Melbourne Knights women’s coach Tony Kolceg says he and his squad are looking forward to Sunday’s season opener, when the Club faces Albert Park SC on Sunday.
The ladies side had their season delayed by a week due to their round 1 clash with Keilor Wolves being rescheduled, with Sunday’s away day at Bob Skilton Oval now kick starting the girls’ campaign.
Speaking to melbourneknights.com.au ahead of the fixture, Kolceg said he was happy to have the long pre-season behind him.
“I’m very much looking forward to the start of the season,” Kolceg said.
“It’s been a long pre-season as it usually is, without much fanfare. We’re playing for points now, this is where everything comes to a head. So we’re very much looking forward to playing for points.”
The squad come into Sunday’s clash with Albert Park after a solid pre-season – which included a piece of silverware – with the Club taking out the 2015 Victorian Croatian Cup.
While the coach admitted that the squad still has room for improvement, Kolceg said the cup success prepared the girls well for the season.
“The Vic Cro Cup was a good step for us because it showed us where we were,” Kolceg said.
“I guess coming together with a couple of the new players and some of the girls that have been here for a while, we put it all together and showed that we are on the right track to playing a particular brand of football.
“While I don’t think we have that completely right yet, the Vic Cro Cup was an important step and we’ve been working on it since in playing in games since.
“So again, it all comes down to how we play this weekend [now] against Albert Park.”
The league will have a different feel to it in 2015 with a number of new opponents joining the competition – including a squad from traditional rivals South Melbourne – but Kolceg says he’s confident of success despite coming up against the unknown.
“It’s a different league for us this season.
“We’ve got a couple of new clubs: we’ve got Lara coming on board, we’ve got Bundoora coming on board, South Melbourne’s coming on board – there’s a lot of unknowns, so we don’t know what we’re in for.
“We have to meet them and see what they’re all about. But we’re quietly confident in our own ability to step up to the plate and play the game that we like to play and hopefully it comes across good on the scoreboard.”
Melbourne Knights start their 2015 Zagame’s Women’s State League 2 North-West campaign away to Albert Park on Sunday morning, with kick off at 11am from Bob Skilton Oval – Field 17