The release of the first FQ Podcast prompted the retelling of a tale familiar to many in Queensland football circles.
It relates to Rochedale Rovers Technical Director Scott MacNicol and an exceptional goal against Scottish powerhouse Celtic that made for a dream professional debut.
MacNicol, speaking this week with podcast host Simon Smale, recounted how trialling as a teenager, starring in the reserves and fortuitous first team injuries led him to Dunfermline Athletic’s bench at East End Park on 3 May, 2003.
A “great occasion” for an unknown Australian, it also instilled an early coaching principle in a 20-year-old who would go on to become the 2019 FQPL Coach of the Year.
Watch MacNicol’s goal against Celtic here.
One man who knows the story inside out is Warren Moon, the highly successful former Lions FC Head Coach and now Brisbane Roar Academy General Manager.
Moon joined MacNicol on the podcast to discuss how the two great mates have enjoyed such strikingly similar football journeys, from representing Queensland together at youth level to playing professionally abroad, appearing in the same Brisbane Strikers side and, from 2012 to 2014, working as Peninsula Power’s joint player-coaches.
Moon had by then spent a season in the Hyundai A-League and gained his own Scottish experience at Queen of the South, while MacNicol had added to his reputation across two spells with Victorian giants South Melbourne.
In the first episode of the FQ Podcast, Moon and MacNicol discussed how they initially joined Peninsula Power as players under Terry Kirkham, before later joining forces as player-coaches.
Constant travel north to Kippa-Ring in the Moreton Bay region outside Brisbane took a toll though and eventually convinced the duo to depart, in Moon’s case for time to refresh. Or so he thought, until Graham Ross came knocking with an opportunity at Lions FC.
It proved a shrewd decision for club and coach. Over the following five years, Moon guided Lions to four first-place finishes and three Grand Final victories – including one in the Richlands side’s maiden NPL Queensland season – plus two trips to the FFA Cup Round of 16.
MacNicol fittingly made a similar move when, after winning last season’s FQPL Grand Final, he relinquished senior coaching responsibilities at Rochedale in order to dedicate more time to the Technical Director role.
Although no longer united at one club, the pair are now concentrating squarely on producing young players and Queensland football stands to benefit.
“I was always happy when he [Moon] won something but also, on the other side, I wanted to be that guy that won something,” MacNicol said.
“The games we played each other, they were always quite entertaining. We would never take a backwards step.”
The competitive nature between the two was put to the test as they squared off in some Queensland football trivia in the first episode of the FQ Podcast.
Watch: Episode 1 of the FQ Podcast – The Bromance
Listen: Episode 1 of the FQ Podcast – The Bromance
Images: Peninsula Power FC
