Oakleigh Cannons are determined to hit the ground running this NPL season in contrast to their previous two seasons. The squad is coming off a solid preseason in which they played nine practise matches including two against visiting professional Chinese teams Guangzhou R & F and Wuhan Zall, meeting the latter in Brisbane.
Cannons’ coach Peter ‘Gus’ Tsolakis is about to begin his third season at the helm and told Neos Kosmos on the eve of its opening round match away to Melbourne Knights, “Our main focus, our mantra, is that we want to get a good start to the season, which in the previous two seasons we haven’t.”
The team has made finals football in each of the two seasons in which he and joint coach Con Tangalakis have been in charge. But last season, after a winless first four rounds, the team had to rely on a strong end to the season to just finish inside the top six.
Tsolakis acknowledges that it won’t be easy playing against a rejuvenated Knights side, followed by the four top sides of last season, Bentleigh, South Melbourne, Heidelberg, and Green Gully in the opening five rounds. But he adds, “I’m not concerned about playing bigger opposition because I know we lift and can match anyone in the league.”
He cites the two preseason practice matches as evidence, “we matched those teams and for 75 minutes you probably couldn’t tell who was the professional team and who wasn’t. What I’m more concerned about is the mindset when we come up against (and no disrespect) the lesser teams. I think we just drop our guard a little bit. If we can rectify that, and get a good start to the season, I think we can finish top half.”
Like preseason favourite and reigning national NPL champions, Heidelberg United, the Cannons have been able to maintain a stable squad with a minimum of player turnover. Defender Adrian Chiappetta and midfielder Dom D’Angelo have departed for Kingston City, while Oakleigh has recruited forwards Wade Dekker from Green Gully, Ryan Paczkowski from Mornington and formerly Bentleigh Greens, as well as promising young defender James Karvellis from Port Melbourne.
In addition, the club has retained their two visa players from last season, centre back Janiel Da Silva and midfielder Kostas Stratomitros, as well as ex-Bentleigh Greens skipper Wayne Wallace who joined from Hume City mid-season last year.
Tsolakis commented on the squad, “I think [retaining the squad] is part of the build-up of being successful. In any workplace, the fruit of the labour comes after a couple of years. We’ve managed to maintain the majority and we’ve added a couple. If anything, we’ve strengthened our squad rather than weakening it. The other thing is we’re a relatively tall team this year. We’ve got a bit of presence about us. So set pieces, for and against us, we’ve got the ability to combat any team. That’s another big plus for us.”
Tsolakis is also satisfied with the squad depth going into the new season saying that there are two players in every position.
The coach believes this will keep the club in good stead going into the mid-latter part of the season particularly as the club is also aiming for a deeper run in the FFA Cup.
“It’s a directive from the board that we want to try and progress in the FFA Cup as much as we can. We’ve bombed out on that the last couple of years. That’s another reason we’ve got a pretty healthy squad in terms of numbers and depth. If you progress in that you might play another five or six games, so add that to the 26 league matches. You need a good squad. I feel we’ve got that.”