Continuity a sign of maturity and progress
NPL NSW Men’s top tier commentator Tony Tannous runs his analytical eye across the Men’s 1 scene ahead of season and sees plenty to get excited about
So, after the quality of last season what to expect ahead of the 2020 NSW NPL season?
Well, one of the endearing features as we survey the squads ahead of the season is the continuity.
Apart from Sydney Olympic, Rockdale Illinden and Sutherland Sharks, who all have new coaches looking to make a mark, and Sydney FC, who have an annual transition of players through their academy structure, then most of squads are settled.
That’s because of the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and after an incredibly strong and successful season 2019, where all team’s demonstrated their ability to adjust on the run and finished the season very strong, not many felt the need for a great tinker.
I wrote about this at the end of last season
So it makes absolute sense that clubs and teams would, in the main, continue down the path they demonstrated at the end of last season.
Yes, there is of course the need for a slight tinker here or there, with the odd player leaving, but these are not the wholesale and sweeping changes we often see across the board, and this is good thing.
Continuity reigns. Take the Premiers, Wollongong Wolves, who keep all of their regular stars from last season, and add a sprinkling of fresh talent, including two players in Marcus Beattie and Ethan Kambisios, who, late last year, went with Luke Wilkshire to China as part of the University of Wollongong team that went all the way to the final of the World University Games.
The challenge for the Wolves, as we saw towards the end of last season, is that it may be harder to catch the others by surprise, but make no mistake that Wilkshire will have prepared his men physically and tactical for the challenge, and is ready to perhaps again unearth a couple of gems.
The champions, APIA, have had a change of logo and name but been able to keep the core of their squad, apart from Sam McIlhatton who has departed for the USA. And John Calleja has been able to add more depth through the likes of Jeremy Cox from Sutherland and midfielder Mitchell Gibbs, who has impressed in NPL2 for Rydalmere Lions the past few seasons.
It’s the same story with last year’s losing grand finalist, Sydney Utd, who had an incredible run in to the decider and decided to keep the same base of players that did the job, but for the loss of Tomislav Uskok to the A-League and Peter Simonoski to the Sharks, who have been replaced by Devante Clut and Adrian Vranic.
The biggest change has officially come in the dugout, where Zeljko Kalac, more known as a goalkeeper coach in the past, has taken on the main gig at Edensor Park. His arrival last year in the technical area appeared to coincide with the turn-around in fortunes and that has continued into the new season.
United 58’s pre-season has been ultra impressive. Shaped by the strength and conditioning work of Anthony Crea, this is a supremely fit looking squad which has been playing a high-press, high tempo brand, and come into the season with lots of confidence, ready to make a statement or two.
The arrival of the Macarthur Bulls perhaps dangles the carrot for some of their players and there has already been much talk about Liam Rose potentially being a target. He and Tariq Maia were outstanding for United last season and are two of the stars to watch this season.
Kalac has them all working the house down, and perhaps they, like Wollongong last season, will set an early pace.
Marconi, who recruited so heavily at the start of last season and perhaps took half a season to gel, had a terrific second half of the campaign, and Peter Tsekenis has also seen no cause to rotate the squad, adding a couple of extras including noted South Australian striker Anthony Costa.
Tsekenis will be hoping that some of the youngsters that stepped up last season, like Liam Youlley and Marty Fernandez, can continue their progress, while the form of Connor Evans after recovering from injuries showed how much he was missed in the early stages of 2019.
While they lost a core of their side to the Stallions last season, Blacktown City have been a little more stable this time around, although the loss of Joey Gibbs to Iceland, after the deadline day, has left a hole of experience and goals, which the ever resourceful Mark Crittenden will look to fill, for now, through the return of Charles Mendy, the addition of livewire Hassan Jalloh and the promotion of Suleyman Bangura.
The core from last season remains though, the likes of Tristan Prendergast, Grant Lynch, Yianni Spyrakis, Matt Lewis, Lachlan Campbell, Dakota Askew, Adam Berry, Daniel Collins and Leroy Jennings, so you’d be a fool to write off City.
The core very much remain also at Manly United and Mount Druitt Town Rangers, two teams that progressed into the national Round of 32 in the FFA Cup.
The Rangers, in fact, have added Mateo Poljak to a steely looking midfield that also includes powerhouse Solomon Monahan-Vaiika, one who caught the eye last season, while Travis Oughtred adds experience in the centre of defence after his move from Manly.
Aidan Desmond’s challenge, of course, will be how to replace the creative Uruguayan Fabrizio Fernandez, and he will need Mirjan Pavlovic, John Roberts and Toufic Alameddine firing, while Futsalroos great and NPL 2 NSW Men’s Golden Boot last season, Daniel Fogarty, is a live-wire who will explode into the league.
Even the new boys, North Shore Mariners, have maintained the nucleus of the side that has seen them climb through the ranks, including Mitchell Smith, Marquin Smith and Braden Cheng up front, Sean Eve in midfield, Chris Lindsay and Daniel Saric on the flanks and Rainer Smahel, Brian Jamba and Jesse Piriz at the back.
Apart from the addition of the experienced string-puller Pani Nikas and one of two others, familiarity and status quo will be the Mariners’ recipe for survival in the top flight and given the success Joe Haywood has had in over a decade at the Mariners, one would be foolish to discount them.
Only the above mentioned Olympic, Sharks and Illinden have felt the need to shake the tree, particularly in the front third, and how quickly Terry Palapanis, Nick Dimovski and Steven Zoric can get their troops gelling in such a sprint season will prove telling to the aspirations.
Olympic, in particularly, are a big club with big expectation, and Palapanis, who has impressed and had success everywhere he’s been, certainly has been active in the off-season, and in Charles Lokolingoy, Raul Beneit, Adam Parkhouse, Fabio Ferriera and youngster James Cakovski, has plenty of fire up front.
How quickly Palapanis can mould the new batch with the existing players that had success in 2018 but struggled to repeat it last season will be telling, and the loss of Alex Sanchez is one they will have to overcome.
Dimovski and Zoric are Under 20 coaches stepping up to the top job. Dimovski did his business early, bringing Peter Simonovski, Blake Powell, Mason Versi and Jonathan Grozdanovski into his front third, while Zoric has been a little more active of late, but both bring new energy to their clubs and we await to see if they can make their mark at this level, just as Sydney’s Jim van Weeren did last season bringing through such exciting talent as Joel King, Marco Tilio and Ryan Teague.
The NPL NSW Men’s top tier is a league known for its competitiveness and the spread of quality across its 12 teams, and 2020 looks to be taking it to the next level, offering the added excitement of potential unearthing more players and coaches who will look to step into the professional ranks.
Every season teams get smarter and more professional, and the recruitment and retention gets sharper, and the continuity shown ahead of this season sends more positive messages.
