‘You’re pretty scared at a young age’: How A-League has brought out the best in Aiden O’Neill

Dream as big as you please. Dream beyond the canteen BBQ, beyond the club you wear the shirt two sizes too big for. Beyond the place you live. Beyond every border.

All the way to the biggest stage.

Aiden O’Neill was that kid. He grew up in Brisbane, running around suburban fields with lungs that never ran out of air. His dream was to play for Chelsea.

“Would always stay up watching them play, always thinking ahh, imagine what it would be like playing at Stamford Bridge,” O’Neill recalls.

And then a funny thing happened. He did play at Chelsea.

Against them. At 18. In the Premier League!

The kid from Brisbane flew into tackles against idols. In one, he blocked a shot from snarling Spanish striker Diego Costa. Diego, known to suggest unspeakable acts with horrible looks, didn’t know what hit him.

O’Neill did well. The dream shifted.

“Once you’ve played a game like that, it’s like what’s next?”

*****

Seven years on, O’Neill is now a man, but removed from the stage he graced as an 18-year-old kid.

O’Neill runs the show for Melbourne City, who are on the verge of another A-League championship. In many respects, he is the man for City.

He is also a Socceroo who could well play a massive part in Graham Arnold’s plans for the 2026 World Cup.

O’Neill is a midfielder who stops the opposition. A midfielder who sets tempo. A midfielder who scores goals. Calm amid the chaos. They are hard to find.

But why is he here? Why not in England?

“You play in the Premier League, then you have to prove again that you deserve to go into a starting line-up,” O’Neill explains to CODE Sports of what happened after his Premier League debut in 2016.

“It’s extremely difficult. Timing is everything in football, maybe that time wasn’t quite right.”

Burnley, the club O’Neill joined as a 14-year-old, developed the Brisbane-born kid all the way to three Premier League appearances in 2016.

Survival, though, was Burnley’s priority that season, and they added three late signings in O’Neill’s position.

One was the notorious Joey Barton, once known to bash teammates, batter opponents and speak his mind on every topic this side of Pluto. Reality, for O’Neill, was removed from reputation.

“Very intelligent footballer and I learned a lot from him, was really good with me,” O’Neill says of Barton.

“He gave me a bit of stick, but I think that was because he liked me!”

But O’Neill had to go elsewhere to keep learning and get games. Burnley shuffled him out on loan to England’s lower divisions. First, to Oldham, battling to avoid relegation in League One, which really put hairs on his chest.

“Oh mate, talk about pressure,” O’Neill says.

“You can feel it playing those sorts of games. You’re pretty scared at a young age, playing against men and for livelihoods.”

O’Neill then went to Fleetwood Town for a season, also in League One, and then an unusual choice. He wanted to come home. He wanted to play in front of family. Burnley granted the wish and O’Neill came home for first team football in the A-League with Central Coast.

The Mariners, then, were a laughing stock. Usain Bolt rocked up just after O’Neill arrived.

“That was an interesting experience,” O’Neill laughs.

“He was … definitely a sprinter.”

Next was a season in Brisbane, then Melbourne City lured him south. Slowly, over three years, O’Neill has morphed into a man.

This season has been his best. Given freedom to go forward as well as control the middle, he’s got to a point where he’s ready for a move back overseas and another crack at England.

With too much focus on next weekend’s grand final, O’Neill is too experienced now to start talking of dreams, of where he wants to go and what he wants to do.

“I simply need to keep working hard as I can to go as far as I can with football.”

*****

O’Neill’s form has made him a Socceroo, and it’s hard to see how that gets undone anytime soon.

He was superb on debut in March against Ecuador, and the deep-lying midfielder role is wide open during the next World Cup qualification cycle, with Aaron Mooy and Jackson Irvine perhaps more comfortable in positions further forward.

“Putting on that jersey recently for the Socceroos was one of the proudest moments of my life,” O’Neill says.

There were stories when O’Neill made his Premier League debut that Ireland were about to poach him. After all, his name sounds as Irish as a singalong over a pint of Guinness.

But there was a problem.

“I have no Irish heritage, they just assumed!” O’Neill laughs.

“But even if I could have, I’d choose Australia.”

The next chance to add to his two Socceroos caps will come quickly, with a friendly against Argentina appearing out of nowhere for June 15 in China.

O’Neill hasn’t planned a holiday after the grand final.

“I’m free if I get the call!” he laughs.

The possibility of playing against Argentina and Lionel Messi is a way to explain O’Neill’s maturation as a footballer.

Sure, there are still nerves, but only as a fan. As the Socceroos played Argentina at the World Cup, O’Neill was on the couch at home in Melbourne “with sweaty palms”.

Now a Socceroo, how will it be if he’s standing on June 15, in Beijing, peering across the tunnel at Messi and his merry men of world champions?

“Think I’d just go, wow, this is unreal. It would be exciting,” O’Neill says.

“It’s what we dream of doing, so go do it.”