Allen Vella had made the decision to step away from Westvale Olympic until he got an offer too good to refuse.
Vella had been an assistant coach at the FV stage league 1 north-west club for the past two years but was looking at different opportunities for 2026.
He had finished up at the club but when coach Bill Georgopoulos decided to step down, Vella ended up taking on the coaching role.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” he said. “I had moved on and Bill had committed to it.
“It’s really good. I’ve got a good handle with the boys and we really got along after being there for two years.
“I jumped at the chance straight away. It was going to happen no matter what.”
Vella said a lot of the players knew what was going on making it even easier to step into the role.
He said the majority of the playing group was building as they look to build on the past few years.
Westvale finished in fifth spot this year, in its first time at that level. Georgopoulos had led the side the past five years which saw them promoted twice,”
“The last five years for the whole club it has been really outstanding to come to winning leagues and get promoted, probably quicker than everyone expected,” Vella said.
“We started a bit scratchy at the start of last season.
“Six rounds in we sort of got used to the league not new to us after that, we went on a really good run.
“I think we went 12 results without losing, that set us for the end,
“We faded at the end. We had injuries, suspensions, that bit of push promotion at the end faded away too.”
Vella said they would look to add four to five players to the squad for next year.
He said they were already getting to work with a focus on next season.
“At the start of last year [season] we weren’t settled enough straight away,” he said.
“This year we’re settling on the team a lot quicker we’re working on things a lot earlier, going in prepared more.
“We want to start strong and hopefully be at promotion stage at the end.
“If it doesn’t that is fine as long as we’re sitting around the middle of the table and we’re still convincingly being in the league and showing we’re not a pushover, that’s what we want.”
