The third and penultimate part of the article from our friends at Licence To Roam about the Australian players that have played for Palace.
Steve Mautone
Goalkeeper Steve Mautone was next to be acquired by Palace, signing from Alan Pardew’s Reading on a free in 1999. He was bought in largely as a reserve keeper, and therefore only featured twice for the club, but Mautone still managed to put in a shocker on debut, with Palace losing 2-0 at Nottingham Forest. Mautone was luckily able to gain some respect back from the fans on his home debut, by playing in a side that defeated Walsall.
The Aussie keeper has spent over 10 years plying his trade in England, and even featured in a Premier League match for West Ham, where he managed to keep a clean sheet.
Despite struggling to hold down a first choice position at the English clubs he played for, Mautone was able to play at a host of teams including Crewe, Reading, Wolves and Gillingham, to go with his aforementioned stints at Palace and the Hammers.
Mautone is currently employed as the goalkeeping coach for the Melbourne Victory, and he also runs his own goalkeeping academy, which is aptly named “1st Choice Keeper”.
Tony Popovic
Tony Popovic moved to Palace in 2001 on a free transfer from Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima. The towering centre half managed to enjoy a very successful spell at the club, where he became a fan favourite, whilst also captaining the club. Popovic featured in over 120 matches for the Eagles, which notably included 21 Premier League appearances.
Popovic’s most famous moment in a Palace shirt was the unfortunate own goal he scored against Portsmouth back in September 2004. This was one of the more bizarre moments witnessed on a football pitch, with Popovic masterfully placing a delightful backheel into the back of his own net. This effort by Popovic is a regular fixture in best own goals of all time features everywhere.
Popa, due to his physical approach to the game, certainly collected some rather humorous nicknames throughout his career. These included “Psycho Killer” and “Mad Popovic the iron bar”. Popovic was definitely a player who never shied away from a challenge, which was one of the reasons the fans loved and respected him so much.
Crystal Palace ended up releasing Popovic in 2006. The big Australian then moved to Qatar based club Al-Arabi, where he played for one season, before returning home to play with Sydney FC in the A-League. Popovic played 2 seasons in the A-League before he announced his retirement in 2008. His successful career was highlighted by the fact he played in the 2006 World Cup and featured 58 times for his country.
After his retirement, Popovic was intent on pursuing a coaching career, and returned to Crystal Palace as an assistant coach under Dougie Freedman in 2011 for a season, after spending the previous 3 years as an assistant at Sydney FC. He displayed his talents as a coach and eventually attracted the attention of newly launched A-League side Western Sydney Wanderers, from whom he received an offer he couldn’t refuse to become the manager of a new exciting franchise in his hometown. He enjoyed a very productive first season at the club, as his side finished top of the league, before eventually losing the grand final to the Central Coast Mariners.
Shaun Murphy
Centre back Murphy was the next Aussie to arrive at Palace in 2002 from Sheffield United, where he won supporters’ player of the season in their previous campaign. He was loaned by Palace as defensive cover for the injured pair of Symons and Popovic. Murphy’s spell at Palace only lasted 2 months, but he put in some solid performances during his 11 matches. Palace thought about signing him the following transfer window, but ultimately decided against doing so.
Murphy enjoyed a mammoth 10 years playing in England, which included stints at Notts County, WBA, Sheffield United and obviously Palace. The Sydney born defender returned back to Australia in 2003 to finish his career with Perth Glory, with whom he won a Grand Final with just prior to announcing his retirement in 2004.
The robust defender also featured 18 times for his country, with his most memorable moment for the Socceroos undoubtedly coming at the 2001 Confederations Cup, where he scored the winning goal against Brazil in a 1-0 victory. This helped Australia to an impressive third place finish at the tournament. Murphy is currently employed as the Director of Coaching at Whitfords City FC in Perth.
Anthony Danze
The Perth born midfielder had a pretty unsuccessful time at Crystal Palace, and ultimately only featured in 2 Carling Cup games for the club. Big things were expected of Danze at Palace, as just prior to joining the Eagles, he put in some impressive performances at the FIFA Youth World Cup. Unfortunately for Danze, the move didn’t work out as desired, with the Aussie being shipped off on loan to MK Dons, and being injured for large portions of his stay.
Danze eventually left the club via mutual consent and returned home to play with Inglewood United in Perth. The midfielder then moved to A-League side Perth Glory in 2007, which also proved to be unsuccessful for Danze, as injuries forced him to part ways with the club.
The highly rated youngster’s career sadly never really took off, with injuries playing a pivotal role. One definite positive for Danze, however, was that he had the honour of representing Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
