in November when Okon’s men achieved three wins in the four rounds played, including famous 2:0 home victory over Sydney FC, but then Mariners went on between rounds 10 and 20 without achieving another success and that ended their play-off chances prematurely.
The team’s recruitment was questioned even before the start of the season as the signed unknown Spaniard Asdrubal Padron was the only typical centre forward on the books. He started with promise after scoring in the first two rounds, but as it turned out these remained his only two goals in Australia and come January his contract was terminated and Mariners played the rest of the campaign with a typical striker in their ranks.
Okon resigned with just five matches left, by then Mariners knew they will finish in one of the bottom two places and this caused further havoc, which in the end saw Yellow and Blues losing all of their last six league fixtures to end in last place. This dreadful finish to the season was attributed to the unexpected departure of Okon and also to the injury of Mariners’ best player this season Hiariej, who missed the last six rounds.
