Sorras soaring with Olympic

Having had a taste of the A League, Sydney Olympic’s goalkeeper Nick Sorras is eager to get back into the highest level of Australian football.

With the support of Sydney Olympic in providing a professional environment to help progress his game, Sorras is excited to make the most of what he expects to be a special year for the blues in the National Premier Leagues NSW Men’s competition.

Reflecting on the journey of the past few years, Sorras has a big appreciation for the professional football experience he has been able to get at Perth Glory on his injury replacement contract.

“I played about three games before COVID stopped the season, and then came back until we played Sydney FC in the Cup [FFA Cup], so we sort of did like a little bit of a mini preseason for that game and played that game,” he explained.

“I went to Perth and I was there for a little bit on an injury replacement contract.

“So I got a phone call from Terry McFlynn, the football manager there, and said that basically Brad Jones had gotten injured at training – they rang me up that day and I ended up flying out that night.

“I went there on an injury replacement contract and I ended up being with the team for about four months.

“The ‘keepers had come back and there wasn’t much need for me to be there anymore but it was an unbelievable experience and to work with like Brad Jones and Liam Reddy who have been such good professionals throughout their careers it was awesome for me I learned a whole lot.

“That’s definitely the level that I want to get back to and I’m hoping to have a great season at Olympic and so I can go back to [the A League] whether it’s Perth or another team – the A League is where I want to be.”

Sorras has learnt the ins and outs of professional football and what the expectations are in that environment and is hoping to bring some of that experience and insight to his Olympic team.

“I definitely got to see how professionals sort of work and go about their day to day routine – it’s just another level,” he said.

“It’s hard being in a semi-professional environment, pretty much the whole team works and soccer, you sort of have to juggle it, where professionally that’s all they think about they just wake up, go to training, that’s it.

“If I can take a bit of that professional attitude and bring it into the semi-professional environment I think it can go a long way not just for me but for all the players in the team just taking those one or two percent extra to get the best out of us.”

Returning to the sport after his injury, Sorras has worked to ensure his body is in the best form to allow him to play his best football, leaning on his experience in personal training to help be in tip-top shape.

“My body’s felt the best it’s felt in years so I’m definitely feeling like I’m building and I just want to keep it going,” he said.

“Everything’s going well so just one game at a time and one training session at a time and just keep going but my body’s fantastic.

“Having a little bit of knowledge in the gym and rehabilitation definitely helped me.

“I try not to go too crazy in the gym, I try to just do what I need to do, and sort of focus on football, but doing the extra gym work is super, super important.

“It’s just about managing what you do with football as well because obviously you don’t want to do too much and you don’t want to do too little so having a bit of a personal training background sort of helps me find that level ground and keep building, keep everything going nicely.”

With a strong start to the season, sitting in third position on the NPL NSW Men’s ladder at the end of Round 6, Olympic has big ambitions for the season and Sorras is confident the team can continue to impress.

“Coming back in and being able to get some good training under my belt and to be playing every game is exactly what I need or any goalkeeper needs,” he explained.

“It’s been fantastic and the team has been performing really well so it’s really been a perfect start to the season so far.

“I think Ante has built a team over the last two or three years where we’ve actually got quite a young starting squad, with the exception of a few older guys.

“We’ve had a team now that we’ve grown together for probably the last two, three years with the addition of a few faces like Matty [Mathieu] Cordier and a few others, but I think we’re really starting to hit our stride now.

“We’ve been playing together for a little bit now and I think it’s really starting to come good and that atmosphere training around the club, especially with Ante is fantastic – everybody’s behind him.

“We all sort of know that we can do something special this year and I think we’re about time that we started hitting our stride.”

-By Madeline Riley