some press over here in melbourne:
Mariners coach wary before season opener
Grantley Bernard
Herald Sun
August 06, 2009 12:00am
IN his thick Scottish accent, Central Coast coach Lawrie McKinna used Australian humour to describe tonight's clash with Melbourne Victory.
"Easy," McKinna said, knowing it will be anything but at Etihad Stadium.
"It's a hard one, but we have to play them some time and there's nothing better than in the first game. Pre-season has been all right and there's nothing better than a big crowd and a beautiful stadium to open the season."
Certainly, McKinna is not being blase about tonight's game, acknowledging the scale of the task facing the Mariners by nominating Victory, expansion team Gold Coast United and Perth Glory as his title favourites.
"Melbourne has kept a stable squad," McKinna said.
"(Melbourne) were the best team last year and they have consistency over the journey. They're stable on and off the field and (captain Kevin) Muscat going around again is a huge win for them. He is so influential."
That the Mariners are a more than capable outfit seems to have been overlooked by some pundits after their disappointing Asian Champions League campaign.
While the Mariners flopped in Asia, they made the A-League finals for the third time in four seasons, underlining their consistency.
That said, the Mariners squad has undergone significant changes this season as Sash Petrovski, Andre Gumprecht, Greg Owens and Matt Osman have departed Bluetongue Stadium, following Mile Jedinak's mid-season transfer to Turkey.
The Mariners have gone overseas for replacements, bringing Adam Kwasnik back from Wellington Phoenix and signing defender Chris Doig (Northampton Town), midfielder Michael McGlinchey (Glasgow Celtic) and winger Nick Travis (Sheffield United).
That's a decent turnover for the Mariners, who still had 11 original squad members on their books last season and felt it was time for a shake-up.
"We told the boys last season is gone and we have to get over that," McKinna said.
"We've had some good (pre-season) results and we're reasonably happy and if we get a good result on Thursday, last season is well forgotten.
"It would be nice to play beautiful football, but the result is more important for us, as it is for Melbourne."
Melbourne plays down hopes of defending crown
Michael Lynch
The Age
THE bookies might have Melbourne Victory as favourite, and most of its rivals nominate it as the benchmark club, but coach Ernie Merrick and captain Kevin Muscat are loathe to label the side as the team to beat as they gear up for the defence of their A-League championship against Central Coast Mariners at Etihad Stadium tonight.
Given the regard it is held in by the bookmaking fraternity and the rest of the competition, it might sound strange to hear Merrick suggesting that his club has flown under the radar. In the sense that everyone fears it and knows what it is capable of, it hasnt.
But Melbourne certainly has not played as many high-profile games as the bulk of its rivals, contenting itself with a long, slow and steady preparation involving little-publicised or behind-closed-doors games against state league clubs. Draws with A-League clubs Wellington and Adelaide United were both played a long way from home, in New Zealand and Launceston, restricting prying eyes.
When the team runs out tonight there will be few surprises, perhaps save for the omission of Billy Celeski and the likely presence of Grant Brebner and Leigh Broxham in the starting line-up.
Merrick declared a week ago that the diminutive Broxham would play, and the coach confirmed yesterday that Celeski a player he believes is up to World Cup standard was not quite yet at his best following off-season surgery.
Hes probably three weeks away from being at peak fitness but hes 90 per cent, and since Broxham and Brebner and these boys are doing really well in the middle, I dont think he will start, Billy, but hes not far away, he said.
Billy is that good that hes in with a chance down the track for the World Cup squad. I think he and Archie [striker Archie Thompson] are two that could be. Billy I thought was outstanding last year, hes featured in just about every national team and I think hes not too far away from the senior squad. Once he gets fully fit after his clean-out operation on his hip he will be back in our team.
Muscat insists there will be no loss of focus now that a second title has been won.
If you dont improve, teams will catch you up and pass you by. Our focus is to improve and we think weve done that. Weve worked on quite a few things in the off-season and in the pre-season and hopefully that will come to fruition. All that we will maintain, without confusing confidence with arrogance, well go into every game thinking we can win it. Its no different [tonight], we want to get off to a very good start.
The Mariners are desperate to start the new season and get out of the slump the club has been in since the end of last year following the departure of Mile Jedinak, now a regular Socceroo midfielder, to Turkey. The Gosford club has not won a game since Jedinak left, and is anxious to draw a line under its A-League finals fade-out and a disappointing Asian Champions League campaign in which it failed to win a match.
Coach Lawrie McKinna is happy with the new additions he has brought in, Scotsman Chris Doig, once of Premier League Nottingham Forest, Michael McGlinchey, released by Scottish giant Celtic, and Nicky Travis, an attacking midfielder from the Mariners sister club Sheffield United. The first two are expected to start tonight.
Doig gives us a bit of presence at the back, hes a good leader on the field, he complements Wilko [skipper Alex Wilkinson] really well. Young McGlinchey got released from Celtic, hes good on the ball, makes great runs forward, McKinna said.
The memories of the disappointing denouement to last season and the fruitless Asian adventure have been put behind them, the coach says.
Thats all gone now confidence goes out of the window when you lose games. The Champions League, we could have three or four of those games if we had not given away silly goals.
We are not interested in what happened at the tail-end of last season this is new, its this season we are concerned about.
We have had a reasonable pre-season, we are happy where we are at, we are going into the game on Thursday full of confidence.
