Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi says the club is building something special. Picture: George Salpigtidis. Source: Herald Sun
MELBOURNE Heart's role in the A-League's development has been understated.
Personally, Heart has delivered on all of its promises and I'm delighted they talked me out of retirement before providing me a pathway into coaching.
I can honestly say that everything John van't Schip and John Didulica discussed in our initial conversation three years ago has eventuated and that's a credit to the club's unbending philosophy and rock-solid culture.
Plenty of clubs have talked about a youth policy but abandoned it after a few poor results.
Success is measured in many ways and while Heart is yet to win any silverware, producing three Socceroos in less than three years is some legacy already.
Opportunity is at the heart of this football club, and not many clubs would have taken a punt on a 36-year-old a year after retiring.
As a builder of football, Heart has delivered the A-League the authenticity of a genuine local rivalry.
The homogeneity of "one-club, one-city" was broken and Heart was able to deliver the richness of local rivalry and recreate in Melbourne the sort of scenes that light up the globe each weekend.
The seven derby matches are among the highest attended domestic football matches of all time.
And no doubt FFA's expansion into west Sydney came off the back of the Melbourne derby success.
Genuine opportunity for the thousands of hopeful local players is always paramount in our thinking and in two years Heart transferred three youth-aged players (Eli Babalj, Curtis Good and Brendan Hamill) to respected overseas clubs.
Heart had the most players selected during the London 2012 qualifiers (five), the Socceroos' recent East Asian Cup (three) and the second most in the Young Socceroos squad for the 2012 Asian Youth Cup (two).
Some may define clubs by their win-loss record in any given season or by bums on seats on any given week.
Heart knows these metrics will fluctuate in the short-term, so our vision must go beyond this. We must build beyond winning at all costs and seeking short-term gimmickry to spike crowds because we believe in what we are building.
- John Aloisi is the coach of Melbourne Heart
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