How Mile Jedinak rose above the odds to become Socceroos captain
Dominic Bossi
Branko Culina has a good eye for young talent – he was the coach that first played Brett Emerton, his son Jason Culina and the man who led Australia at the 2006 World Cup, Mark Viduka.
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The Sydney Morning Herald
Branko Culina has a good eye for young talent – he was the coach that first played Brett Emerton, his son Jason Culina and the man who led Australia at the 2006 World Cup, Mark Viduka.

On June 13, he can add another former pupil to his honour list when Mile Jedinak becomes the fourth player to captain Australia at the World Cup.

Much like the aforementioned trio, Culina immediately took notice of then Sydney United teenager Jedinak some 13 years ago, but there was one significant difference to the other notable alumni – Jedinak was not naturally talented. Not in the traditional sense.

By contrast to Viduka, Emerton and Jason Culina, he was gangly, comparatively slow and hardly amazing on the ball. In games, he provided little for the highlight reels and went unnoticed by supporters initially but he did have one trait that set him apart from all the others in his class.

"Mile wasn't as talented as the others, but he had the desire," Branko Culina said.

"He wasn't a flashy player so the supporters didn't warm to him straight away. He was a coach's player . . . He was very measured, determined, committed and team-oriented. He did the simple things and he did them well."

Even when watching training sessions from the grandstand, Sydney United director of football Sam Krslovic remembers Jedinak being the first person to arrive at training and, if it wasn't for the floodlights turning off, he would have remained at Edensor Park long into the night.

"[Jedinak] wasn't the most talented but certainly the one who had the best work ethic, best determination, attitude and respect," Krslovic said. "Sometimes the best players don't make it, it's the ones that work the hardest that do.

"He'd be there before training, he'd be there after training, he'd always work. He never lost a header and he never does now in the EPL and that's all about technique, you have to acquire that."

The common belief is that Jedinak is a late bloomer in the game such was his gradual, quiet and, at times, laborious rise from Central Coast Mariners to Crystal Palace via Turkey, but that notion could not be further from the truth.

As one administrator said: "The A-League is the shop front and the former NSL clubs are the factory."

The Mariners gave him a chance, but they hardly took a gamble. Jedinak arrived in Gosford already forged into a hardened professional and, if anything, his storyline bears similar origins to more prodigious stars.

He made his club debut at 16 with Sydney United and a little more than a year later became a first team regular in the now-defunct National Soccer League.

In all, he played five seasons with the club that has provided the most players to the Australian national team before being noticed in the A-League. His calm demeanour and work ethic is perhaps the catalyst for his career's misconception.

"He was a quiet player, he led by example, very polite and he was a pleasure to coach," Culina said. "You can get some who are a bit cocky after they play one good game – Mile certainly wasn't that."

Perhaps even the greatest testament to his character is that he earned his place in the team in spite of club feuds working against his best interests.

Jedinak's father, a senior board member at Sydney United at the time, was thought by some supporters to have influenced his teenage son's inclusion in the first team at a time when Australian football was rife with internal politics.

That was not the case. Culina says that, like young Viduka, Emerton and Jason Culina, they were all selected based on their credentials and cites his strained relationship with Jedinak's father as further proof.

"I can assure you, his father and I didn't always get on and I never played him because of that – if anything, I would have not played him," Culina said.

Doubts died over time as Jedinak flourished with his industrial game and unrivalled ability to the read the game. He was not a loud presence in the dressing room but he inspired others with his infectious determination.

"He definitely had leadership qualities, I'm not surprised that he's got the [Socceroos'] captaincy," Krslovic said. "I remember in that 2002-03 season in the NSL, Mile dominated the midfield as a 17-year-old."

He was unique at Sydney United and a player that Krslovic says is a dying breed in Australian football, but there is one other name he cannot help but think of when watching Jedinak.

"There's a lot of similarities between Mile and Tony Popovic," Krslovic said. "Work ethic, respect and understanding. He would certainly be ranked as high as Tony in that aspect. There are other players who are most probably more technically gifted, they [Jedinak and Popovic] worked twice as hard."

It is not a view held by Krslovic alone but is shared by a coach who had an even greater insight into the player.

"There was always a winner's mentality in Mile, he was almost captain material at that age," Culina said. "Like Tony Popovic, I had him as a captain at Sydney United when he was 21 and Mile was not dissimilar. There was something about him that made you think that this guy was a born leader."

Now 29, the gangly teenager with a limited skill set became the only Australian currently playing regularly in the top-flight of English football and, if it was not for an injury in the last game of the season, he would not have missed a minute in the Premier League.

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He may not have been as blessed with the natural talent of the likes of Viduka but, according to Culina, he was born to become a leader.

"Everyone thinks you have to have this god-given gift to succeed but Mile showed that's not the case," Culina said. "God was kind to him in other ways, he gave him other qualities – determination, character and hard work."