Kye Rowles opens up on Hearts life, institute of sport background and why he couldn't shake Martin Boyle's hand after Hibs match

If there is a repeat of the melee that punctuated the end of the last Hearts-Hibs clash at Tynecastle, it’s unlikely that Kye Rowles will be the man who kicks it off, verbally or physically.

Kye Rowles will be in the centre of Hearts' defence for the visit of Hibs this weekend.

“I’m not really fussed about all that to be honest with you,” says the 25-year-old Australian Hearts defender as the Gorgie side prepare to welcome their capital neighbours across the city for the first Edinburgh Derby of the season on Saturday. “I just think that football players, unless there’s a really, really bad tackle, something really slack, or unsportsmanlike, then it’s all just words. When players try to fight, I just think: ‘Mate what are you doing? We’re football players not boxers!’ It’s all just fake to me so I just try to not get involved in anything silly. I see no point in it.

"Some of the sledging is quite funny, though. If you give a bit and take a bit, it’s fun and games. The Aussies get a bad rap for sledging though because of our cricketers who are pretty good at it but it’s just sport.”

But no-one should mistake Rowles’ reticence to become embroiled in a needless ruck for meekness. Nor should they assume that the importance of a derby win is lost on him. This is the guy who got his first taste of the fixture just two games into his first season at the club and having conceded a last-minute equaliser, the fact that it was his Australian international team-mate Martin Boyle who netted it did nothing to quash his annoyance.

Rowles takes the acclaim of the Hearts fans following last Saturday's 1-0 win away at Ross County.

“I didn't even shake his hand after the match to be honest,” says Rowles. “I was pretty angry when that one went in. It’s football and we know those kinds of things can happen but I didn't like it. We have a good bit of banter [on Socceroos duty] and it is good fun. I just hope he doesn't do it again on Saturday. Certain games have different effects. I always try to bounce back as quickly as possible but sometimes you can’t help it. If we concede a bad goal and it’s avoidable but it turns out to be a winner or a last-minute equaliser, that’s when you kick yourself. But if you dwell on it too long, it can leak into the next game and now I don’t really let that happen. But derbies sting a bit longer than others because you always want to get one up on your neighbours.”

This weekend’s meeting will be Rowles’ sixth experience of a fixture that had him hooked from the outset. In the previous encounters there have been two Hearts wins – 3-0 home and away – only one defeat, at Easter Road, plus two draws. That first one was a body blow but the most recent, in their final game of last season, was more satisfying as it came despite Hearts being down to ten men for over an hour after Alex Cochrane was red carded and ensured the Tynecastle side finished above Hibs in the league table.

“If you can’t get up for those ones then there is something wrong,” says the player who says the biggest difference between football in his homeland and in Scotland is the unrelenting pressure to win every game. “That’s not to say that the games I played in at home weren’t important because I did play in some big games there as well, like cup finals and things like that, but there's no real consequences for doing bad. You don't want to be bad and no one takes their foot off the gas but over here, if you are going bad, you get punished for it.”

There is no relegation from the A-League, though. “Until that happens I don't think it will have that same feeling,” he admits. “It’s also different in regard to just how important it is and what it means to people over here. Not just the players and the people who work at the clubs, but the fans, the people watching it, the intensity, everything, that is a higher level.”

Rowles and Hibs' Elie Youan during a derby last season at Easter Road.

No game is bestowed with greater eminence than a derby. “I want to win every game but derbies are that extra bit special,” says Rowles. “You put that extra two per cent into a challenge and maybe you risk giving a foul away because you want to leave something in there so you can get the fans going. That’s what they love, especially in the derby, they want to see us getting stuck in and working hard and playing the ball forward and being on the front foot. For me, I love playing in those big games because it is the best test of what you’ve got and where your levels are at, and, to be honest, I have fun in the big games.”

Describing his first capital clash as “eye-opening”, treasured memories from the ones that followed make Rowles smile. “Sometimes it’s just chaos. Especially the [Scottish] cup game we won there last year. It was absolute carnage, the loudest away section I have ever heard and seeing limbs going everywhere was pretty special, especially after Toby [Sibbick] scored because we were all running up the field behind him and to watch that end just erupt was pretty special.”

With great expectations come niggling nerves. Described by youth coaches as a bit of a perfectionist growing up, he was also considered ‘cranky’ if his performances dipped below his own standards or if results did not go his way but his mindset and emotions are things he has learned to harness over the years. “But I still get nervous before every game because I want to win and there is that pressure there that we have to win. It is good to have nerves but at the same time it is about working out how to deal with them. Before the derby, there will definitely be nerves but if you don't have nerves before one like that then you don’t really love the game, I think. Nerves show that you understand how important it is and that you care but everyone is different.”

A sporty kid, who made the most of the weather and coastline growing up in Kiama, New South Wales, he revealed in a recent club social media post that if he hadn’t made it as a footballer he would probably be a lifeguard. ”The culture is built around the water,” he explains. “We’re definitely beach boys. There are so many sports to choose from back home but I didn't have to make a decision until I was probably 13 or 14. I was very into surf lifesaving but I just threw that out and focused on football from then on.”

Rowles came up against Leo Messi and Co during last year's World Cup.

Unsure there are enough layers of wetsuit to tempt him into Scottish waters, he reveals that Thurso-born Gary Mackay Steven spent last term tempting him with tales of the town’s surf scene. For now, there is enough on land to enthral him. “Of course, I miss my family and the beach but I love it over here. It is just so different from anything back home. I am still in awe of all the buildings and the churches etc. I think it is so amazing. There is so much more history and it’s interesting to learn new things.”

In recent weeks, Rowles has been serving as tour guide for his parents Simone and Paul, and although they have hopped across to Paris for a few days, they will be back, with his two brothers, for the head-to-head with Hibs. Like so many kids, it was his dad and older brother Jake who lured him into football. Younger brother Zane followed on but it was the 2005/06 Socceroos team who made it impossible to walk away. His father was one of his first youth coaches and although Jake opted to focus on surfing, by the time Rowles reached his own crossroads, the direction was already set. “It was the 2005 World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay,” confesses the man who has since followed in their footsteps. “They won and that was the first time in 32 years that Australia went to a World Cup so they were all household names and special to me. I just wanted to be like every one of them and that’s where my love of football really started.”

As a diminutive goalscoring midfielder, he stepped back into defence as he got older and picked up representative honours before being offered a spot at the renowned Lake Ginninderra school, which was linked to Australian Institute of Sport, where the alumni is a who’s who of Aussie sporting talent.

Maybe it is because Rowles is often bundled in with his friend, countryman and effervescent chatterbox Cammy Devlin, but since arriving in Scotland he has always come across as more reserved. But one to one, that is not the case. He is open and convivial, expansive and instead of trite, superficial replies, he engages in conversation, considers his answers and is honest – with himself and others. Level-headed, while he isn’t a bruiser of a centre half or an overtly intimidating character, those who under-estimate him do so at their peril because he is driven and, possessed of a strength that goes beyond a meaty challenge, he left home as a youngster to chase his dream in Canberra, long before he headed halfway around the globe to forge ahead with the latest chapter.

Rowles pictured during his time for Central Coast Mariners.

“We were based in Canberra,” said Rowles. “They picked a squad of under-15s they could train through to 17s to get us prepared for the 17s World Cup and then the 20s and 23s and hopefully build on that. They wanted to have a good core group of boys. It was in partnership with the Institute of Sport and there were loads of other sports there as well.“

Other graduates include Mark Viduka, Craig Moore and Kevin Muscat, who has been linked with the Rangers managerial vacancy, as well as Olympians galore, with campus the equivalent of an athletes village. “When you look at all the faces that were there then and where they have gone on, it is pretty amazing to see how many top level athletes came through, even from the two years I was there. Then think about 20 or 30 years of that and it is pretty crazy.”

The environment fostered improvement and introspection, which is probably why he is so grounded and appears to know who he is as a player but also as a man. “Different sports and different teams do different stuff in terms of team bonding or working things out and it can be eye-opening,” says Rowles. “On the field or the court things are different but hearing their stories and what they have been through and what they need to do to get to where they want to be was helpful.

“Everyone has come from different backgrounds so just to see what different people have gone through is pretty special. It makes you think about your life as well and kind of makes you not take anything for granted. I had an awesome upbringing from my parents. We were super lucky, me and my brothers, and that taught me not to take any of that for granted. This won't be around forever. It definitely won’t be around for long if you become complacent.”

Schooled alongside some future greats, he also shared a dressing room with Usain Bolt, and, at last year’s World Cup, a pitch with the likes of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. But he has never got too big for his boots. Principled enough to join international colleagues in speaking out, eloquently and empathetically, about the plight of migrant workers in Qatar and the country's attitudes towards the LGBTQ community ahead of the World Cup, while unsure of consequences. He also showed integrity and loyalty to Hearts when he famously stated that “you don’t stab people in the back” after returning from the tournament with his reputation enhanced before uninterested in cashing in on a move. Instead, he signed a contract extension, tying him to the capital club until 2028.

At home in the Scottish capital, he is finding his way back to the top of his game. After a bright start, a foot injury curtailed him. He battled back to book his place on the plane to Qatar but, in what he says was a rollercoaster season, he couldn’t consistently recreate that international form back in Gorgie. After a slow start from the whole squad this term, things are looking up. His best performance coincided with his parents’ first Tynecastle game, against Aberdeen last month, and with them watching from the stand on Saturday, he hopes to impress again.

Rowles worked with current Hibs manager Nick Montgomery during his time at Central Coast Mariners.

But family won’t be the only familiar faces from home as new Hibs boss, and Rowles’ former Central Coast Mariners gaffer, Nick Montgomery takes charge for his first capital derby. The men are fans of each other but personal relationships will play second fiddle to club loyalties. It’s just the way it has to be, according to Rowles. “I think we understand how much these games mean,” says the centre-half. “We will keep our distance before the game. Maybe in the tunnel afterwards we will speak but before the game and during it we understand the boundaries.”

Montgomery is credited with helping Rowles develop into a full international and earn his change to move to Europe, and Hearts. Speaking about him in the wake of the World Cup, the Hibs boss said: “He didn’t like making mistakes or letting someone score. To me that’s leadership, demanding the best of everyone, but he was a bit of a perfectionist and football isn’t always a perfect game. The funny thing is that what really made him was going two years when the club hardly won a game. For some players that would send them under but it just built resilience in him. His attitude was always first class.”

There is mutual appreciation. “I thought he was a good coach and I got along with him very well and the latest results show what he is about as a coach,” says Rowles. “It’s attacking football and scoring goals. It will be interesting to see how he goes with them this year. What they’ve got so far is probably what they can expect for the rest of the season. But, hopefully, he doesn't do well against us.”