Yarraville Glory is enduring some teething problems as it promotes youth and implements a new style of play under first-year coach Tony Merakis in the Football Federation Victoria men’s state league 1.
The Glory is finding ways to score, but keeping the goals out is another story – as was plain to see in Saturday’s 6-3 loss to Keilor Park on the road at Keilor Park Recreation Reserve.
But Merakis is not losing heart, despite his side having a single win in four games.
“The scoreline seems big from a statistical point of view, but from a playing point of view, we managed to do some really good things,” he said.
“As a club, we’re going through a rebuilding phase, and as part of rebuilding and restructuring comes with it a club style and philosophy of play.
“It’s experimental with some players to find out who can perform and execute.
“We should get there in the next few weeks, where we start seeing some better results go our way and the team performance improving.”
Merakis will continue to implore his players to excite with their football.
“We want a young, energetic side,” he said. “One of our strengths is that we’re hungry to score. We want to provide a really good flavour of football so people can come and watch.”
The Glory is averaging two and a half goals a game, but its goals against average is unsustainable if it wants to stay among the big boys of state league.
The Glory is letting in a whopping 3.75 goals a game – not a formula for success.
Merakis knows his players needs to fix that area of their game, but with an inexperienced defence, one that was put together in the summer, it will take time for the backline to mesh.
“You’ll find that most teams that are good at not conceding have got good experienced players or have been together as a unit for long enough – and we haven’t,” he said.
“We’ve got some new players that have played together for no more than two or three games.
“The way you get better is to play longer as a team together. We’ve just got to get more games under our belt. Our effort is always there – even ’till the end.”
Yarraville will face title contender Altona Magic in a local derby at Paisley Park on Saturday evening with nothing to lose.
Nobody is expecting the Glory to pull off an upset, but the players are not lacking in self confidence despite the disparity in the standings.
“We’re not going to sit back and be dictated to,” Merakis said. “We’re going to go out there and try to score goals. That’s been our philosophy all along. We’ve been talking about this game for weeks – the players are excited for it.”
