Mauk On The First Week Of Preseason: “Everybody’s Fully Bought In”

Adelaide United’s Stefan Mauk spoke to the Media about the return to preseason training this week. Mauk discussed the excitement of returning with a new coaching group, the return of Craig Goodwin, the importance of the group standing for honesty and unity, reflecting on last season’s mistakes, and turning that into success this season.

Mauk on returning to training for the first week of pre-season…
“It’s always exciting. I think you’re kind of away for 4-6 week, you enjoy your offseason, and then you come back in and it feels like you haven’t been away. There’s been small changes at the Club with things at the facility and we were able to use SASI facilities this week, which was amazing, so a big thank you to them. Today was our first proper session on the field. I think everyone’s excited and eager to kind of put their best foot forward, because obviously there’s a new coach and new staff, so everybody’s out to prove themselves.”

Mauk on the new coaching group this season…
“It doesn’t matter what age you are, for me it’s my 14th preseason, but a new coach comes in and you’re a little bit nervous because you don’t know where you stand, but I think that’s a good thing. It keeps you on your toes and every day you have to go out there and perform, whether it’s the first training back or whether it’s game day, you need to prove yourself. Having a coach like Carl who had been here for five years, some players felt too comfortable; that’s just the reality of football when you have someone there for a long period. We now have Airton coming in, Stenta has come in from the Women’s program, and Isaías has also joined. So individually, you have to train everyday to show why you deserve to play on the weekend.”

Mauk on the team’s philosophy and direction moving forward…
“Carl wanted to play an exciting brand of football, I think it’s still exactly the same style but individually, there’s going to be different things. I’m sure he’ll [Airton] change things up from the way we’ve played but the blueprint of trying to promote young players and play exciting football, to dominate games, is going to be the exact same. How you tweak that is obviously going to be in the way we train, and the smaller details that he wants to kind of impose on us. It’s day one, so we haven’t gone through a lot yet, but you know the intensity was there at training, the excitement was there, the attention to detail from Airton is obviously there, and that’s why they’ve given him the job because they think he can be the one to take us to that next level.”

Mauk on off-season events in the media and communication amongst the group…
“To be honest, every club that I’ve been a part of, stuff like that goes on day in, day out. We have those meetings as a leadership group every week, and as the season went on, obviously there was different discussions around, how do we kind of turn this form slump around, that was quite obvious for everyone. Obviously the stuff that was said n the media, we’re not shying away from that. Could it have been handled better? Potentially yes, but all of the things that we tried were to get us Club success and was not about individuals.”

Mauk on reflecting on last season and moving forward toward a new era…
“There were a lot of mistakes made because as a Club we want to win things, and we didn’t do that. Players obviously failed in that, coaches potentially did too, and also the staff. We all need to put our hands up and say things didn’t work because we wanted to be champions, and we weren’t champions. So, it’s not just individuals, it’s on the whole Club. And I’m sure they look at themselves and reflect on that. Yes ,could stuff have been dealt with better? Potentially. There was an element of trying to protect a Club legend in Carl, who did so much for this game, not just the club, but promoting young South Australians. He loved the club, he played for the club, he is passionate about the club. Carl’s obviously just been announced as the Football Australia Under 17’s Coach, which is amazing for him. I think we all just want to move on now and that’s with Airton here.

“Football in South Australia is a small world, so nobody wants to upset anyone, but sometimes you do have to upset people to get success. We’ve spoken about that as a Club this morning; it’s not going to be comfortable all the time. You have to have that trust and that unity, but it’s not going to be comfortable. We need to be honest with each other and we need to reflect. We need to be able to have conversations where if things aren’t working, we ask why aren’t they working- whether as a playing group, as staff, coaches, the Technical Director, with anyone at the Club. If things aren’t working, let’s speak face to face, because we have the trust and unity within each other. I think that’s what was done last year. Maybe it wasn’t done in the right way potentially, depending on who you speak to, but there was always the right intent behind everything.”

Mauk on the leadership group’s trust in Technical Director, Ernest Faber…
“He’s a strong enough person to handle that criticism but he has said, if you’re not happy with him, come and tell him. In the same way with us players; if we’re not happy with something, we’ve got to go to the staff and if they’re not happy with us, they need to come to us. Everybody has trust with everybody that’s been appointed; whether it’s the coaches, assistant coaches, Ernest in his position, everybody’s fully bought in. If they’ve not bought in, it’ll be made known that they need to seek other opportunities. We want everyone to be united and obviously everything that we do is to win. Every single thing that we do this season is to win.”

Mauk on the return of Craig Goodwin and the experience and leadership he brings and seeing the familiar face of Isaías remain in a coaching capacity…
“We lost some experienced players in Isa and Javi, and even in Elsey and Tunnicliffe, so to have someone like Craig come in, we know what he can produce on-field, but I think it’s more so off-field in what he brings. He’s a great example for the young ones coming through because we do have so many young players coming up in South Australia. We can say look at this guy here, he grew up in Adelaide, he dreamed of playing for Adelaide United, he dreamed of playing for the Socceroos, and he was able to do that.

“Isaías is a club legend and has been around for so long. He just has so much experience within football in general, but also here in Adelaide, and an understanding of what it takes to be a winner, which is what we want to do. He’s going to be able to pass that on. His football IQ is extremely high and you know the level of care he has for the players. I think it’s important to keep Adelaide United players involved in the Club; the players understand the culture and you understand what it means to play for the Club.”