Central Coast Mariners coach Graham Arnold (left) and Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou. Source: Getty Images
TO appreciate the great coaching rivalry that's developed between Ange Postecoglou and Graham Arnold it's worth casting our minds back to late 2007, when they were about as popular as the flu.
Arnold had just completed an embarrassing Asian Cup campaign with the Socceroos while Postecoglou was relieved of his Young Socceroos duties by Football Federation Australia.
Hoping for the Socceroos job, Arnold was lucky to retain an assistant's gig with the national team and A-League clubs were hardly clamouring for him.
Postecoglou was interviewed - namely for the Adelaide United job - but minds were made up with his reputation scarred after a scathing Craig Foster television interview.
As Arnold started a 2½ year apprenticeship under Pim Verbeek, Postecoglou cut his teeth in Greece's character-building lower divisions.
Several years later both men finally got their chance and it took them less than a season to create the A-League's first great coaching rivalry.
The fact that the pair couldn't score a job was less a reflection on them than those on the other side of the interview table, but when they did get their chance they were going to make the most of it.
The A-League had never seen such tactic-savvy coaches, pitting Postecoglou's possession-based ultra-attacking style against Arnold's organised and disciplined troops.
Fast forward to 2013 and while Postecoglou may have switched clubs the rivalry remains, with the Victory coach winning seven and losing two of their 14 clashes.
With their growing success their words have carried increasing weight and their opinions regularly contrast.
Take the Mariners' decision to embroider two stars on their shirt, marking two Premier's Plate (first on the ladder) wins, while a furious Postecoglou declared finals took precedence.
And while Arnold was despondent after losing gun midfielder Tom Rogic in the wake of Mustafa Amini's pre-season exit, Postecoglou isn't lending an understanding ear.
"I'm not into sympathy. If you start feeling sorry for people, you're in the wrong game," he said.
"That's just the industry we're in, it's uncompromising and brutal and the maturity of our growth as a code will come when people stop feeling sympathy and start competing as we should.
"Yeah, Central Coast has got challenges but so does every club. If you're coaching Melbourne Victory and finish outside the top two then you're under the pump.
"We've had two players with season-ending injuries and I don't see anyone feeling sorry for us and they shouldn't.
"We're friends, we communicate pretty regularly and we worked together in the national team set-up.
"We have a great deal of respect for one another because we know how difficult our jobs are. Are we different? Most definitely, we're poles apart in many things.
"But we're both pretty ambitious and driven and want to be successful and we just go about it in different ways and I respect that."
Mariners midfielder Nick Fitzgerald spent a season under Postecoglou at Brisbane. He said the pair get the best out of their players.
"Arnie's greatest quality is his personal skills, the way he makes time for the boys, talks to them and connects with you as a person," he said.
"He's not afraid to take you aside and tell you what you're doing well and what you need to work on.
"I loved playing under Ange. I found tactically one of the best in the league, he can really get the best out of the players.
"Ange keeps his distance a bit more, but every coach has their own way of getting to the players. Arnie is the opposite, but both styles seem to be working."
And who can get angrier?
"There's not much between them but I'd have to say Ange. When Ange got fired up you knew you were in trouble," Fitzgerald said.
Victory's Mark Milligan played for Arnold as his Olyroos and Socceroos coach from 2007-08.
While paying tribute to Wanderers' coach Tony Popovic's influence this season, he said the pair's team structure leaves much less to chance than other teams.
"They have a specific style and strong beliefs in how they want things done," Milligan said.
"I can speak a lot more about Ange because I had Arnie for a shorter time but he wants you to play in a specific way, although within that you have time to express yourself.
"But even when things aren't going well, you always have something to fall back on and it's the structure or style which will usually outshine individual performance."
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