Off and running

The Pre-Season has officially started and with that, we will be involved in many warm-up matches leading into the start of the NSW NPL season, which is set to begin in late March.

First cab off the rank was Parramatta FC, a name I just cannot bring myself to call them, they’ll always be Melita to me and I suspect to many of you. The match was supposed to take place at Melita Stadium, but due to the weather they moved it to FNSW Headquarters, Valentine Park in Glenwood, quite the trek.

Anyway, onto the match itself. In the 1^st half we started off brightly, dominating possession and having the better of the chances, we were looking pretty good and we were rewarded with a nice goal from new recruit, Mark Cindric. In reality due to our fine play, we probably should have been further in front and gone to half-time with a bigger lead.

The coaching staff rang the changes during the 2^nd half, with a few younger players getting a run. A combination of that and Melita lifting a gear saw the match turn into a real arm-wrestle. As it happened, Melita managed to grab 2 goals to take the lead, and despite our best efforts that’s the way the score-line stayed.

All in all, a few players were tried in different positions, plus we had some important players who didn’t play, Chris Triantis, Howard Fondyke and Niko Tsattalios to name a few. Some would say, “it’s only preseason” or conversely, “things are not looking good for the season”. I probably have a foot in each camp, acknowledging that it’s only preseason, but also the boys could do with a win for their confidence.

Due to the much publicised slashing of the 1^st Grade budget, much has been made of our “youth policy” for this season. I personally can’t see why a 19-20 year old shouldn’t be able to compete in and even dominate this NSW NPL Competition, they should be dominating at this level.

Obviously times have changed, but there was a time when we had 15 year-olds like Peter Raskopoulos, Chris Kalantzis and Nick Carle debuting for Sydney Olympic and playing 1^st Grade at the top level in this country, we also had many others throughout the years who have made their debut for the club at 16, 17, 18 years of age.

These days guys who are 19-20 years old are seen as “young boys” - “youth players”. Surely if you are 19-20 and struggling to make it at State League Level, you just aren’t going to make it to the next level. Is it too much coddling? Is it lack of desire? Is it the fact that there are limited opportunities to progress further in this country at least?

I guess my point is, yes we might have many younger players in the squad for this season, but there is no reason why they can’t contribute greatly and help the club have a good year.

Our next preseason match is this Friday Night at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah, against old rivals, South Melbourne. Kickoff is 7:30pm.

Till next time