On a Tuesday evening Darwin Rovers are getting some extra training in at a suburban Darwin oval. They started late because some players hadn’t finished work, and they’re sharing the dying light with a few other sporting groups.
But every session helps ahead of the biggest game of their lives this week, against the reigning A-League champions, Sydney FC.
“I’d say we’re favourites,” declares Warren Behan, a 26-year-old engineering lecturer and Rovers’ centre-back. “They lost against Arsenal last week so their heads will be down. They’re doing pre-season at the moment, we’re halfway through our season. We’ve done the hard part, we’re fit at the minute.”
Behan jokes, but says the team have been working hard since the fateful draw for the FFA Cup’s first round proper, and haven’t entirely discounted a win.
“It’s a dream to get the best team in the country, Sydney, who played the whole season last year unbeaten … Stranger things have happened,” says Behan.
Given the structure of the FFA Cup draw, it often throws up more than one “David and Goliath” headline, and this year is no exception.
The last time Rovers – who were founded just three years ago – played in the competition, against Brisbane Strikers in 2016, they arrived in a stretch Hummer and left with a 6-0 loss. In 2015 fellow Darwinites, Olympic, fared only slightly better against then Cup holders Adelaide United – they lost 6-1.
Sydney FC have won three A-League championships and two premierships, at times in front of crowds of over 60,000, and next year will play in the AFC Champions League for the fourth time. Rovers are pretty stoked if they get 500 spectators at a game.
“You’ve got to give them a lot of respect,” says central midfielder Matt Cawley. “I don’t think we’d given Brisbane Strikers last year enough respect and that’s where we got caught up.”
Cawley, 25, says the team got a bit complacent. “We just focused on ourselves, not too much on them, and didn’t really research them enough. It cost us.”
There is no complacency this year – although they might still take the Hummer again – and the game is being taken seriously by both sides. The Sydney FC coach, Graham Arnold, is unsurprisingly confident of victory but has been at pains not to underestimate their underdog opponents.
“We’ve got video footage of their games … we’re well prepared,” he says. “It’s an aggressive style. They’re obviously a hugely motivated group of boys and this is a big opportunity to perform and show people what they’ve got.”
He has no concerns about playing in the tropics, and will demand the same high standards of his team that he always does.
“It’s normal that we’re favourites and everyone expects us to win, and we expect to win, but it’s a good learning experience,” he says. “I can learn about the attitude and the character of my players.”
A game of football is, at the end of the day, 11 against 11 as many in Darwin are keen to stress. But Sydney FC are a professional side and Rovers are part-time players with full-time jobs.
Most are from England, Ireland, South America and Africa, living and working in Darwin. A disproportionately large number are electricians, starting work before dawn and fitting a few hours’ training in before bed.
“It’s mostly expats, and above all else we started as a group of friends and it’s just expanded from there,” says the coach and club president, Jimmy Culligan.
When they were founded, the club was known as Shamrock Rovers Darwin, after the Irish side of almost the same name. The Australian incarnation wear similar green and white hoops to their Dublin forebears, but last year there were forced to remove references to shamrocks from their name and crest due to rules prohibiting clubs from being linked to a country.
Culligan had been hoping Rovers would draw one of the non-top flight league teams in the competition, but there is an upside to meeting Sydney FC.
“When an A-League side came out, especially one as big as Sydney FC, I was excited as well because it’s an opportunity of a lifetime for us, for these guys to put themselves against the best that Australia has to offer, and some of the best players around the world really.”
Culligan says the Sydney FC players “are human too”.
“We’ll be setting up and trying to go out and beat them. We know it’s a massive, massive ask, but if we could do it, it’d be a miracle really. Ninety-nine times out of 100 they beat us, but there is that one chance.”
Behan is asked what the team will do if they win. “When we win,” he corrects. “It’ll be a couple of days off work for everyone on the team. Celebrations will be wild.”
