By Tara Murray
Brimbank Stallions will be a bit younger and have changed some things up as they want to go for a tilt at the FV state league 1 north-west title.
The Stallions have been in the mix for the title and promotion for a number of years without quite getting the job done.
Coach Ozan Kara said they wanted to be up at the top again.
“That is the intention,” he said. “We have been in the mix for quite a few years.
“The last five years we have not got the job done. We’ve decided to do something different and change it up a little bit.
“We changed our visa players to come into a core group, which is relatively stable.
“Our goalkeeper Chris May is the best in the league, our captain Anthony Katiforis and guys like Ethan Flint we’ve been able to retain them.”
Kara said it had been a good pre-season.
He said while they’d worked on a lot of physical and tactical things, it was also about bringing the group together.
“We have about eight new players,” he said. “It’s a little bit of everything.
“We’ve been good with player retention. You normally get a bit of churn through players.
“Our list has been aging a little bit so I wanted to drop the age bracket.
“We needed to recruit players with certain attributes in key positions to complement our group.’
Among the signings for the Stallions includes Melvin Becket, who has crossed from Westgate, and Ayrton Redmore who brings National Premier League experience.
The club has also changed up its international players with a focus on the attacking end.
Kara said they were still in talks about signing a new number 10 as well.
“We have improved the squad the calibre of player by 30 per cent on last year on paper,” he said.
“We want to be more competitive.”
The Stallions kicked off their season on Saturday against Westgate and had a 1-1 draw.
The Stallions will be back in action on Tuesday night in the third round of the Australia Cup against Box Hill United.
