Rocky Aloisi will be ‘bundle of nerves’ watching his son John’s Western United in A-League grand final

Western United coach John Aloisi will have lots of family at AAMI Park for Saturday night’s A-League grand final, but his jittery father Rocky won’t be making the trip from Adelaide for the decider. A well-known figure in South Australian football, Rocky Aloisi is a proud, but anxious, father of his sons John and Ross – an assistant coach of Kevin Muscat’s at Japanese club Yokohama F. Marinos – when it comes to their football journeys. So while his wife and daughters are watching the United-Melbourne City final from the grandstand, Rocky will be back in Adelaide sitting on the edge of his lounge chair in front of a TV riding waves of grand final emotion. “He thinks he’s going to bring me bad luck, so he’s not coming,” John said of his father. “He’s always a bundle of nerves watching my teams play.” While Rocky’s nervous, John has stayed calm during grand final week, “It’s still a bigger week than normal because there’s a lot more people talking about the game, there’s a lot more media coverage, but in terms of preparation, it’s pretty much normal to make sure the players don’t have to do to many things differently,” the Socceroos legend said. “We’re just happy that we’re there challenging for the title on the last day of the season. “Of course we want to win it, but we just want to help the club grow, and to do that, it’s important to have seasons like we’ve had this season.” Sentiment is definitely with Aloisi – who many had written him off as a coach after previous stints with Melbourne Heart and Brisbane Roar – and a United club in just its third year of existence and trying to establish a foothold in a Melbourne market dominated by City and the Victory. “We don’t really pay attention to what the Victory and City have that we don’t have,” Aloisi said.” “Them being in the same city is good for us because you want to be matching it with them because they’re going to be towards the top, but we’re on a different journey to them.” To reach the grand final, United had to beat Victory, while City got to the decider with semi-final success against Adelaide United. Adelaide coach Carl Veart tipped an “aggressive” Western United to rise to the grand final occasion. “It’d be nice for Western United to get up, especially with John Aloisi coming back in to the coaching ranks this season,” Veart said. “He’s been coaching for a little while and done it quite difficult, to get to where he is now, so it would be great for him to have some success. “He’s a South Australian as well, so I’d love for him to win it.”