The DMA’s frontman on growing up as a Toffees fan Down Under and being buds with Big Dunc
Niall Doherty
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
What was the first football match you ever attended?
Well, my father is from Liverpool and he was an Everton supporter, so that’s why I go for them. I grew up with Everton and I’ve been a big fan ever since I was little. I went to visit my brother in Liverpool when I was about 12: it was the 2000-01 season and I went to see Everton play against Coventry at their old ground, Highfield Road. We won 3-1. Gordon Strachan was the manager of Coventry and I remember him getting abused by the home fans. Then, the next week, I saw Everton at Goodison Park and we got beat 3-0 by Tranmere Rovers in the FA Cup, which was pretty brutal.
For someone from Australia to go to a football match and see so much passion was really eyeopening. I try to go to Goodison as much as I can when I’m in the UK. Going there for the first time was magic after watching it on the TV. It was very surreal, especially as a young boy. It was also really nice to go back to where my dad was from. It was a nice journey for him as well, to take me back there.
Who was your childhood hero and did you ever meet them?
I liked Duncan Ferguson. He was awesome – great goalscorer, great attitude. I met him briefly a couple of years ago when I did an interview for a Match Of The Day thing. He was really nice and such a great guy; he was obviously very busy – and we’d just lost 4-0 to Chelsea – but he still made time for me, so that was great.
I also loved it when Timmy Cahill joined Everton, as obviously he is Australian. That was great, too. A lot of Evertonians came out of the woodwork in Sydney and Australia because of Timmy. He really promoted the club over there, which was so good to see, because back then you would go to a pub to watch the game and it was all Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. He was great for the club.
What was your finest moment as a player?
I played for New South Wales as a kid and that was pretty good, but you need a lot of discipline to be a football player and as I got older I went down other roads. I worked hard and I was fit, but I wasn’t super-fast so I tried to make up for it by covering lots of ground. I was in midfield, doing the dirty work!
How has watching football changed for you since you were a kid?
I’ve always loved it and I always got up in the middle of the morning to watch Everton play. With the coverage these days you can literally watch every single game, but I remember back in the day when I was growing up, you had to call a hotline to see how
