Allan Maher
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Allan Maher was on (born July 21, 1950)[1] and is a former Australian football (soccer) goalkeeper. A career highlight would have been being a member of the first Australian to represent Australia and Oceania at the 1974 World Cup squad in West Germany. Maher played for North Rocks juniors before making the step to the senior level with Western Suburbs. He moved to Granville and then on to Sutherland when that club was promoted to the NSW division in 1972. He represented Australian at Under 23 level in a tour of Indonesia in 1973, and his outstanding displays for club and country earned him a call up for the Australian team at the 1974 World Cup as a back up to Jack Reilly and Jim Milisavljevic. After Australian scraped through the Oceania phase of the 1978 World Cup qualifiers, Maher replaced Todd Clarke as first-choice keeper and served throughout the grueling Asian phase of the qualifiers in home and away matches against Kuwait, Iran, South Korea and Hong Kong. He shared the goalkeeping roles in the lead up to the 1982 World Cup campaign, and played in the 1982 World Cup qualifiers in a series ultimately won by the Oceania nation of New Zealand. After joining Marconi in 1975 he stayed with the western Sydney club for nine years. Letting in just 21 goals in the 26 matches of the inaugural NSL season, Marconi only missed out on the 1977 NSL Championship on goal difference to Sydney City. Marconi also finished second in the 1977 NSL National Cup. he eventually secured a NSL Championship with Marconi in 1979, and won a National Cup medal in 1980 after keeping Socceroo team-mate Gary Cole scoreless in the Cup final against Heidelberg. He later took up coaching and had a four year stint as director of coaching at Blacktown City.
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Australia squad - 1974 FIFA World Cup | |
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1 Reilly | 2 Utjesenovic | 3 Wilson | 4 Schäfer | 5 Curran | 6 Richards | 7 Rooney | 8 Mackay | 9 Warren | 10 Manuel | 11 Abonyi | 12 Alston | 13 Ollerton | 14 Tolson | 15 Williams | 16 Rudic | 17 Harding | 18 Watkiss | 19 Campbell | 20 Buljevic | 21 Milisavljevic | 22 Maher | Coach: Rasic |
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