Warriors make move

North Geelong continues solid run with 2-0 victory over Brunswick City

NORTH Geelong is through a tough away stretch to start the season undefeated after toppling Brunswick City 2-0 in tough conditions on Saturday.

The Warriors now sit second on the NPL2 ladder after Round 3 with two wins and a draw and will go into their first home match at Elcho Park full of confidence.

In a fiery affair, the Warri- ors battled the heat, wind and physicality shown by City to convert two out of three penalties awarded to them in the match.

City came out aggressive early, both with and without the ball, which was no surprise to Warriors coach Luciano Trani.

“Brunswick City had a lot to play for, they just lost 4-1 and they were always going to come out and try to turn things around,” Trani said.

“We had to manage some of their movement at the back, they had a player that tended to drift into a hole giving them an outlet to build plays a bit too easy.

“We made that adjustment where we had our player move forward into the hole giving more cover to the centre back.”

After absorbing City’s pressure thanks to a compact defence and a number of brilliant saves by keeper Hamish Flavell, the Warriors found their attacking groove towards the end of the first half, led by midfielder Ryan Opperman, and forced two penalties.

Domenic Marafioti converted the first, won by Darius Madison, but the second penalty, awarded on the brink of half-time, was struck wide, with Madison taking the kicking duties.

The Warriors weren’t left ruing the missed golden opportunity however, with Madi- son drawing a third penalty late in the second half, leaving skipper Michael Anderson to score, sealing the victory and the coveted three away points.

Trani praised his entire side’s ability to manage the heat and said they’ll continue to adjust to whatever situation the match throws up.

“We just need to keep developing our own overall game and understand that we want a winning mentality,” he said.

“We have to understand it’s going to be done in different forms and we have to adjust and be able to deal with different game styles and that might just give us that point of difference.”

The Warriors now turn their attention to their highly anticipated first home game at Elcho Park with Trani urging the Geelong community to watch the Warriors first hand.

“We are in a very good position on the league table and all we want is the fans to come out and support the boys,” Trani said.