On 4 May 2014, Brisbane Roar coach Mike Mulvey was taking a bow in front of elated fans shortly after his team had defeated Western Sydney Wanderers 2-1 in the Hyundai A-League Grand Final.

There were tears of joy and emphatic embraces as the players and coaching staff credited their 'leader' and 'mentor' for their success.

Some six months later, the man responsible for leading the triumphant side to the double in the 2013-2014 season was taking a different kind of bow and according to a Brisbane Roar media release, was 'standing down' as the club's head coach.

It was news that came as a surprise to many but, mostly, just shocked the hell out of us and saw a clear divide in how it was covered.

Some stayed true to the release and reported that he was 'stood down', while other headlines used the terms 'axed', 'sacked' or 'parted ways'.

Whatever the case, the matter exploded across all fronts and it's a revelation that no one on the outside could have seen coming just seven weeks into the competition.

In previous weeks, Roar's tumultuous start to the season and rumours of unrest in the dressing room made headlines but things turned ugly when, in the lead-up to the match against Newcastle Jets in Round 6, the club's board announced it would look at implementing a European coach somewhere down the line.

The comments forced Mulvey to deny allegations of a tense relationship between himself and management and he strongly refuted claims of player disharmony.

The beauty of hindsight prompts us to recognise that this was the beginning of the end of Mulvey.

Fast-forward to Sunday 24 November where Courier-Mail reporter Marco Monteverde broke the news that the Englishman had been 'sacked by the Roar'.

After it broke, journalists and news organisations across the country scrambled desperately to determine just what had happened.

Soon after the announcement, at exactly 1:44pm, I texted Mulvey with the simple line of 'say it isn't so'. No sooner had I sent it, did he reply with 'I haven't heard a word from the club'.

He had been subjected to a barrage of phone calls and text messages from the media demanding to know what he apparently didn't.

Over the course of the next few hours, reporters, punters and fans alike pursued the story with a vigour that saw social media go into overdrive.

The most common reactions to the sensational news centered around how a story with the title 'Roar sack Mulvey' could emerge when not even he knew about it.

As the day progressed, Brisbane Roar's media manager phoned me at 3:40pm to say that a statement would be released at an undisclosed time and that was all they could say on the matter at that point in the time.

No closer to finding an answer, everyone sat back and waited with baited breath. It didn't look good for Mulvey and people wanted to know why.

At 6:52pm an announcement from the club 'regarding Mike Mulvey' was made public.

Brisbane Roar FC Managing Director Sean Dobson said that after meeting with Mulvey, a decision had been made that he would 'step down from the Head Coach’s position'.

Cue the chaos.

After choosing to let the dust settle, I reluctanctly phoned Mulvey at 7:43pm and expected to reach his voicemail or at the very least for it to ring out.

He answered and after mentally preparing myself for a broken and solemn man on the other end of the line, I was surprised to hear that he was sounding somewhat upbeat.

After asking how he was and what on earth had happened, I openly offered him the chance to join us on the show to give his side of the story.

He told me that he had received several pleas from other major media outlets but, at this time, he was choosing to remain silent.

I respected his wishes and chose not to press it any further.

I wanted something to take away from my conversation with him but all that I could gather was that not even he could quite come to terms with what had happened.

Somewhere beneath it all, I knew that this story had a more sinister twist to it and as far as that goes, it may be some time before we find out what really played out between Mulvey and the Roar board.

The likelihood of that appears even dimmer in the wake of his payout agreement, which could potentially gag him from speaking out at all.

At 1:44pm on Monday, exactly 24-hours after I had initially made contact with Mulvey to find out what was going on, a media release was issued from the club, announcing former Dutch international Frans Thijssen as the interim coach.

Thijssen hasn't coached a senior team side in over a decade and this will be his eighth club that he has been appointed to in some capacity in the past nine years.

At the press conference for the announcement, club captain Matt Smith said he thought Mulvey was doing a good job and when I spoke to him afterwards, he was clearly exhausted from the debacle and simply said 'from a playing group perspective we have a game to focus on and that's this Saturday'.

If the players thought Mulvey was doing a good job, a man that not just Smith had spoken so fondly of in interviews with me, then what happened between May and now?

Thijssen's sudden appointment has led almost everyone to believe that this wasn't a knee-jerk reaction to the team's slow start to the campaign or that the Dutchman was already in the country being considered for the technical director role as the club stated - it was something the board was planning on executing for sometime.

According to Dobson, Mulvey has been 'warned' on numerous occasions that he was straying from the club's ideal training regime and 'philosophy'.

From an outsiders perspective though, the board had found its replacement coach, it just had to find the right time to announce him and last Friday's 1-0 loss to Melbourne Victory was the perfect catalyst.

It made me wonder if the scenario would have played out differently if Roar won that night against Victory and then went on a startling winning streak?

Probably.

When a club is doing well and the points are on the board, it's easy to dismiss any perceived personality clashes or difficulties filtering down from the upper echelons of management.

While the margins between winning and losing games had been small, the results simply weren't there for Roar.

On our most recent episode of Extra Time, Sydney Morning Herald and Age football journalist Sebsatian Hassett made the point that the board had some serious explaining to do.

The ethics of reporting, along with how and why it was leaked without the club speaking to Mulvey first and then issuing a statement is what disgusts me most.

The thrill of a breaking story is one that we as journalists are all taught to chase. It's natural, of that there is no question, but the ramifications of how it happened have damaged the credibility of the club.

Just who leaked it and why?

That's something that according to Dobson, the club is launching an investigation to look into - a statement that is surely designed to appease the fans who have lashed out over the action's of the board.

Going forward, it would serve in their best interests to make the findings public if they hope to restore a semblance of faith from their fans.

To make matters worse, the situation has brought about speculation surrounding just who was responsible for player recruitment this season and claims have been made that the signing of imported striker Mensur Kurtishi was based on DVD evidence alone.

To place emphasis on that is baffling.

It's not an uncommon practice in the world of football but given that Kurtishi hasn't delivered in a way Roar would have hoped, it's led to a mass witch-hunt with everyone quick to suggest why Mulvey deserved to go.

Perhaps it was recently appointed football director Ken Stead who had the final say when it came to the new recruits?

In September, Stead was interviewed by the same person responsible for breaking the story on Mulvey’s sacking, Marco Monteverde.

In the article, Stead promised that he would stay out of Mulvey's way when it came to the 'day-to-day running of the club's A-League team' but he was also quoted as saying 'I will play a part in deciding which players we sign'.

Just how big was that part? We don't know.

At the time of writing this, assistant coach Ron Smith handed in his resignation and reports have also surfaced that Mulvey is seeking legal advice- however I can reveal that at this stage he is absorbing everything that has happened before taking any action at all.

Just under two years is how long it took for the A-League coach of the year to win the Premiers' Plate and the Championship.

In the space of six hours, he went from being Roar's leader, to finding out he had been sacked via the media and then shown the door; an irrevocable act of injustice at its finest.