Heffernan's arduous journey to the Mariners

Dan Heffernan travelled the long road to finally realise his dream of becoming a full-time professional footballer at 28 - and it is a testimony to his determination to make it.

Dan Heffernan

The English Striker has impressed in pre-season and hopes to make a name for himself in the A-League this season. Source: Getty Images

The story of how Heffernan made it to Central Coast Mariners for the 2015-2016 A-League season is a fascinating one that involves spells with semi-professional and amateur clubs in England, before a switch to country Victoria and most recently the NPL there.

It includes the English striker's decision that it was the right time for a change, following the death of a beloved family member and also Central Coast coach Tony Walmsley going to watch a teammate of Heffernan's play only to end up signing the 28 year-old instead.

"Someone I knew put up a website for non-League players to upload their football CVs and get in contact with clubs abroad. He asked me to upload my details and two weeks later I had an email message from Shepparton, a club in Victoria. They asked me to come over, in 2012."

The timing was right for Heffernan, whose grandmother had passed away not long before.

"My parents split up when I was 14 and I lived with my nan after that," he said. "I was very close to her. I lived with her for 10 years.

"She'd taken a fall and needed a carer and rather than getting someone in I decided to put football on the backburner and become more her carer fulltime. When I was playing amateur football my brother would look after her.

"She passed away at the start of 2012 and after that I realised I needed an escape. I was open to a big move and the opportunity to go to Australia came up at the right time, really, a couple of weeks after she passed.

Heffernan's move to Heidelberg United came after he was playing for Shepparton and an opponent suggested he should step up in class.

"Arthur Papas was the manager of Oakleigh until recently and his brother was a goalkeeper and I played against him and did well," Heffernan said. "He said 'you need to make a move down to Melbourne' and he knew George Katsakis, the manager of Heidelberg.

"George offered me terms at Heidelberg. They had just been relegated and he wanted to take a bounce straight back up. I was there from 2013 until recently.

It wasn't a hard decision for Heffernan to make.

"Yeah, even though I was 28, it's still always in the back of your mind that you harbor an ambition to play fulltime," he said. "It wasn't a decision I had to think about.

"But first Tony wanted me to come up and play in front of the full coaching staff and see what I could do. I played against Western Sydney Wanderers in a trial at Coffs Harbour and it went very well and they decided to sign me.

"But then it took a few weeks for me to see the NPL season out with Heidelberg before I could move up to the Central Coast."

Heffernan scored three goals in that game against Wanderers and came up with another hat-trick in a trial game against the Western NSW Mariners in Orange.

Before leaving Heidelberg, he also scored a first-minute goal in an FFA Cup round of 16 game against Sydney United 58 FC in August, so he has been on a prolific run of late.

But he will start the season behind Roy O'Donovan, the 29-year-old Irish striker who has English Premier League experience with Sunderland and is also in his first season with the Mariners.

"Or if the manager decides to change the formation at some stage and put two up front I've got to take the chance and make it count.

"I'm up for the challenge. The formation in the pre-season has been to go with the one central striker, which has been Roy, and I've just got to keep working hard and hopefully I'll be on the bench for the first round."

Central Coast will begin the competition with a home game against Perth Glory on 10 October.

Heffernan said this was the chance of a lifetime for him.

"I want to make it. Football's a short career and coming into a fulltime situation at 28 I need to make the most of it. Salford was semi-professional. None of the teams I played for in England were fulltime.

"This is something I've wanted for a long time and I'm grateful to Tony and the back-up from 'Hutch' (assistant coach John Hutchinson) as well. I want to repay them for the faith they've shown in me."


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5 min read
Published 1 October 2015 6:12pm
Updated 1 October 2015 6:44pm
By Greg Prichard


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