Patrick Kisnorbo lead Melbourne City to their first A-League Championship. (Photo: Melbourne City - Twitter)
After a maiden Championship-winning A-League season for Melbourne City that included claiming the Premier’s Plate, first-year manager Patrick Kisnorbo says the ceiling to getting better as a club will shift as the years go on.
Speaking to media outside AAMI Park after the club’s 3-1 Grand Final win against Sydney FC, the Coach of the Year admitted it might take some time before the feeling sinks in but was happy for the club as a whole to celebrate the feat.
“Obviously emotions were high last night,” Kisnorbo said.
“I haven’t been able to reflect on the events of last night but obviously it was a great occasion for the players, the club, and all the fans that came to the game last night.”
The efforts of Melbourne City throughout the last two seasons, being runners-up to Sydney FC last season to a Championship now, Kisnorbo says is just the start of the type of success the club can bring.
Kisnorbo outlined his hopes of improving the club, even more, stating that there’s more to work on if the club is wanting to get better, signifying a certain standard they now need to maintain.
“We know that we need to improve to get better,” Kisnorbo said.
“I think we need to get better if we want to keep the standard that we’ve created and we need to keep improving, y’know, train harder, bring players in, improve the squad, have a mentality to always be up there or thereabouts but it’s understanding what it takes and what’s required from the team to be successful.
“It’s not just the talent of players, it’s culture, it’s the environment. It’s hard work and sacrifice and that’s reality, so there’s sort of a big push already for next season and what’s required of the players cause they’ll need to do a lot more than what they did this season.”
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Kisnorbo’s heart has always been with Melbourne City, since starting his A-League career with them in 2013. After retiring in 2016, he moved into coaching roles, beginning with the Melbourne City youth team as an assistant under Joe Palatsides, while simultaneously being the club’s W-League assistant coach.
In 2017, Kisnorbo got his chance at the helm of a group, promoted to manage Melbourne City’s W-League team, winning the 2017/18 Championship. He was then selected to be a part of the coaching staff of the club’s A-League team as an assistant coach.
Since being amongst the A-League contingent of coaches a Melbourne City, Kisnorbo took a lot out of engaging with former manager Erick Mombaerts before taking the reigns himself. It was a partnership that is still ongoing between the two and they were able to share in the moment after the match.
“We spoke for quite a while, it was a bit of an emotional FaceTime call,” Kisnorbo said.
“He’s not just a mentor to me, he’s a best friend. He’s been fantastic for me, not just for the learning part but just as a person I could speak to in good times and bad.”
Looking ahead to the future, Kisnorbo is adamant he wants to be in this role and continue to deliver more silverware for the club. The manager doesn’t believe he’s on the mountain of greatness yet, detailing there’s still as much improvement for himself as there is for the club overall.
“I think it’s easier for me to motivate to get better because you want to improve as a coach, you want to improve as a team,” Kisnorbo says.
“If I wanted to say still and sit on my laurels, I may as well walk away from the job now. I’m not like that.
“I want to improve, I want to get better. I want our code to get better, I want our players to get better, I want our club to get better.
“And you can’t do that sitting down watching what happened yesterday so you need to already start preparing for the future.”
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