‘Punished’ Eagles aiming to rock up and do battle

CORIO will seek to atone for a “reality check” loss last week in its State League 1 clash against thirdplaced Essendon Royals on Saturday.

The Eagles were crushed 0-3 against Keilor Park — a defeat coach Chris Balaburova (pictured) described as uncompetitive.

They will also be without starting keeper Seth Szkuta, who has been suspended after he was red-carded for a dangerous tackle.

Corio is finding its feet in State

League 1 after receiving promotion at the end of 2019. It has one win from its opening four games and sits 10th but has been competitive in two draws. “We’ve been unlucky with two results,” Balaburova said. “Realistically, we should be 3-1 but decisions and games (haven’t) gone our way.

“It’s not the end of the world. We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board and start again.”

Balaburova said the loss to Keilor Park was a “wake-up call to pretty much the whole team”.

“It was a reminder that if we don’t rock up ... we’ll get punished. It’s a wake-up call, it’s a reality check,” he said.

Cameron Lee will debut in goal, while Italian import Lorenzo Princigalle (hamstring) and experienced defender Trent Waterson (calf) are missing from the senior team.

Balaburova said the Eagles remained focus on a mid-table finish and remaining in State League 1.

“There’s a lot of big teams spending a lot of money on players — everyone wants to get promoted at the end of the day,” he said.

“We’ve handled it well. We’re the underdogs — we’re the underdogs every week. We’ve got to become that team that always battles. That’s how we’re going to approach every game — we’re just battlers.

“We want to stay up, be competitive — we want a mid-table finish — but just to rock up each week and be competitive. We don’t want teams to rock up and walk over us.”