At the heart of Macarthur FC’s midfield, Tommy Oar is looking to continue enjoying his football in Australia and help his team to success.
Things are beginning to click for Oar and his star-studded team, and a strong start to see the season has the Bulls looking to push for a Premiership.
The versatile Socceroo has been juggled between positions in Ante Milicic’s team, but now he’s settling into a central-midfield role he played predominantly during his time overseas.
“I have played there a fair bit in my career,” said Oar, speaking exclusively to Kick360.
“I’ve probably never had the chance to in the A-League but when I was in the Eredivisie and in Cyprus, I maybe played 15-20 games in that position so it’s not completely foreign to me.
“I’m enjoying it! It makes it really easy to play that role when you’ve got the likes of Craig Noone, Uli Davila, Danny De Silva that are always hungry for the ball and for me it’s good to be playing in that role.”
Oar suggests there’s danger for the rest of the teams in the league, insisting that there’s still a lot more to come from his team.
“To be honest I think whilst we’ve been getting good results, we’ve only shown in patches what we’re capable of.
“We probably haven’t fully hit our straps yet which has kept us focused on improving every week but it’s great when you can win games when you’re not playing at your best as well.
“We’re looking to improve in the front third and the more games we play together the more understanding we’ll get, and we’re confident that we can be a really exciting team this year and be one that no one wants to play against.”
Amongst the established names, there are younger players getting opportunities to show off their capabilities at Macarthur, and Oar has been enjoying stepping into a more vocal role in order to help them progress.
“As I’ve got older I’ve taken more responsibility on my shoulders and communicate with my teammates in a more forthcoming manner, giving instructions and stuff like that.
“It all comes down to having a good rapport with my teammates, and good mates with all my teammates, as I have been at all my previous clubs including the Mariners.
“If you can build a good rapport with people and gain respect off the field then on the field it becomes a lot easier to give instructions and become more of a leader.
“We have a lot of good young players, Charles Mbombwa is one of them, Jake Hollman too.
“I just try to help them out as much as possible, and at the same time they’re in very good hands at Macarthur and I look forward to seeing how they develop.”
The 30-year-old is fortunate to be able to draw on some unique experiences in Europe to help mentor his teammates, making debuts on the highest stage on a number of occasions.
“I made my European debut [for Utrecht] at Anfield and I came off the bench for the last 20 or 30 minutes and we drew 0-0.
“To play in a stadium like that while I was still only 18 at the time, it was a great time.
My first game for Ipswich Town was an FA Cup game against Manchester United at Old Trafford, so to have these kind of moments I feel pretty blessed.”
Currently in his third separate spell in the A-League following a couple of stints in Europe, Oar isn’t discounting another journey overseas should his good form continue and the opportunity arise.
“If there’s one thing football’s taught me is that you can never look too far ahead, you have to take it each step at a time, as cliché as that sounds.
“For me I’m not ruling anything out in the future but for now I’m just trying to enjoy my football each week and help bring success to Macarthur and see where that takes me.”
He has similar feelings towards a Socceroos recall after seven years out in the cold, insisting that he’s focusing on his “bread and butter” with the Bulls.
