This Saturday night, two of the heroes of Australian football will come up against each other in the Isuzu UTE A-League when Sydney FC and Melbourne City clash.
For Andrew Redmayne and Mathew Leckie, they were born and bred in the A-League and have gone on to have successful careers within the competition and overseas. After spending the last three weeks as team-mates in Socceroos camp, come Saturday afternoon they will meet once again, this time on opposite sides.
Leckie’s aim; score goals. Redmayne’s aim; prevent goals. We know both of them can do it on the biggest stage, but how they perform on Saturday will be a sight to see.
In terms of total appearances, Andrew Redmayne has a total of 243 across all competitions and that includes AFC Champions League, A-League and FFA Cup. He began his career with the Central Coast Mariners before heading to Brisbane Roar, Melbourne City and then the harbour city with Western Sydney Wanderers before settling at Sydney FC.
Mathew Leckie has made 332 appearances in his club career following a football journey which took him from the city of churches in Adelaide to the German Bundesliga. In his time in Europe, he also made appearances in the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Europa League with Hertha Berlin. He returned to Australia with Melbourne City at the beginning of last season and seems settled at the City Football Group.
In terms of stats, while they play different positions, their contributions to their teams are equally as important. Leckie’s 62 goals in all competitions may not be the highest tally you will ever see but he also has 39 assists to go with them, showing his prowess as a winger. For Redmayne, every goal-keeper aims to keep clean sheets and the Central Coast born Redmayne boasts 65, an average of one clean sheet per 3.74 matches. An incredible achievement considering that this includes A-League Grand Finals and AFC Champions League matches.
At 31, Mathew Leckie probably didn’t expect his career to peak last week when he scored the vital goal in the Socceroos’ World Cup Group Stage match. A moment that will go down in Australian sporting history as the Socceroos won back to back games at a FIFA World Cup for the very first time.
At 33, Andrew Redmayne probably didn’t expect his career to explode four months ago when he saved the vital penalty in the World Cup Play-Off with Peru which sent the Socceroos to their fifth consecutive FIFA World Cup. Since then, he has shot to popularity both in Australia and oddly enough in Peru, who see him as a father figure after helping them realise that they cannot take anything for granted.
Their touches in the A-League this season while in differing positions stack up relatively even for these two stars of the game. Leckie’s 399 touches are matched with 229 passes. Redmayne’s 190, matched with 117 passes. When it comes to duels, Leckie is by far and away, one of the best you’ll see. 137 duels in six matches. That’s an average of 22 per match. Insane numbers. For Andrew Redmayne, he is not normally called into action for duels but when he does, you can rely on him to come out on top. Redmayne boasts a 100% success rate for his duels. A man mountain at the back. Leckie on the other hand has only won 48% of his.
In their sole previous meeting against each other, they found themselves face to face on two occasions, with Andrew Redmayne saving one attempt from point blank range against Leckie (xG 0.48) and the winger finding the net with the other (xG 0.04). In terms of expected goals across the last three seasons, Andrew Redmayne had an expected goals against tally of 59.87 but only conceded 57. Leckie had an expected goals scored tally of 7.02 xG and found the net 10 times. Both talents in their respective field.
Both will go down in history as key figures in the Australian 2022 FIFA World Cup effort but that tournament is now a memory and both must now focus on the Isuzu UTE A-League task at hand with their respective clubs. Regardless of the outcome of Saturday night’s clash you can expect both Redmayne and Leckie to be at the top of their game and adding to the spectacle of the 90 minutes.
