Youngsters spark Lions
GEELONG will play in two preseason matches in as many nights, starting with tonight’s Geelong Community Cup final against Corio.
New coach George Karkaletsis says he has been pleasantly surprised with his side’s Cup campaign, having juggled a lot of football over the summer.
The Lions, who play in NPL2 West this year, will also host Northcote City in a friendly preseason match tomorrow night, a week out from their season opener against Werribee City.
“We’re actually looking forward to it (tonight’s Cup final),” Karkaletsis said.
“To be honest, we sort of went into it a bit half-hearted in that we had the Macedonian Cup overlapping — maybe not half-hearted — but we wanted to try some of our under-20s as well.
“It’s worked out well. The younger boys, when we put them in, got some results for us as well. We’ll be certainly out to win it.”
The two sides met less than a fortnight ago, but Karkaletsis said the Lions would be fielding a stronger line-up as he looked to get as many minutes into players as possible.
“We’ve got to be mindful we’ve got a game on Saturday as well, so we’re going to use the whole squad over the two days and just make sure everyone gets as much game time as they can,” he said.
“We’re maybe one or two practice games short of an ideal preseason, hence the reason why we thought we’d double up on a Friday and Saturday, and give everyone some good game time.
“Northcote will be a competitive side in the northeast of NPL2 and we don’t meet them until a little bit later down the track, so we’re quite happy to play them a week out from the season and get some quality game time.”
State League 2 outfit Corio does not open its regular season until March 23.