Tara Murray
Spring Hills is confident in the development in the off season the side has made ahead of the FV state league 4 west season.
After struggling last season with just one win, the Stallions were able to avoid relegation due to the way the league was structured.
Now with a year under the young group, Stallions technical Tom Markovski said they believed they were in a better place than 12 months ago.
“It’s really good at the moment,” he said. “Our coach who we got in last year to go through the juniors and through the list.
“John McAloon runs the SEDA program at Essendon. He’s a good coach with youngsters, which is what we have.
“He has been really fantastic from the start. We want the program to mimic the girls program.”
The Stallions squad this season will again be full of local talent, with the club keen to provide pathways for the players who have started their careers at the club.
Markovski said it means they will again have a young squad.
“We want to give our kids a go instead of going out and buying players,” he said. “If you’ve played under-18s, we want to give you the opportunity to play seniors.
“It’s what we did with the girls program and we’re looking forward to seeing what they do.”
Markovski said he thought the squad was looking pretty good and that they were stronger than last season.
He said it had been important that they stayed up in state league 4, as getting out of state league 5 was harder than ever.
“Our main aim this year is to win games,” he said. “We won one game last year.
“We set our target to be out of the relegation zone and finish mid-table. We are better than last year and expect some more results on that front.”
The Stallions kick off their season on Saturday against Melbourne City.
The Stallions women’s side will also start their season this weekend, playing in the Nike F.C Cup.
Their top side will play in the second highest tier in the state, Victorian Premier League, after winning the state league 1 north-west title last season.
Markovski, who coaches that side, said they were excited for this season.
“We’ll have some great young talent on show,” he said. “We’ve promoted some young players up to some big positions and they will do well.
“They’re raring to go and it’s another step up.”
Several teenagers will play key roles for the Stallions this season in that side.
The Stallions second women’s side, which won the state league 2 north-west title last year, wasn’t promoted like the club had expected.
Markovski said that the competition had told them that club’s couldn’t have two teams across the three top flights.
He said after getting together a reserves side thinking they were playing in state league 1, they had to let some players go, while others were slightly disillusioned knowing they can’t’ be promoted no matter the result.
