A good pre-season can make or break a club.
Last year South Melbourne proved exactly that when it went a whopping 11 matches undefeated, something head coach Chris Taylor put down to a solid pre-season.
With a close to faultless season, South Melbourne rightfully took home the silverware and feel they are in good stead to do it again.
Pre-season has been a hard slog for the new look team.
Seven new signings and playing a match every week since mid-January, Taylor hasn’t left anything to chance.
South Melbourne have more wins under their belt than losses as the pre-season closes, defeating Dandenong City, Frankston Pines, Langwarrin, Kingston, Springvale and FC Bulleen.
Most recently though, the team has struggled against tougher opponents interstate, suffering two losses against sister club West Adelaide Hellas and Adelaide Blue Eagles.
Not the vote of confidence Taylor needed before the FFV Community Shield match.
They took on Dockerty Cup winners and fellow NPL club Melbourne Knights last Friday night in horrible weather, but managed to claim the win 2-1.
Taylor says he used the match to get the team out of its pre-season comfort zone and truly prepare for the tough Oakleigh Cannons opening season match.
Cannons coach Miron Bielberg has used his pre-season wisely but hasn’t yet seen the stable results he’s been craving.
In the club’s most recent friendlies, the Cannons have lost to what were easy opponents last year.
Last week Port Melbourne Sharks got two last minute goals to shock the Cannons into a 2-1 defeat.
The Cannons did manage to win 3-2 against Kingston City, but couldn’t’ do the same against South Adelaide Panthers, losing 1-2.
The results might be a consequence of Bleiberg trying to work on discovering his top starters after a couple of strong additions.
Most recently, Oakleigh Cannons signed former Melbourne Victory, Gold Coast United and Perth Glory goalie, Steve Pantelidis.
The 26-year-old played under Bleiberg while he was an A-League coach and joins the team in an enviable signing.
A team to look out for this season will be Port Melbourne Sharks.
The club under the guidance of Eric Vassiliadis has seen a strong revival.
Taking the scalp of Oakleigh Cannons this week with two goals in the dying minutes of the game was proof that we’ll be seeing a different team take on the 2015 season.
They also took down Murray United late January with a 2-0 clean sheet that added to their strong pre-season results.
Signing Northcote City’s striker Trent Rixon will also play a big role in turning the club’s fortunes around.
They finished 11th on the ladder with seven wins, 12 losses and seven draws in 2014.
Northcote City has had a mixed pre-season, with just two wins in five matches.
Coach Goran Lozanovski has had to make due with nine departures including captain Kristian Konstantinidis to South Melbourne. He’s signed some players with international experience, including former Feyenoord youth product Ryan Go and some NPL 1 shining stars like Nick Kokolakis (Box Hill).
Club football operations manager Peter Kotsiris says the club’s ambitions are to be challenging for honours in the next couple of years, so expect to see a slowly improving club.
Heidelberg United came back into the top flight in emphatic fashion last year, finishing a brilliant third. United is now setting themselves up to be the team to beat with some impressive signings.
Former Greek League player and Oakleigh Cannons striker, Andreas Govas has switched to Heidelberg and could provide the bulk of the club’s goal chances alongside Daniel Heffernan and Kaine Sheppard.
In terms of results of late, United have an eye catching 8-1 win against Goulburn Valley Suns under their belt to prove the team is once again a goal machine.
Finally, to Bentleigh Greens. The darlings of the FFA Cup have used their popularity and extra funds wisely and signed some impressive players.
Championship winner Tyson Holmes moves from South Melbourne to the Greens, while interstate player Chris Lucas joins the club after falling short of the Golden Boot award last year by one goal.
John Anastasiadis will be starting the season chasing a title and looking to make his team tighter in the hopes they can avenge their semi-final FFA Cup run.