How Graham Arnold planned Andrew Redmayne surprise in a Socceroos World Cup play-off masterstroke

Kieran Francis

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How Graham Arnold planned Andrew Redmayne surprise in a Socceroos World Cup play-off masterstroke image

'It looks as if Andrew Redmayne is about to come on'.

They were the last words Socceroos fans expected commentator Simon Hill to utter in the 120th minute as the dreaded penalty shootout was about to decide the nation's World Cup 2022 fate against Peru.

The immediate thought was 'why is Graham Arnold taking off the Australian captain Mat Ryan and bringing on the nation's third-choice goalkeeper?'

Ten minutes later the answer was plain to see as Redmayne proved to be the hero in a stunning performance with his erratic, eye-catching dancing on the goal-line ultimately helping the Socceroos into their fifth consecutive World Cup.

Little did we know that the Redmayne ploy to get the upper hand in any penalty shootout had actually been drawn up by Arnold over a month before the play-offs.

Who is Andrew Redmayne and why is he the 'pink Wiggle'?

Redmayne, 33, has been an accomplished A-League goalkeeper his entire career - being the no.1 at Sydney FC during the three premierships and three championships won during the Sky Blues recent golden era.

Despite being named in the PFA  A-League Team of the Year in 2017-18 and A-League Goalkeeper of the Year in 2019-20, Redmayne has never been considered in the league of Australian stoppers such as Mat Ryan, Mitchell Langerak (now retired) and Danny Vukovic.

During Sydney FC's title win in 2018-19, Redmayne famously danced around on the line during the penalty shootout, saving two spot-kicks to help his team to the championship.

After doing his penalty 'distraction' dance again later on in his career, wearing Sydney FC's pink goalkeeper jersey, he was labelled the 'pink Wiggle' after famous Australian children performers The Wiggles.

When was the Redmayne plan hatched by Australia's coaching staff?

Incredibly, no Socceroos players had any idea about the plan to inject Redmayne into the penalty shootout - not even Australian skipper Mat Ryan.

The plan was first spoken about a month prior to the World Cup play-offs as the green and gold searched for an advantage if either the UAE or Peru matches went to a penalty shootout.

"The idea of stopping a penalty was floated [by Socceroos coaches] at least a month ago," Redmayne said post-match.

"John Crawley (Australia's goalkeeper coach) threw out the theory behind it. He said get ready. It was always in the back of my head for the UAE game and the Peru game.

"It was kind of planned I guess, between the staff and myself. Don't think any other players knew about it. A few clocked on half-time during the Peru game because I was doing some drills at half time to keep my eye in."

Did Maty Ryan know he was going to be substituted and what did he say?

Australian captain Mat Ryan was unaware of the pre-planned decision to substitute him out for Redmayne if the match went to penalties, but the Socceroos stalwart reacted gracefully and supportively as seen on vision.

"No, Maty didn't know," Redmayne confirmed.

"When he came off, he said, 'all the best mate, this is your time'. Even at full-time in the huddle, he said, 'you've got this mate, this is all you'.

"He was nothing but supportive. He is an absolute legend. I'm grateful for how Maty played it and how he received it."

How did the Peruvian players and referee react to Redmayne's dancing tactic?

Redmayne feels the Peruvians were thrown by his eccentric body movements, which were designed to distract and make the goalkeeper look big between the posts.

The stopper also noted that Peru would have prepared for Ryan to be in goals in a shootout and wouldn't have known much about him at all.

"Yeah I think [it did put the Peruvian players off]," Redmayne said.

"Firstly, they didn't say anything. I think [the dancing] would have distracted them.

"I guess surprising them in the sense that putting on a fresh goalkeeper - as they would have prepared all week thinking Maty Ryan was going to be in goals.

"Putting me on would have thrown them a little bit. A couple of players in our cohort said it would have rattled them a little bit too - with a different goalkeeper coming on."

What did the referee say about Redmayne's antics?

Redmayne revealed that even the referee reacted to his movement - warning the goalkeeper he could be booked if his antics were over the top and not to celebrate prematurely if he saved the final penalty, as VAR would need to check if he remained on his line.

"During the last two penalties, the referee said to me, 'if you save this, you win'," Redmayne recalled.

"And that was when [the gravity of the moment] sunk home.

"He also said, 'don't go running off if you save it because we need to check VAR with you moving around a lot on the line'.

"We worked on my pre-penalty movement the whole camp, the moving and staying on the line, and also creating a big presence in goals. I knew I would have been okay.

"The referee was a bit bemused about my antics as well. He was trying to keep me in check.

"He threatened a yellow card a couple of times for trying to provoke players and I said I wasn't doing that.

"I didn't say anything verbal to anyone but I guess any little thing I could do to gain one percent, I was going to do it.

"If I could gain anything by doing something stupid and making a fool of myself, then I was going to do it."

Kieran Francis

Kieran Francis Photo

Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket - when he is not on holiday.