Zullo Won't Be Bullied By League's Hard Men

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday February 8, 2008

Michael Cockerill

Diminutive Queensland winger is learning how to absorb the knocks without compromising his flashy running game, writes Michael Cockerill.

Michael Zullo gets kicked. Often. A fortnight ago, when he walked onto the Sydney Football Stadium pitch for the first leg of the minor semi-final in the orange shirt of Queensland Roar, he was kicked. And pushed. And shoulder-charged. And tripped. Seventy minutes into the match, he was withdrawn by coach Frank Farina. To protect and nurture him ahead of tonight's return leg at Suncorp Stadium.

Several days after the first leg, he was asked how he was feeling. "Still battered and bruised," he said. But he's not complaining.

Zullo knows it goes with the territory. He's young, flashy and tricky. And he's small. Just 63 kilograms dripping wet, and 170 centimetres tall. Exactly the sort of player defenders like to intimidate. But are they winning? Not on your life.

This may be Zullo's first season in the A-League, but it's not his first season in senior football. While his peers coasted through the development system, playing against and alongside players of their own age, Zullo was out there in the real world of state league football. A man's world. First with Brisbane Strikers, then Brisbane City.

"I remember coming off the field after one of my first games with the Strikers, it felt like I'd been run over by a bus," he says.

That was three years ago, when he'd just turned 16. He hasn't grown much since, but he's learnt a lot. "The main positive I draw out of playing in the state league was getting used to the physical element," he says. "Sometimes it was really, really rough. But it taught me a lot. It hardened me up. I think my body is coping OK."

Farina calls him a "tough little rooster". Zullo admits he sometimes does get hurt. He spent six weeks on the sidelines this season with hip flexor and thigh injuries. But if he's hurt, he doesn't like to show it. And if he's not hurt, he's not going to pretend he is.

"Obviously you cop a few, and you know some of them are intentional," he says. "But when the other guy is trying to intimidate you, he's going to enjoy seeing you hurt. So you don't show it. That sort of thing only makes me more determined. I know I'm not going to match someone for brute strength, so I try to go around them instead. I guess that's always likely to attract a few tackles, but it's my strength."

What about feigning injury, the dreaded "simulation" that has crept into the modern game?

"No way," he says. "If you cop one, you get up, and you get on with it. In Australia, we don't like seeing players rolling around on the ground, and I don't appreciate it, either."

For all the bravado, however, Zullo is clearly still feeling his way. So far he's made 15 appearances in his debut season, but finished only four games. Roar's strength and conditioning people don't want him pushing big weights in the gym, but they do want him improving his core body strength during the off season.

Zullo makes up for his lack of size in many other ways. Old-fashioned wingers are a rarity. Ones with a left foot are even harder to find. "Going past players has always come naturally to me," he says. "Of course you have to learn to adapt, I'm definitely getting marked more and I'm finding it harder to get space. But running at defenders, that's always going to be the basis of my game."

It's a style that is likely to take Zullo places. It can be credibly argued that Queensland's season turned around when Farina injected Zullo and his best mate, Robbie Kruse, into the side. Together with Mitch Nichols, Ben Griffin, Chris Grossman and Tahj Minniecon, the Roar's so-called "department of youth" is the envy of the A-League.

Zullo admits he has to pinch himself when he looks back on how quickly his life has changed. "Being a Brisbane boy playing for a Brisbane club is definitely living the dream," he says. "It was my goal for the last two years to get here, but I have to admit I didn't expect to get my chance so soon."

With the opportunity has come recognition. In the past few months Zullo has emerged as a bolter for the Olympic (under-23) side, and when his contract with the Roar runs out at the end of next season, you can be sure he will get offers from overseas clubs, particularly as he is eligible for a European passport.

For now, though, his focus is closer to home. Training at Inala, playing at Suncorp Stadium, helping the Roar into the finals, hanging out with his mates Kruse and Minniecon at various coffee shops around Brisbane. And studying accountancy at university. Zullo's not one to let the grass grow under his feet. He's too quick for that.

"I love going to uni, it's the chance to recharge my batteries," he says. "It's my time away from football, and if anybody there knows me, they don't let on."

But football will always draw him back. Growing up in a mixed Italian/Cyprian family - now committed Roar supporters - there was never going to be a choice. "There's plenty of us, and the ticketing guys at the club know me pretty well," he says. "There never seems to be enough to go around."

But it's not just family who admire him. The Roar fans adore Zullo, and the list is getting longer.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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