Max Hatzoglou
Melbourne Knights coach Steve Bebic has been pleased with his team’s start to the National Premier League season with three wins and losses coming from the first six matches against some difficult opponents.
Bebic, who is heading into his second season as coach, said he was happy with how his team started the season against some of the league’s best opposition.
“It’s been a somewhat positive start to the season, there’s been little ups and downs,” Bebic sia.d
“I think we have had a real tough fixture in the first six games in particular in terms of having to play two derbies against Dandenong and St Albans.
Bebic also mentioned the challenge of having Avondale, Bentleigh and Heidleberg who all finished in the top six last season as well as South Melbourne who finished ninth, in the first six games this season.
He was still pleased with the games despite not getting the desired results in some of the games.
“Despite losing in a few of these games, I still felt that the performances were quite positive in a number of those games where we can take some things from those games and build on them,” he said.
“We were a little bit unlucky in some of those games in terms of the result with a couple of set pieces and stuff like that but overall I have felt our performances have been positive.”
Bebic was previously assistant coach of Dandenong City and Northcote where he was able to contribute to promotions for the respective clubs from division two to one in his tenures.
Despite having a young squad with an average age of about 22 as well as 10 new players joining the club this season, the Knights are still pushing for finals.
“One of the major goals obviously is to be as consistent as possible with this type of young squad.
“I am quite confident with the players and quality we have in the changerooms that there’s no reason why we can’t be playing finals at the end of the year.”
The club has also been invested in performing in the Australia Cup has also been
“It’s really important, the Australia Cup is a platform for not only the players to show themselves to a broader audience but also the club, especially the deeper you go into the tournament and the potential to play A-League clubs.
“We are traditionally a large club and being on a national stage is really important for the club and supporter base as well, especially when there the talk of a national second division is getting stronger and stronger every week.
“It would be great to get into the later stages of that cup and host an A-League team at our ground if that opportunity arrives.”
Knights’ latest game saw them win 3-2 in the Australia cup putting them through to the fifth round of the tournament.
