Craig Moore: The Rangers teammate is destined for coaching greatness

He also takes us through the joy and heartbreak of two World Cup Finals with the Socceroos, his battle against cancer and his new life as a football agent. This is Oz’s story.

The bus that drinks together, wins together.

A paraphrasing of one of legendary skipper Richard Gough’s most famous Ibrox quotes.

One that applied to the club-sponsored Honda Civic that transported a band of close friends back and forth to training during Gers’ Treble-winning season under Alex McLeish in season 2002/2003.

Craig Moore will never forget those days, the laughs he had bonding over a sneaky afternoon pint, the hell it was when it became your turn to drive.

Two decades on the game has changed and you doubt that Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin are getting up to these capers.

Oz smiled: “Some of my best Rangers memories are from that Treble season.

“I made mates for life like Charlie Miller, what a wonderful player he was, but he was gone by then.

“Barry Ferguson and I were really close and the best year together was that 2002/3 Treble season.

“I used to travel into training with Barry, Bob Malcolm, Stephen Hughes and Kevin Muscat.

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“What a laugh that was although being the driver for the day was a nightmare.

“We had this Honda shuttle bus and on the way home from training we would put it up for a vote if we’d stop for a shandy!

“This went on the whole season, people would be desperate to get home and we would rig the vote so it was 3-2!

“If they didn’t want to stop for a shandy? The designated driver made sure that they had to make their own way home.”

Craig’s countryman Muscat had been a free transfer signing from Wolverhampton Wanderers that summer back in 2002.

The rock-hard Aussie could operate in defence or midfield, wherever he played positionally though it was always on the very edge.

Muscat was a polarising figure as a player, he racked up 123 yellow cards and 12 reds in 19 years as a pro yet many who coached and played alongside him treasured his infamous steely desire.

In that Treble season in 2003 he came on as a sub in the edgy 1-0 Scottish Cup Final triumph over Dundee that sealed it and he made 29 appearances overall in the campaign.

Yet in the five Old Firm clashes that season, three won and two lost, McLeish never gave the fiery Socceroos star a single minute.

Rumours abounded that big Eck felt he couldn’t trust the Aussie firebrand’s temperament in that often explosive environment.

Yet as a coach Muscat has flourished, ironically succeeding Celtic supremo Ange Postecoglou as boss at both Melbourne Victory in their homeland and now as a J-League winner in Japan with Yokohama Marinos.

Kevin’s visit back to Scotland to see close pal Moore last year sparked rising speculation that he was in line to be Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s successor as Rangers manager.

It didn’t happen this time with Michael Beale getting the nod but Oz has no doubt Muscat is destined for greatness in the technical area.

He smiled: “Looking back, to be able to do all that in 2003 with Kevin Muscat who was my best mate I’d grown up with in the Aussie national team? Magic.

Craig Moore reckons Kevin Muscat is destined for big things (Image: Getty)

“We were on the other side of the world and we won a Treble together, it was so much fun.

“Kevin has gone on to become a top coach, he has won everything in Australia with Melbourne Victory and is now a title winner in Japan with Yokohama Marinos too.

“There are bigger and better things to come for him as a coach, he will go the very top.”

Moore and Muscat went through it all with Australia in their respective international careers and in 2006 one of the reasons my sports editor at The Scottish Sun granted my unforgettable trip to the World Cup Finals in Germany was Craig’s presence.

Scotland, as ever, hadn’t qualified but I had the privilege of following the Aussie adventure under Dutch boss Guus Hiddink.

It was one that could have gone even further than the last 16 where it was to end in tears.

Craig recalled: “That Germany 2006 squad was a superb one because we had a tough group in Japan, Brazil and Croatia.

“We got off to a good start as Tim Cahill exploded onto the scene and scored a couple in the opener as we beat Japan 3-1.

“We lost 2-0 to Brazil and had a great chance to get a point there when Dida dropped the ball and Harry Kewell should have scored. They clinched it late on.

“Then we had Croatia and needed something and to be honest I wasn’t having a great game.

“We got a penalty and I was on them because Mark Viduka had missed one before the Finals.

“I grabbed the ball, I wasn’t shirking it, I made good contact and the keeper went the wrong way.

“We actually should have won that game 3-2 after Harry equalised. Graham Poll had a disaster when John Aloisi scored late on and he disallowed it.”

The Aussie show rolled on, though, to Kaiserslautern and the Fritz Walter Stadion and Italy in the round of 16.

No one gave the Socceroos a chance but then Marco Materazzi was sent off and all of a sudden a wave of belief surged through the fans clad in gold and green.

That game remains a stinging regret for Craig and he sighed: “We got Italy and my old team-mate Rino Gattuso and then they had Materazzi sent off.

“The hard truth is we didn’t do enough when they went down to 10 men.

“They were comfortable letting us get the ball wide to pitch in crosses for Viduka because they felt they could handle that.

“They got a soft penalty late on and we didn’t even have time to centre the ball.

“Italy went on to win the tournament but it was a great World Cup and a great time to be an Aussie.”

Moore’s pride in representing Australia would cause him problems in the twilight of his Rangers career in 2004 when his second spell at the club ended in acrimony.

Craig chose to play for his country in the Athens Olympics at the start of a Scottish season and was stripped of the Gers captaincy by boss Alex McLeish.

He refuses to apologise for his devotion to his country, though, and he said: “I remember when that Olympic team was being built back in 2003 we dumped England 3-1 at Upton Park and in effect we beat them twice that night.

“Sven Goran Eriksson played two totally different 11s so I feel that should count as two wins against them. I loved that night.

“With our 2006 team we had 21 of the 23 players in top-level leagues around the world.

“So while I admire the 2022 squad and what they achieved in Qatar when they went out in the last 16 against Argentina I still won’t have the argument that they were up with us.

“I played in a golden era for my country.”

Four years after Germany Craig was a grizzled 34-year-old veteran with one last hurrah left in him at his second World Cup Finals.

Life after Rangers had seen him play for Dick Advocaat again as he racked up 13 Bundesliga games at Borussia Monchengladbach.

That was followed by an injury-wrecked two years at Newcastle United before he returned home Down Under to Brisbane Roar.

Then, desperate to play meaningful football in a World Cup year, Oz had a short spell with Kavala in the Greek Super League before stepping onto the biggest football stage of all for the second time.

He recalled: “In 2010 in South Africa we got off to a shocker against Germany and we were already two down when Tim Cahill got sent off.

Moore playing at the 2010 World Cup Finals (Image: Getty)

“I looked up at the clock when the fourth went in and there was still 20 minutes left and I thought: ‘This could get a bit naughty.’

“I remember looking at my left-back Scott Chipperfield who was bombing on despite the fact we were down to 10 men.

“I said to him: ‘Get back for fuck sake.’ He said: ‘Oz, we might get one and make it 4-1.’

“I just looked at him and said: ‘Yeah, and we might concede another four and lose 8-0 in the World Cup, Chippers. Get fucking back.’

“It was a horrible start and we ended going out on goal difference. That first game was the only time I played for Australia when it felt like individuals and not a team.

“Our DNA though is to get together and work as a team, we drew with Ghana and then we beat Serbia and we almost made it through.”

It was during those days at Brisbane Roar when the bombshell news broke that Moore had been diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Craig is now a huge advocate for male self-awareness to combat the disease yet he was back playing 10 DAYS after he went under the surgeon’s knife.

He stressed: “I was diagnosed with testicular cancer which was a huge shock but I caught it quick and went immediately to the doctor.

“I got the ultrasound, then I had the surgery and it’s true that I played 10 days later!

“My blood markers never went through the roof, I had no pain and I had no chemo or radiotherapy.

“If I am honest, I felt like I cheated the whole thing and I was very lucky.

“My brother went on to have the same illness and he had to have three bouts of chemotherapy and it was horrible.

“I was blessed. I was at Brisbane Roar where I was playing at the time and I was standing with my coach Frank Farina.

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“It was just after the op and a ball flew over and I just volleyed it back.

“They’d gone in where I’d had hernia operations before and the scar was healing nicely. There was no pain.

“I looked at Frank and he sees me. He knows the looks says: ‘I’m good, I’m fucking playing.’

“He just put his arms up and said it would be my decision. I played.

“The message for that, though, is to have a feel down there and keep checking on lumps.

“It might have saved my life, I still speak with John Hartson who let it go for years and he almost paid the ultimate price.”

As a journalist when players you have been close to hang up their boots you wonder in quiet moments what they will do next.

I always felt Craig could be a coach if he wanted to, yet I also pondered the intelligence and inner drive he carries, his fascination for the inside workings of the game.

Oz revealed: “When I finished at first, I invested in a soccer academy that was aimed at the 98% and not the 2% elite.

“I was trying to generate interest and help grow the game back home but I got doors shut in my face left, right and centre.

“I did my C licence and my B licence on the Australian coaching pathway and I was good at it but I felt like I was at school passing exams.

“The process didn’t sit right and it didn’t excite me. Maybe if I had done my courses somewhere else then it would have been different.

“I did work in the national team system looking at the overseas players then I was working on talent ID and I worked in Ange Postecoglou’s staff for the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 Asian Cup that we won on home soil.”

Moore and Postecoglou (Image: Getty)

Still, though, it was nagging at Moore that this was not his true calling after playing.

These days he has found it as an emerging agent guiding the fortunes of the likes of Aussie stars Kye Rowles at Hearts and St Mirren midfielder Keanu Baccus.

He reasoned: “I got the chance with my old international team-mate John Aloisi to be the Football Director at Brisbane Roar and I loved it, the business of football has always interested me.

“This is my area and I relished it for two years at Roar but the club wasn’t moving in the right direction and I resigned.

“Nothing else came up in Oz and then COVID hit and I got down to the last two to be Sporting Director at Hearts by all accounts. Joe Savage got that job but I had those two interviews.

"I was back in Scotland and I thought I could be an agent. So that’s my pathway now, I watch my mates who are coaches and they live that job 24/7 and never switch off.

“I am building the agency and I am loving it, I enjoy the chase. I’m starting at the bottom of the ladder just as I did as a player but I’ll get there. I know I will.”