Ange’s tough love
A new Port of call for Troy
COACH Ange Postecoglou has made it clear he’ll use only t ough l o v e and t ough decisions to rebuild Melbourne Victory.
Those expecting counselling and cuddles from the new boss — an embarrassing 5-0 loss to Brisbane Roar laid bare the size of the task facing all at the struggling A-League club — can think again.
Postecoglou admitted he wasn’t prepared for how badly Victory started the season.
Two losses, schoolboy mistakes and a uncompetitive performance against Roar for the club’s worst defeat leaves Victory bottom of the ladder.
‘‘I’m not a sharing-the-love guy when things aren’t going well,’’ Postecoglou said. ‘‘You can’t kid yourself. We weren’t up to standard. In sport, there’s a scoreboard and a ladder which measures everything we do . . . that’s suggesting we aren’t up to standard.’’
Socceroos’ World Cup q u a l i f y i n g hero Archie Thompson and Mark Milligan returned from international duty yesterday morning, and trained lightly on arrival.
Postecoglou said they would come straight into the starting line- up to play Adelaide United at Etihad Stadium tonight, as would New Zealand winger Marco Rojas.
They are l i k e l y to be straight swaps for injured trio Danny Allsopp (hamstring), Spase Dilevski and last weekend’s surprise debutant Andrew Nabbout ( groin).
Postecoglou maintained his team would eventually get right the play-from-the-back style he espoused, and was defiant there would be no changes to how he wanted Victory to play.
‘‘After two games, we’re not going to throw away everything we’ve worked pretty hard on,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re pretty determined as a football club to get it right, and we will do it.
‘‘The key thing to anything like that (the loss to Brisbane) is your response to it.’’
Adelaide has started the season in great style – it’s the only team with maximum points after two weeks. RESTORING Portarlington’s competitive edge will be the focal point under new senior coach Troy Beamond.
Beamond, who signed a two-year contract, said finals were not on the radar for the rebuilding Demons, who finished second last this season.
‘‘I’m not judging our performance on winloss. I’m judging it on competitiveness and we want to bring down the average losing margin. We want to reduce that dramatically,’’ Beamond said.
‘‘I’ll be coaching to a game plan, so all our training will be related to how we want to play and I’ll be teaching from a holistic point of view.
‘‘ It doesn’t matter how much we’re getting done by — and we will cop some hidings — we won’t be dropping three blokes behind the ball and try to flood.
‘‘We’ll be playing oneon- one accountable football.’’
Beamond, who has been an assistant coach at GFL club Geelong West-St Peters, Ballarat Football League club Sebastopol and VFL club Werribee, has brought a fresh approach to the club and is set to unveil fresh faces.
‘‘ We’re talking to a couple of blokes at the moment to potentially be playing assistants, so that’s still in negotiations,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s also a lot of ex-Port boys around the traps — they’re at Drysdale and they’re at Forrest — so we’re in the process of trying to persuade them to return to the club.’’
Lara premiership player and 2012 Edenhope coach Aaron Langsworth is a key signing, as is Martin Porter.
Porter is a best-andfairest winner at Sebastopol and a premiership player at VAFA club North Old Boys-St Pats.
‘‘We really wanted to attract some hardbodied, experienced blokes to work with the kids and they’re the two we prioritised early and are pleased to have on board,’’ Beamond said.
Former coach Gerard Brody and assistant coach Daniel Lowther are the only players leaving the Demons.