Altona should not be putting a ceiling on what it can achieve this season, according to new senior coach Saade Ghazi.
The Vikings’ pass mark is to achieve more wins than last season, a target that would again get them into the Western Region Football League division 1 finals.
But for Ghazi, making finals isn’t enough – he wants to win them.
“Our expectations are that we want to win enough games to make the finals,” he said.
“If we don’t do that, I think we will have under-achieved and I wouldn’t be happy as a coach.
“I always coach for finals … the club, having made finals last year, aims to make the finals and win a final.”
Altona stalled out of the gates, losing its first game in a tight contest with last year’s runner-up, Werribee Districts.
Having rested up after the bye last weekend, the Vikings have a tricky second-game encounter with St Albans at Grant Reserve on Saturday.
The Vikings can ill afford to drop two straight at home.
“It becomes super-crucial for us,” Ghazi said. “You don’t want to lose your first couple of games, especially at home. We’ve just got to win some games early to get the confidence up.”
Ghazi is a Williamstown Football Club legend.
In 2014, he was inducted into the Seagulls’ hall of fame – hardly a surprise, considering he won the JJ Liston Medal for best-and-fairest in the VFL, a club best-and-fairest, was a member of the team of the century and captained the club.
He has plenty of coaching experience at local level, too, having led Epping and Avondale Heights. He took the Seagulls reserves to the 2008 premiership and the Port Melbourne reserves to a flag four years earlier before taking over as senior coach.
Ghazi’s business sense helped secure him the Altona job.
“It’s about bringing in sponsorship, some new recruits and looking after some of the young kids coming through,” he said. “It’s the whole package.”
