Tara Murray
It’ll be a short stay for Keilor Park in the FV state league 2 north-west competition with the club securing promotion and the championship with three rounds remaining.
After a tough 2023 for the Eagles when they finished second bottom and were relegated, the Eagles set the focus on getting straight back up to state league 1.
Even though they had set lofty goals, the season so far has exceeded the club’s expectations according to coach Sergio Sabbadini.
“Winning the championship is good news,” he said. “We secured promotion the week before.
“To have only lost one game so far is amazing. To get promoted you normally need 16 wins, four draws and two losses.
“We already have 17 wins. The way we have achieved it is pretty good.”
The hard work for this season started late last season when Sabbadini took over as coach.
The Eagles finished strongly last season with three wins from their final four games as they tried to avoid relegation.
They finished just one point behind third bottom.
Sabbadini said him taking over last year meant they were able to look at players late last season and see who would be in their plans going forward.
“We were focused on what we wanted to do,” he said. “The club gave us everything we needed and we hoped that it would be this year.
“We were able to see who was good enough and realise any of our weaknesses. The people we picked up made us a lot better this year.
“We want to go up to the NPL {National Premier League].”
Sabbadini said there were plenty of celebrations following the club securing the championship with a 2-0 win against Uni Hill Eagles.
He admits the next few weeks could be tough in getting the guys up with nothing to play for.
“We are up there for a couple of records for points, goals against, things like that, we want to continue going and reach them,” he said.
“We’ll try and make training a bit of fun but once they are in the game they are always in the mould of wanting to win.
“The coaches will work on things to to get them entertained.”
The Eagles are set to face Hume United on Saturday night.
Sabbadini said he was hoping the group would play with some freedom.
The group has also started looking ahead to next season in the highest division.
“We’ve put a game plan in place,” he said. “I’ve started talking to players and have asked if they want to stay and they have all said they would.
“We’ll probably look to add two or three players. You rarely have the exact same squad and you lose one or two at least.
“We are ready for next year. Only the top team will likely be promoted and our aim is to come first.”
