Tara Murray
Brimbank Stallions are hoping to build on a successful 2021 season in this year’s FV state league 1 north-west season.
The Stallions surprised many people last year, themselves included, when they were sitting second on the table when the season was called off due to the pandemic.
Stallions coach Andrew Marth said they had been able to keep that playing group together for this season.
“We have retained all our players and strengthened our squad,” he said.
“There’s a lot of respect from the players at the club. There’s a good culture and that often produces championship teams.
“No one is leaving. We’re looking forward to this season.”
Luis Covarrubias is the biggest signing for the Stallions for this season. He and Marth have previously worked together.
“He was at Melbourne Knights under me and he was at [Caroline] George Cross last year,” he said.
“He’s a striker with a wealth of knowledge and will enhance our promotion hopes.
“There’s now about five or six players I coached over a number of years at different clubs that have come to us at Brimbank.”
Marth said they had promoted three players from their junior program, having promoted seven the year before.
He said they were fortunate to have a good junior structure in place.
After the year they had last season, Marth said they were keen to build on that. Whether it results in promotion, is a question to be answered.
“Coaching anywhere you want to get as high as possible,” Marth said.
“We feel like we have a good team that we could push for promotion. Possibly we overachieved last season, we don’t have the funds some of the other clubs do.
“We’ll push for promotion and if we finish in the top four or six, I’ll be more than happy.”
The Stallions were in action on Saturday in their first match of the Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup.
The match against Sandringham was after deadline.
Marth said they wanted to do well in that before the actual season gets underway on Corio.
“We want to go as far as we can in the Australia Cup,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple of injuries, but we’re confident that we can get through round one.
“We’re looking forward to the start of the season.”
