Even if Sydney or Croatia was not playing Bratislav Popovic would drive around until he found a local game where he and son Tony would sit on the hill and watch. There was a kick-around at half-time.

“He got me in love with the game playing in the park as dads do, as I do now with my (three) boys,’’ says Tony Popovic of his father, who moved with wife Rada from Croatia to Sydney’s western suburbs in the early 1970s.

News_Module: Head-to-head

Popovic talks fondly about his upbringing, his region and the place the game held in the community. He is well aware the Wanderers did not invent football in Sydney’s west. Yet, as Wanderers coach, he has done more than most to drive its growth.

Throughout his first two years Popovic has been a strong but almost aloof figure on the sidelines as the Wanderers compelling story unfolded.

He rarely speaks about himself and plays his cards so closely to his chest it is a running joke among reporters that the Wanderers’ team sheet is as a reliable as a North Korean news bulletin.

‘’I just never see it as ‘I did this, I did that’,’’ says Popovic of his reluctance to bask in the limelight. ’’I think of it as a club, a group of players, as a staff, we are all playing a part in trying to create something special.’’

But now, in an office at the Wanderers’ Blacktown headquarters, Popovic talks expansively, even affectionately, about his club, his job and his childhood. Thus he gives a glimpse of the warm, avuncular figure former teammates say would hold court in the sheds or at the hotel bar. Neither flashy nor self-aggrandising, just a natural team man.

Tall and angular like Goran Ivanisevic — the Croatian he would later befriend — Popovic dabbled with tennis until his early teens. ‘’But I loved training with my mates and hanging out with them afterwards,’’ he says of his decision to choose football.

Bratislav Popovic was a hard taskmaster. “Whatever I did, he pushed me to do it to the best of my ability,’’ says Popovic. “If studies weren’t done I’d be punished with not being able to play. My parents had a real belief you have to do everything to the best of your ability.’’

Those words will resonate with Wanderers players who first endure, then come to appreciate their coach’s arduous and meticulously planned sessions.

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Popovic’s attention to detail is already legend at the Wanderers. He is famously hands-on during training and youth coach Trevor Morgan talks of the phone calls he receives from Popovic after games. “Why did this kid play in that position? How much game time did another get?’’

Popovic is clearly proud of how he extracted the very best from a career spent mostly as a pillar in defence for Sydney United, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Crystal Palace, and in 58 games for the Socceroos. Even after a bone in his right big toe was fused and he endured 18 months learning to jump off his left foot.

‘’It means I sleep easy at night,’’ says Popovic. ‘’That’s what I try to tell my players. You look in the mirror and know you’ve done your best.

type_quote_start "I didn’t change clubs too often. There is no right or wrong to that. But when I went to a club they got me 100 percent." type_quote_end

News_Module: Popovic greets fans

“Whether you’re selected or not, that’s not your choice. But it’s your choice whether you try your best every single day.’’

Popovic’s leadership qualities were identified early. Sydney United coach Manfred Schaefer made him captain of the NSL team when he was just 20.

“I remember going in an asking the senior players for permission,’’ says Popovic. “I was thinking ‘This doesn’t feel right’. But when I spoke to them they were all ‘You’ve got to take it, you’ve got to take it’. It was a great experience. That helps you grow up.’’

Popovic was part of the Socceroos’ golden era. A member of the 2006 World Cup team, an experienced soured only by a calf injury that meant he missed the games against Croatia and Italy. But it is the enduring legacy he left at his clubs that is most revealing.

News_Module: Wanderers inspire a community

Popovic says: “I didn’t change clubs too often. There is no right or wrong to that. But when I went to a club they got me 100 per cent.

“I gave them everything I had. I was honoured by the fact they would bring me to their club and thought I could make them better.’’

Popovic was doing his coaching apprenticeship even before he began taking courses during his final years in England.

He has boxes of notes taken during his playing days. Assessments of sessions or tactics that have informed his coaching style.

When Popovic takes the Wanderers to Hiroshima for the ACL game he will be feted as a club legend. His status at Crystal Palace was underlined by his appointment as assistant coach in 2011.

He moved with wife Amanda and sons Christian, Grabriel and Nick back to England and was happily ensconced when Wanderers chief executive Lyall Gorman came calling.

‘’The only thing that made me reluctant was the great job I had in England,’’ says Popovic. ‘’I took a big leap to go over there.

“We had done well for 15 months and I had another couple of years there on contract. I had to be sure this was what I wanted to do. But fear of failure? I’ve never had that.’’

type_quote_start “Whether you’re selected or not, that’s not your choice. But it’s your choice whether you try your best every single day." type_quote_end

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When he arrived there were partitions in the office, no walls, no internet, no chairs and no players. His message bank had hundreds of calls from agents spruiking untried kids as the next Harry Kewell.

But, as Popovic came to understand, the Wanderers did have a heartbeat. Colours, a ground and — most significantly — a region that craved a club to call its own.

“I didn’t realise how important that was until the league started and you saw how the club had put the foundations in place, become a part of the community and that’s moulded into one,’’ he says. “It felt like a real club.’’

type_quote_start "I can accept that they won’t be at their best every day, but I can’t accept them not putting in their maximum. I grew up that way." type_quote_end

Popovic built a team with strong defence, he says, out of necessity not philosophy. ‘’Starting up a new club we felt we needed to get the foundation right in terms of good leaders and getting the defence right because you don’t know what you will get in terms of players, foreigners, what kind of quality we would be able to bring in.’’

Having assembled his team Popovic put them to work. Harder than most had worked before.

‘’We all have expectations,’’ he says. ‘’I expect them to give their all day in day out. I can accept that they won’t be at their best every day, but I can’t accept them not putting in their maximum. I grew up that way. But as a club, if you want to be the best, that’s what I strive to do.’’News_Rich_Media: Western Sydney Wanderers coach Tony Popovic admits the pain from last year's grand final defeat to Central Coast Mariners is providing added motivation for his side ahead of this week's clash with Brisbane Roar.

The initial results — on the pitch and on the terraces — were astounding. "Once we got on a roll we just couldn’t lose. We went 14 games undefeated and we got into a grand final. Momentum just carried us through."

This season there has been more distractions on and off the field. "Things like player signings and re-signings, we didn’t have that last year, it’s been more difficult," says Popovic.

You ask Popovic how much time he gets to kick the ball around with his sons as his father did with him. "Yeah, we do that, but I’m sure my family would like to have me around more," he says. "That’s the modern game. You are always striving for the next training session, the next game."

The thought of coaching a "big club" overseas has crossed Popovic’s mind. "I’m very, very ambitious," he admits. "I want to be the best I can be. Where that road takes me, I don’t know. With the new owners coming in, if we can match each other’s ambition, I might do that here."

But, for now, there is a grand final in Brisbane and a 6am flight to Hiroshima on Monday morning. It is no time for reflection.

"You are always planning for something new, you’re moving forward, medium-term, short-term," he says. "Maybe one day I’ll have a chance to look back and say this was wonderful."