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Melbourne Knights scored a comfortable 7-0 win over a combined Glenorchy Knights and NTC squad at KGV Park on Sunday afternoon.
It was 3-0 at the interval. The Melbourne outfit then put on some substitutes and three of them scored in the second half to run out comfortable winners. On the chances, they could easily have doubled their tally.
The Tasmanians, again, were brave and combative, but the lack of understanding between the players, brought about by the limited time for preparation, did not help them.
It was local boy Amadu Koroma who put his new club in front in the 13th minute. He almost also scored later in the half with a cheeky back-heeler that hit the inside of the far post but stayed in play.
Jacob Colosimo made it 2-0 in the 41st minute with a powerful low shot from the edge of the box.
Melbourne Knights captain Ben Surey added the third on the stroke of half-time.
In the 51st minute, it was 4-0 through a finely worked goal. Jean Charles Dubois fed Craig Sweeney in the middle and he played the ball wide and into the path of substitute Ridvan Saglam, who advanced on goal and smashed an unstoppable drive into the roof of the net from an angle on the left.
Three minutes later, the busy and skilful Sweeney added the fifth with a low shot inside the far left-hand post from the edge of the box.
Substitute Josip Magdic made it 6-0 second before the hour mark, while Frenchman Dubois completed the scoring in the 75th minute after a low cross from the right by Jacob Colosimo.
The Melbourne Knights keeper was never tested and the home side rarely got a look at goal.
The shop-floor language of some of the visitors caused raised eyebrows and it was unusual that referee Collins booked only one player, and that was for a foul on Corey Smith.
An early reckless tackle by Tom Sherman led to an unsavoury incident near the Melbourne bench, with a player striking Sherman and another person racing off the bench to physically grab Sherman. Both incidents escaped the attention of the officials.
Alex Holmes, Jacob Huigsloot, Corey Smith and Matthew Nowicki had played against Melbourne the previous day and must have been exhausted by the end of this match.
Hugh Foley, Declan Foley, Jamie De Smit, Cameron Sweeney and Alex Nandan had also played the previous day for the NTC and must have felt the pressure.
Dean May, the coach for the day of the combined Glenorchy Knights/NTC squad, said that, in future, a second match for visiting sides during a tour should be played against a truly representative Tasmanian side that was better prepared and which should give local youngsters a chance to catch the eye of the visiting coach, which could lead to development or career opportunities.
Glenorchy Knights/NTC Squad coach Dean May said:“At the end of the day, the result wasn’t the object. The object of today’s game was to develop Glenorchy Knights and their understanding of the 4-3-3 system. That’s the system they want to play. That’s the system they asked me to come in and give the boys an experience of.
“As you can see, goals, especially in the first half, the goals came from individual errors. The heads then go down and it’s difficult to keep having the confidence to play the system.
“From my point of view, and certainly from the NTC boys, it was great to see them out there getting that experience.
“To me, Melbourne Knights seemed four gears faster than they were yesterday. Yesterday seemed to be a stroll. To see them out there today, they seemed a different team. I thought their pace, their technical ability was the difference between the teams today.
“There was no coaching at all. There was no opportunity to get in and get training. I think, talking to the clubs, we need next year, when these clubs come over, it’s difficult to get boys who have played a full game the day before to play again. This second game, in my view, should be an opportunity to highlight all of Tasmania, not just one team.
“I thought Paul Stevens, as a 14-year-old, did very well. The same with Cam Rodgers, another 14-year-old, who did well. I thought Cam Sweeney coming back into goals did very well, as did Jamie de Smit. I thought everybody did well. The effort was there, but the technical aspect at times let them down, and that’s the difference between the VPL and Hobart.”
Melbourne Knights coach Ivan Duzel said:
“I think we showed good distribution of the ball, playing to feet, overlapping, and we scored seven goals.
“I was very happy with our second game.
“I saw a couple of promising Tasmanian players. There was number 11 [Alex Nandan] and number 12 [Matthew Nowicki], and I’ve already spoken with the big boy at centre-half [Alex Holmes] and I’ve already out his name in my book. Maybe we’ll give him an invitation to come with us for a couple of weeks and we’ll see how he goes over there.
“In the future, we’ll probably look a little more at players over here. There are a lot of good talented kids here.”
Glenorchy Knights/NTC Squad: Sweeney – Rodgers, Holmes, Huigsloot, J Stevens – D Foley, De Smit, H Foley – Sherman, Smith, Nandan (Subs: Nowicki, Hope, Griffin, Mizael Linhares Caires, P Stevens)
Melbourne Knights: M John, R Filipovic, L Shin, B Surey, E Cetkin, S Romein, C Sweeney, A Koroma, A Colosimo, J Colosimo, D Dragicevic (Subs: A Romein, A Zilic, S Alinejad, J Magdic, JC Dubois, J Kozic, R Saglam, J Franjic)
Booked: Surey
Goals: Amadu Koroma 13, Jacob Colosimo 41, Ben Surey 45, Rudi Saglam 51, Craig Sweeney 54, Josip Magdic 59, Jean Charles Dubois 75
Att: 150
Ref: S Collins
Courtesy of former Hobart Croatia player Walter Pless