Winning ways wanted
Warriors’ tactics in attack now reaping rewards
THE North Geelong Warriors are desperate to translate their winning FFA Cup form into the NPL2 season when they take on bottom-placed Sunshine George Cross today.
A win made all the difference for the Warriors on the training track this week, with coach Luciano Trani noticing a renewed spirit among his players hoping they can maintain their momentum and stay in touch with other promotion contenders in the league.
The Warriors’ finishing has been their biggest problem to date, but with goals to Darius Madison and Julian Cassano during last weekend’s comefrom-behind victory against Langwarrin, Trani said his side was starting to see the value in the offensive tactics they are employing.
“We started to make more determined runs,” Trani said.
“Now it’s about persisting so that we are rewarded for movements that are continu- ing ... as well as maintaining levels of concentration right throughout. The challenge is if we want to achieve something this year, we really need to improve in those areas.”
The well-documented fourday-a-week training loads that the Warriors partake in — modelled on Trani’s experiences with a number of A-League clubs — has helped his players focus on specific areas of improvement as well as the team structure as whole.
Even with limited time and resources compared to pro- fessional clubs, Trani said the extra sessions allowed the club to manage the conditioning of the entire squad.
“Monday and Tuesday trainings is where we can specifically target those players that require a top-up of extra work,” he said.
“Whether it is an attacking player and we have a two-ontwo high-intensity shooting practice, so you’ve got that defending element and that attacking element.”
The Warriors’ opponent — Sunshine George Cross — has endured a disastrous start to the NPL2 season, conceding 27 goals in six matches. But it notched up its first victory with a 3-0 win over Mill Park in their recent FFA Cup clash.
Today will be Sunshine’s first match under new coach Joe Kovacevic, with Trani hesitant about undermining their form line.
“Sometimes the league table can be very deceiving. A change of coach always gets a reaction and from our point of view hopefully it’s not this week,” Trani said.