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Prologue
The offshore wind that had made this morning’s surf so good whipped Charlie’s hair as he sat on his beach towel, board beside him, catching his breath after a decent session. He watched on as a couple more surfers exited the water at Newy beach and trundled up the sand as they made their way to the cars before heading home to get ready for work.
Despite not being very ‘new age’ at all this seemed like one of the best opportunities Charlie had ever experienced for some meditation. As he closed his eyes he became more observant of the sounds and smells around him. To his left he could hear some swimmers paddling in the Newcastle Ocean Baths and the tropical, almost ‘coconutty’ smell of his sunscreen filled his nostrils as he lay back on the towel and thought about the last 20 years.
It didn’t seem all that long ago that a much younger Charlie was being driven home in the back of a police car. It was that act that led his mother sending Charlie to live with his estranged father in Peterhead, Scotland. Such a move felt incredibly daunting at the time but Charlie’s love of football soon became his outlet as he eventually wound up on the books of local Scottish League 1 side Peterhead.
News had quickly spread of the young 16 year old Aussie left winger flying around in the lower leagues of Scotland and a host of teams sent scouts to observe the young talent but very quickly a front runner emerged for his signature. Marseille were chasing him the hardest and that is where he would spend the next 5 years. Although not featuring much McGhee developed reasonably well after being tutored but by the time his 6th season as a professional rolled around McGhee knew his future lay elsewhere and he signed with Ligue 2 side SC Bastia.
That began one of the better stretches of McGhee’s career as he would feature regularly for Bastia and earn a call up to the Australian national team – scoring on his debut against Liechtenstein. 4 years later, at age 26, Charlie decided a change was in order and declined Bastia’s offer of a new contract. 6 months passed before McGhee signed for English Championship side Leeds United.
McGhee enjoyed a mixed spell at Leeds and his time there was more notable for what McGhee achieved at international level, playing with the Socceroos at the World Cup before being part of the side that won the Asian Cup where he played well enough to be named in the team of the tournament.
As McGhee’s contract with Leeds wore down it was clear that both sides saw it in their interests to move on. McGhee, then aged 30, signed a contract with Al-Arabi of Qatar. Despite being on big money McGhee never really settled in Qatar and only spent 18 months there before signing with Melbourne Victory of the A-League. This appeared to be a signal for the end of McGhee’s career but what began was his most fruitful stretch.
Appearing in another World Cup and Asian Cup for the Socceroos, McGhee would go on to represent the green and gold a total of 64 times before calling time on his career. With the Victory he would experience the success in club competitions that had eluded him to date, winning the A-League Premiers Plate and the FFA Cup as well as featuring multiple times in the Asian Champions League. Desperate to play in 3 World Cups McGhee played on until he was 36 years old but when he failed to make the squad for that 3rd and final World Cup he knew that was it and then turned his hand to management where he was appointed as manager of the Newcastle Jets of the Australian A-League.
Returning to the present McGhee got lost in the crashing of the waves - as he lay there, motionless, the rumble of the surf began to resemble the roar of the crowd. To his left he imagined the Don Revie stand at Elland Road, behind him was Bay 13 of the MCG and to his right was Olympic Boulevard end of AAMI park - all packed with screaming fans cheering him on. In front of him though was the West Grandstand at Hunter Stadium, home of the Jets. No noise was coming from there yet.
Snapping out of it McGhee sat bolt upright. ‘Time to fix that then’ he thought to himself as he hurriedly made his way up the beach and to his unit on Flagstaff Hill, preparing himself mentally for his first day on the job as manager of the Jets.
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