You can't see it from the road, or the nearby train line, but tucked away in the scrubland of Tuggerah is the A-League's best-kept secret.

It's a football-only oasis, a place where the round ball is king, and where the Central Coast Mariners are planning to build the best football club in Australia.

"It's one of the main reasons I stayed here [Central Coast Mariners] instead of going to Sydney FC" ... Graham Arnold. Credit:Vince Caligiuri

If you want to know why they're competing for the title for the third straight year, look no further.

The Mariners' Centre of Excellence was long thought of by the football fraternity as a questionable project: big on ambition, low on dollars. Supported by government, stymied by red tape. Perhaps more trouble than it was worth?