The 2020 local Football pre-season will kick off tonight with a big clash between the two biggest movers of the off season in Olympia Warriors and Glenorchy Knights. The pair will unveil significantly overhauled playing groups when they meet in the Summer Cup opening game at KGV, kicking off at 8:30pm.
In an off-season that has seen large levels of player movement, it appears the two traditional rivals are the big winners, announcing a number of transfer coups to bolster their title hopes in 2020 and adding plenty of intrigue to Friday night's opening clash.
Adding further intrigue to the occasion will be the presence of former English Premier League referee Bobby Madley, who is in town for the Statewide Referee conference taking place on Saturday and who will be taking charge of the game in the middle. He said he would approach this game just like any other.
"Every game as a referee is the same. It doesn't matter whether there's 90 people or 90,000 people. A stadium is lovely but if you're thinking about that during the 90 minutes then for me you're in the wrong place. I would prepare for this just like how I would for any other game."
The Warriors kicked off the transfer announcements by securing their new coach Andrew Brown, along with his talented sons, Callum and Declan back in October. It would be a sign of things to come, as the Warriors soon lured the experienced trio of Ben Hamlett, Adam Gorrie and Loic Feral across from South Hobart whilst Brown ensured he would be reunited with a number of key players from his Southern Championship title triumph of 2019 at Hobart United. Joseph Juma, Joseph Mwarabu, Elliot Hoystead and Jackson Khasif have all made the move from Hobart United to Warrior Park and will add significant depth to the squad.
Brown said that despite the high profile nature of some of the signings, there would no special treatment for anyone, and with a squad of 30+ players that competition for places would be fierce.
"We just see them all as players, that’s how we approach talking to everyone.. there are no egos, they’re pretty grounded guys, and pretty fair dinkum.. they will have to fight for their places, I said the same thing to every player."
"The players we’ve got have fitted in beautifully, players are players, they just want to be footballers, and get into a good environment, train well, play good football and if they work hard they’ll get a gig."
Having lost the talented twins to the Warriors early in the off-season window, the Knights ensured they won't be short of options to replace them as they duly added Alex Walter from South and exciting young prospect Sam Leszczynski from White Eagles, to replace them in attack, an area Sherman was keen to bolster for their potential big game impact.
"You can sign someone who bangs in 30 goals a season, but if 15 of those come in games against the bottom two sides, how much are those goals really worth? So we were after someone who would offer us a real threat regardless of opposition but could really cause issues in a high profile match. Not easy to find, but we’re pretty confident we will create more chances this year than we did last year."
They weren't done raiding their NPL rivals there, adding a trio of regular South Hobart defensive starters in Jack Bowman, Connor Schmidt and Oscar Thomas. Throw in former Zebras midfield maestro Jordan Muller and coach James Sherman has significantly augmented his playing group for the new campaign, in particular his defensive unit.
"We had an area where had issues last season, we conceded too many goals, it’s no secret that strikers win you matches but defenders win you leagues."
So it is with great intrigue that the Summer Cup opening game rolls around with tonight offering a first view at how the new look sides are coming together, as the NPL sides return to a pre-season tournament format for the first time in four years.
The Pre-Season action will then continue on Saturday, as South Hobart take on Pascoe Vale in a friendly at Darcy Street at 2:00pm.
South Hobart will likely need to look to their strong depth in youth this year after losing so many of their key senior players to rivals. Their strong academy program means they have the ready made prospects to step in and perform at the top level, but there is no doubt the departures represent a major blow to their 2020 silverware ambitions.
The pre-season action therefore represents the perfect opportunity for coach Ken Morton to see which of his young brigade are capable of making the leap up to the top division this season. A stern test against a strong NPL Victoria opponent will offer just such a chance and a strong level of competition to see how they handle playing in tough games.
Twelve months ago these two sides met in a "Save Hakeem" game, as part of the campaign to save Hakeem Al-Araibi from extradition to Bahrain, and a year later he will line up on the pitch for Pascoe Vale against South. Hakeem's story is a wonderful example of the football community coming together and the game on Saturday will be a celebration of that fact.
Entry is free for both games and with good weather forecast it's a great opportunity for punters to get along to a game and enjoy the return of the local game.
