If Heidelberg United’s NPL rivals were hoping to face a weakened Bergers squad this coming season, they will be disappointed. Bergers coach George Katsakis and the club have managed to keep the 2018 double winning squad largely intact, due mainly to what Katsakis calls the “club’s strong culture”.
All the familiar faces will be there including the backline evergreens of skipper Luke Byles and his central defensive partner Steven Pace, Josh Wilkins, midfielders Petrie, Hall, Noon and Schiavo, as well as the formidable forward line-up of Sean Ellis, Cartanos, Zahra, Ofli and central striker Tom Cahill.
Even the versatile Reuben Way, who departed at the end of last season to try his luck in the A-League with Wellington Phoenix, is due to return to the club in time for the coming season. By Katsakis’s own admission, “That’s some squad!”
If anything, the coach says the squad has been strengthened by a handful of new arrivals, including defenders John Lazaridis, Peter Deng ( brother to Melbourne Victory’s Thomas Deng) and keeper Alex Pavlidis. Forward Lucas Derrick also joins from Northcote City but won’t be available until he recovers fully from a knee reconstruction probably in early March.
Despite presiding over a squad which is the envy of NPL rivals, Katsakis says, ” Our pre-season hasn’t been the best so far. There’s still some targets that we need to work towards.”
“I think that we finished pretty late in the season last year and we came back a little bit late, and that’s probably taken its toll on us. The first few weeks are going to be very important to ensure we’re well on our game and that we’re getting results, because I think as we get into the season, we get a lot stronger. So I’m a little bit mindful of the start of the season.”
The NPL fixture draw sees the Bergers play 10 home games in the first half of the season, which may help counteract their less than ideal preparation, to some extent. In any case, coach Katsakis will be hoping his side is firing on all cylinders by the time they play their last seven rounds of the season, all of which will be away from home.
Katsakis says the team will continue to set the bar high as it has over the last two seasons when it has picked up five trophies.
In what could be interpreted as an ominous warning to the Bergers’ NPL rivals, Katsakis says “Our culture is we go out to win every game. Nothing’s going to change. From the outset, we’re going to try and win every game as we normally do and apply ourselves in the traditional Heidelberg manner.”