Hibs star's World Cup message of encouragement as Sunderland loanee gets 'very, very close' boost
‘Disappointment’ of missing China and Indonesia clashes balanced by recognition of quick progress with Socceroos
Hibs boss David Gray has told Sunderland loanee Nectar Triantis to focus on the positives from his first Socceroos call-up – despite the disappointment of not seeing a minute of action in two vital World Cup qualifiers for Tony Popovic’s men. And Gray is absolutely confident that the midfielder will reach the full international stage soon.
Popovic awarded Triantis his first international recognition after seeing him turn in a dominant performance in the Easter Road win over Celtic back in February. But the 21-year-old wasn’t involved in either match day squad as the Aussies beat Indonesia in Sydney and China in Hangzhou to maintain their hopes of playing in next year’s World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico.
Gray, pleased to see the Socceroos trio of Triantis, Lewis Miller and Martin Boyle all return fit enough to start in Saturday’s home trouncing of St Johnstone, admitted: “I think personally he’ll be a little bit disappointed. But at the same time, I was quite quick to remind him about how that opportunity has come around.
“The other two boys have played and done well and scored and they're riding high because of that. But if you go back, this is his first call-up for the national team at that level. He's only 21 years old. It'll be a great learning curve for him as well.
“Hopefully it can give him that little bit of drive and motivation to make sure that he keeps doing well, because he's very, very close. It's great that he's had the recognition, but he's not quite there yet, so he needs to keep working hard and keep improving.
“And that's one thing that I must say about Nectar, is he's desperate to improve all the time. I've mentioned that a lot about his character. A very humble boy that works really hard and desperate to improve. So I'm sure he'll get there, but he needs to keep working hard and keep pushing towards it.”
Insisting Triantis still took plenty from the experience of jetting home and back during the break, Gray pointed out: “He also got the opportunity to spend some time with his family. So I'm sure he'd have seen some of his family when he went back home, which is always nice, because it's not as if he can just nip home at the weekend at any time. So there's very many positives to come from that and hopefully he can push on there.”
Boss ‘convinced’ Aussie will become elite No. 6
Having endured an up-and-down loan spell with Hibs for the second half of last season, looking entirely ill at ease in central defence especially, Triantis has been a revelation since returning on another short-term deal in the summer. Gray’s determination that the youngster should return to Easter Road strictly as a midfielder has paid off, given the quality of his performances at the heart of the team.
The first-year head coach believes international recognition demonstrates just how far the player has come this season, saying: “When you think back to where he was at the start of the season, when he first came in, adapting to a new position, he's not played it for a very long time. And he's now managed to get himself into the national team playing in a different position.
“I've touched on a lot, his attributes and everything he does with that, I'm convinced he's going to be a top number six. He just needs to keep working and keep developing and he's got the right attitude and determination to keep doing that.
“So he's in a good place. We just need to make sure we see that coming out between now and the end of the season.”