Football Season Guide

Had a shocking Victoria NPL campaign, finishing an embarrassing 9th(!) in the table. Considering they're one of the biggest clubs playing at NPL level, it was extremely disappointing. They didn't score enough goals, became mentally weak, and ultimately ended up conceding a lot of goals too. In light of the above, they made massive squad changes pre-season. Integrating them all will be a challenge but if they get it right then they should be able to compete to win the Australian Championship, even if it does sound like a stretch with such little time together. In has come a number of players from the smouldering wreckage of Western United - all of them have A-League experience. Pasquali is a magnificent signing; he's only in the NPL now because he struggles with injuries - he's far too good for this level. They've also brought in one of Avondale FC's main attackers, Aguek, and former Melbourne Victory midfielder Menelaou. Again, it's difficult to say whether all these new signings can be fully integrated ahead of the Australian Championship. There's no denying that this is going to be a very different team to the one that struggled in the Victoria NPL though, and they could subsequently be regarded as dark horses. Sinisha Cohadzic is still the manager; he took over back in July as they made a swift managerial change to try and stop the rot. He's got to improve their goal-scoring; they ended their last campaign with their top goal-scorer being Mikkola, who bagged just five goals in the entire competition. They need more than just Aguek, and they're hoping that Lavale is it - which he could be. It's difficult to say with any real conviction what will happen with this massive club in the Australian Championship. There is an argument to back or oppose them as they're something of a wildcard right now. A club of their standing will always have a chance of winning silverware though, assuming they start the competition convincingly - and they could as they're not in the toughest of groups.