Photos (top to Bottom): Zebras coach Romeo Frediani (left) with senior player Josh Thorpe; Ben Crosswell (left) makes an appearance for Beachside against Metro [PlessPix]
Tilford Zebras’ new senior coach, Romeo Frediani, is excited at the prospect of coaching in the top flight after being in charge of the reserves last season.
“Training is good and we had a really good hit-out tonight,” said 38-year-old Frediani.
“Tuesday night was really good as well, so this week’s been a really good week for us.”
Matthew Lyall and goalkeeper Jason Voss are two new signings from Kingborough Lions United.
Frediani said that Voss would be fighting for a senior berth with last year’s incumbent, Troy Kaden.
“We haven’t made a decision yet as to who will start in the firsts,” said Frediani.
“It could almost come down to a last-minute decision, I think.”
Frediani said he was happy with the draw for the Summer Cup, where the Zebras have been drawn in Group A with Olympia, New Town Eagles and South Hobart.
“I suppose being a first-year senior coach, I may as well be thrown in the deep end and go up against South Hobart straight away,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to it. I mean, it’s a challenge for me.
“I’ve got a good bunch of guys, with a few of the younger guys stepping up from the reserves from last year.
“I’m happy with the draw.”
Frediani said he would be going into the competition with the aim of winning it.
“Any coach who goes into a competition and says ‘Oh, we’re just interested in trying young players,’ or ‘We’re not really interested in winning it,’ I think they’re just full of it,” Frediani said.
“If you’re going to coach at the highest level in Tasmania, you want to be winning everything you can.
“We’re going in it to win it.
“Obviously, I’m going to try and blood as many young players as I can, but I think those players are capable of being part of a winning team anyway.
“We’ll go in and to try and get maximum points and do the best we can and take it out, hopefully.”
Frediani said that Ben Crosswell would be playing with Zebras this season.
He said Crosswell’s appearances for other clubs such as Beachside and Taroona in recent pre-season friendlies was his way of getting fit.
Frediani selected South Hobart, Tilford Zebras, Glenorchy Knights and Clarence United to fill the top four places this league season.
Zebras will play Glenorchy Knights in a pre-season friendly at 7pm at Prince of Wales Bay next Tuesday.
11 comments:
Frediani could do big things with Zebras, great coaching mind and is willing to give the young players a real dip, if they don't win this year they will be on the right path at a minimum
Can we expect Corey Smith to take down Vossy again if he Zebras number 1?
If things get tough it will be interesting to see if Frediani can cope
voss wont play seniors over troy kaden, he is kidding himself, only thing he caught last year was a cold in the middle of winter
Frediani's comments are refreshing to say the least. Too often we hear coaches saying that the Summer Cup is not important and just a pre-season competition.
Pre-season friendlies should be just that - friendlies - but the Summer Cup deserves greater respect. Perhaps the lack of sponsorship has diminished its prestige. It used to be worth playing for when it was the Michael the Tailor Cup.
Why enter it if you aren't determined to win it? That's the trouble with Tasmanian soccer at the moment. Nothing is seen as important. Until there is decent prize money and decent sponsorship, we might as well play pick-up games on the village green.
Does anyone know of any friendlies scheduled for this weekend?
I disagree. Freddie's comments reflect his inexperience and are unwise. He should keep his comments to his own exploits - not make unsavoury comments about other coaches.
AFL teams frequently treat the NAB Cup as part of preparation for the league season introducing new and young players as well as providing limited time for the more experienced players - even tho there is $00,000s on offer. You see that in EPL also with the Cups treated as a lesser comp.
Sth have a game against Olypmia on Sunday - 2 & 4PM.
Carousel , the Summer Cup gets the respect it deserves. Not much.Not until FFT treat it as a serious pre season competition as it was many years ago.Other have mentioned already that ot should be opened up to all divisions,and all teams drawn at random.Mix the DIv 1 side with the Premier League teams. I am sure that these teams would like to compete against better opposition in order to judge how they are travelling. Wouldnt we sit up and take note if South Hobart were defeated by Hobart United ?
Observer
I generally agree with you.
They should use the original format for the Summer Cup - four groups of four, with two Premier League teams in each. and two teams from the other leagues in each.
Each team plays the others in its group once and the top two from each group play in the quarter-finals.
That leads to the semi-finals and then the final.
Way to go.
OMGCS-you have said that Frediani made unsavoury comments about coaches, it actually sounded like generalising and didn't mention names which actually shows maturity and professionalism. I can agree that there are people out there that don't take the summer cup or some cup games seriously and this happens in many sports not just soccer. As far as inexperience, Frediani may have only been coaching for a short time but sometimes experience doesn't make you a good coach!
Anonymous 9.31 pm.
Not mentioning other coaches names does not actually show maturity or professionalism, but rather that the person concerned is not an idiot ,purely because of the fact that he did not mention any names.
Who in their right mind would do such a thing ?
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