Ange Postecoglou, Sergio Aguero, Brendan Rodgers, Yaya Toure.
The roll-call of players and coaches Luke Brattan has encountered on his 17-year journey in professional football is, for someone who spent almost his entire career in the A-League, quite astonishing.
He’s never been the flashiest player but the 36-year-old has quietly built one of the most impressive CVs in Australian domestic football, one that sees him sitting equal-second for the number of championships won (four), and in the top 10 for all-time A-League appearances (327).
Looking through Brattan’s career is like attending a Taylor Swift concert (only with slightly less screaming teens), such are the distinct eras that have defined his time as a footballer.
From his early period as a young buck at Postecoglou’s legendary ‘Roarcelona’ side in Brisbane, to his later years as a grizzled veteran at Sydney FC and Macarthur, Brattan has had about as many eras as Swift has had albums – and about the same number of hairstyles.
Thanks to our mates at Mosh, we caught up with Brattan to talk through the key phases of his career – and the hair-dos that defined them.
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A ROOKIE UNDER A FUTURE LEGEND (The surfie)
Brattan was born in the UK, where his dad was a professional footballer with Hull City, but the family moved to Australia when he was a kid and settled in Queensland.
He was part of the youth setup at Queensland Roar, but after being offered his first pro contract in 2009, there were two significant changes at the club. They got a new name and a new coach, with the former Socceroos boss that initially recruited Brattan replaced by a future national team coach, who would go on to become a global icon.
“I was in the youth team and then (former Socceroos player and coach) Frank Farina offered me a contract,” Brattan explains. “Before I signed it, he got the sack!
“Then Ange (Postecoglou) came in and said to me, ‘you can train with us for two weeks and then I’ll make up my mind’.”
The teenage Brattan must have done something to impress Postecoglou, because he was allowed to stick around for six years – and the impact of those early days under the future Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Celtic boss is clearly still being felt.
“It was incredible… I was obviously a young boy and he was one of my first coaches,” Brattan says. “Everything about him is special. It was eye-opening, to see the detail of football that he wanted to play – it was a great experience.”
The changes in personnel and methods implemented by Postecoglou didn’t yield results straight away – Brisbane finished second-last in his and Brattan’s maiden season – but the next two years brought unprecedented success for both, as the Roar became the first club to win back-to-back A-League titles, with the team’s brilliant style of play seeing them dubbed ‘Roarcelona’.
Luke Brattan (R) in action for Brisbane Roar in 2010. Photo: Getty Images.
Hair review: “Looking back, I’m like, ‘what am I thinking’? But you know, when trends are in, they’re in. I used to go to the beach every day and surf, so I had the long hair with the fringe. I dressed pretty poorly as well.”
THE CLUB STALWART (The corn rows)
In time, Brattan would become a key cog in the centre of the park for Brisbane, allowing flamboyant attacking talents such as Thomas Broich, Besart Berisha and Henrique to flourish further up the park.
The departure of Postecoglou in 2012, and Berisha a couple of years later, created a leadership vacuum at Brisbane and Brattan stepped up to fill the void during the second half of his stint at the club.
By the time he left in 2015 he was already playing like a seasoned veteran, despite being just 25 years old. But before he departed for greener pastures, he had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – or so he thought – to come up against some giants of the Premier League, with Liverpool playing a pre-season friendly in Brisbane.
“We had a very good team and they brought some big players out as well (the likes of Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Divock Origi started for Liverpool). It was a good crowd. All the Liverpool fans sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’; I actually remember before the game hearing it and getting goosebumps.That was a special night.”
Little did he know, he would be crossing paths with even more Premier League superstars soon.
Hair review: “I’d been wearing a headband and it was annoying me a lot. And I just thought, what can I do to get my hair out of my face? I had a couple of mates that told me to do it (get corn rows). I knew I was going to cop stick for it – that’s normal – but I ended up doing it for the Liverpool game, which was probably the wrong game to choose. I copped a lot of stick for that.
“Brendan Rogers said something after the game. I remember someone coming up to me and telling me that he said something positive about my game, and then had a bit of a laugh about my hair as well.”
LIVING THE DREAM AT MANCHESTER CITY (The bleach blonde)
“They’ve done what!?”
That was the standard reaction of most football fans in Australia when they heard the news that Brattan had been signed by Manchester City in 2015.
This was still the early days of the City Football Group setup that has seen the Manchester club regularly sign players that they probably have no intention of ever playing, instead sending them out on loan, often to other clubs within their ecosystem.
This is eventually what happened to Brattan, but the way he came to the English giants’ attention was via a remarkable coincidence.
“It was a pretty crazy story actually,” Brattan says. “I was playing against Melbourne City and was having a good game and a guy called Brian Marwood was there – he’s very high up in the City Football Group. Anyway, they made the connection that Brian played with my dad back in England, and that’s how that connection was formed, and then City reached out.”
Even though he was eventually loaned out to Bolton Wanderers – “it wasn’t great” is how Brattan describes his time at the club, which was battling relegation from the Championship at the time – the Aussie had several opportunities to train with City’s star-studded first team while he waited to find a longer-term home.
“I trained with the first team a handful of times and you’re surrounded by players like Yaya Toure, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri … there were some big names in the City team back then, the standard was incredible,” Brattan says.
“That’s obviously an experience I’ll never forget.”
Hair review: “The bleach, I don’t mind it. It’s pretty common now in footballers. At the end of the day, we’re human as well. Off the pitch, we have a life and have some fun. Obviously we get judged by what we do and look like on the pitch, but I won’t stop doing that. I never will.”
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RETURN TO THE A-LEAGUE (The world’s greatest shave)
This was an era in which Brattan’s hairstyles actually crossed over into his professional life in a far greater way than he could have imagined.
After returning to the A-League in 2016 via a loan move from Manchester City to their sister club in Melbourne, a friend of the family lost a battle with cancer, prompting Brattan to shave off his then-lengthy locks to raise money for the Leukemia Foundation.
He ended up doing the same thing again a couple of years later after making the move to Sydney FC, only this time it would be to support his sister, who by that stage had also been diagnosed with cancer.
“It was a tough period for my family,” an emotional Brattan says. “The whole year was a blur – I was just on autopilot really, and was pretty numb.”
“I would turn up to games and play, turn up to training and just train, and then mid-week I would fly up to Brisbane and visit my sister.
“I owe a big thank you to Bimbi (Steve Corica) who was the coach at the time, for letting me do that. If I needed a day off, he would say, ‘do it’. I was very lucky to have him and the boys around me – the change room was unbelievable that whole year.
“They helped me a lot off the pitch, but obviously on the pitch as well, they were there for me.”
That bond between the players resulted in a successful year for the club, with Brattan helping Sydney claim their second consecutive championship with a win over his former side Melbourne City in the grand final.
The mix of on-field success and off-field turmoil took its toll on Brattan, but it also left him with memories that will stick with him for a lifetime.
“Looking back, it was probably the hardest year in my career,” Brattan says. “But on the pitch, it was one of the most enjoyable.
“It was a very emotional year and it took its toll physically and mentally on me, but it was one that I’ll never forget. Everyone involved will always have a special place in my heart.”
Luke Brattan after doing the World’s Greatest Shave in Melbourne. Image: Melbourne City
Hair review: I started there (at Sydney) with long hair. And then my sister got diagnosed with leukemia. So I ended up doing World’s Greatest Shave and I think I raised $50,000 over a couple of years there. And then I just got into the habit of shaving my head, bleaching it and then letting it grow back. I did that a couple of times and yeah, I had some funny haircuts there as well.”
THE LATER SYDNEY YEARS (The blue rinse)
Brattan was now moving into grizzled veteran territory after more than a decade as a professional athlete, and his experience was rewarded when he was named Sydney FC captain in 2023.
For a while, he really leaned into the ‘grizzled’ part of that equation by growing a beard to rival that of his then-teammate and so-called Grey Wiggle, Andrew Redmayne.
But it was another new hair-do that really threw the cat among the pigeons, so to speak.
Hair review: “That one probably wasn’t my best but like I said before I’ve got thick skin and I’m not the best looking guy anyway, so to dye my hair blue wasn’t a big issue. That was for Sydney FC’s partnership with Beyond Blue. It was probably my worst haircut, but obviously it was for a great cause.”
NEW BEGINNINGS AT MACARTHUR (The luscious locks)
After four seasons and over 100 games with Sydney – more than he’d played at any club – a 34-year-old Brattan made the move to Macarthur, where he was once again named captain.
He’s taken his role as elder statesman at that club very seriously, knowing the influence he can have over the careers of his young teammates, in much the same way that the likes of Matt Smith, Matt McKay and Michael Theoklitos did for him in those early years at the Roar.
“In the younger group here there’s some incredible players, very talented players,” Brattan says of Macarthur.
“This year I’ve tried to take it upon myself to help them grow and try be a mentor. Not just on the pitch but off the pitch, I’ve tried to build a relationship with those younger boys.
“There are some very talented footballers that just need a bit of guidance, and I think that they’ll go on to have fantastic careers. The future for Macarthur is very bright.”
Hair review: “It’s been pretty low key here actually. I did go cornrows last year when I had longer hair, but no one really saw it. But yeah, it’s been sort of chilled. This one at the moment, it’s my partner’s favorite, so I think it’s going to stick around for a while.”
LUKE BRATTAN, THE COACH? (Hair TBC)
At age 36, Brattan is now one of the oldest players in the league, but he’s not yet entertaining too many thoughts of retirement.
He seems set to go around again with Macarthur next year, and will be hoping to build upon their promising start to this season, in which they were in the top four for much of the campaign before fading away over the last few months and missing the finals.
The veteran midfielder seems determined to leave a lasting legacy on the field with the Bulls, but he did drop a hint that a career as a coach could be on the horizon.
“I haven’t really sat down and thought about that too deeply (what comes after retirement), I’ve been too focused on playing,” Brattan says.
“I’ve got a lot of knowledge and experience that I want to share and want to pass on, so I’d like to coach. I’ve done my badges for coaching. So I think that’s a pathway I could potentially take. I see myself being a good coach.”
If he ends up being half as good as his first coach in the A-League, then Australian football could have a new managerial maestro on its hands.
We look forward to seeing what hairstyle he chooses when that era arrives.
Mosh is keeping your barber in business.Find out more at getmosh.com.au