Ready, Chile and waiting
Potential cover for De Nittis on hand to watch stoush with Thunder
An endorsement from former ALeague coach Miron Bleiberg has piqued Cairns FC coach Danny Graystone’s (above) interest in a Victoria-based recruit who could bolster the NPL squad. Chilean-born attacking midfielder Gianni Allebi will arrive in the Far North today but will simply observe tonight when Cairns FC face South West Queensland Thunder, needing to shake a fourmatch losing streak.
AN endorsement from former A-League coach Miron Bleiberg has piqued Cairns FC coach Danny Graystone’s interest in a Victoria-based recruit who could bolster the NPL squad.
Chilean-born attacking midfielder Gianni Allebi will arrive in the Far North today but will simply observe tonight when Cairns FC face South West Queensland Thunder, needing to shake a four-match NPL losing streak.
Former Oakleigh Cannons under-20s player Allebi will also be unavailable for the club’s FFA Cup match with NQ United, giving him a week on the training paddock to give both player and coach a chance to discover whether he will be the right fit.
Bleiberg, whose words brought goalscoring machine Joshua Taylor to the NPL club, was one of Allebi’s references and was encouraged by the words of his mentor.
“Obviously with Josh De Nittis going away for the World Cup (Allebi) plays in the same position,” Graystone said. “He should do a good job for us. But at the end of the day he’s coming to have a look at the place as well to see if he wants to make the move.”
While he won’t play tonight, new faces will litter the Cairns bench, with Southside pair Nathan Paul and Zeca Soares to join Leichhardt’s Nazario Lim on the pine as “miscellaneous players”.
Graystone said he hoped to give them some pitch time if his NPL regulars played to their ability and shut down the Thunder challenge.
“It’s a really important game for us,” he said.
“We’ve got to be looking at home games for the rest of the season as a real opportunity for us because of the real difficulty for teams travelling here.
“With the Thunder being around us, it’s an old saying but it is a bit of a six-pointer for us.”
Graystone said his players would be “stupid” not to recognise Cairns FC’s precarious position one point from the relegation zone. “It’s important we have an understanding of what’s going on over the next three or four fixtures and where we need to position ourselves. So it’s something the players are aware of. We know we shouldn’t be in this position,” he said.
Graystone hoped their FFA Cup thriller against Southside would inspire the spark missing in the past four NPL matches.