Photos (Top to Bottom): Mariners' coach Graham Arnold supervises the warm-up at KGV Park; John Crawley, Phil Moss and Graham Arnold have a chat near the centre-circle at KGV Park; The Mariners' squad doing warm-up laps; KGV Park has rarely looked so good; The ground seems in excellent condition; The surface should enable the Mariners to display their full range of skills; The squad completes another lap; Stretching exercises; Mariners' captain Alex Wilkinson and coach Graham Arnold; Assistant coach Phil Moss chats to Graham Arnold; Keepings off in the centre-circle [PlessPix]
Central Coast Mariners had a light training session at KGV Park this evening in preparation for Tuesday night’s match against the Tasmanian state side, which kicks off at KGV Park at 7pm.
KGV Park has been spruced up for tomorrow’s game and was looking in superb condition, especially for this time of the year.
The A-League outfit will train again at KGV tomorrow [Tuesday] from 10.30am until 12.30pm.
“I think you can expect a good, open exhibition of football,” said Mariners’ assistant coach, Phil Moss.
“Talking to the Tassie state team coach tonight, he’s looking to come here and play tomorrow night and we certainly need the hit-out.
“We’re only eight or nine days away from the start of the league.
“But, just to have the support of Football Federation Tasmania and Wrest Point to bring us down here, the players, the coaching staff and the club as a whole, are very, very indebted to Tasmanian football.
“We want to come here tomorrow night and out on a show and play a hard but fair game and make sure that we’re prepared for the start of the A-League.”
Moss was impressed with the facilities at KGV Park.
“Fantastic,” he said. “A great surface.
“We had a session on it this afternoon and the boys are really looking forward to passing the ball around.
“We couldn’t have asked any more of our hosts. The hospitality has been fantastic in Launceston and down here in Hobart and we want to repay that with a good game of football tomorrow night.”
Moss said he hope the Mariners would finish higher in the A-League than last year.
“Pre-season has been building well,” he said. “Touch wood, we’ve got a fit squad at the moment.
“Of our four young boys, two of them are over in England at the moment with Sheffield United and two of them are away with the Young Socceroos and they come back next weekend so that gives us a full deck of cards for the first A-League game.
“We just want to start the season well and be competitive and aim for the top six.”
Although the training session was light, there was much of interest for local coaches and clubs.
For example, even the injured players participated, walking laps together while the rest of the squad ran laps and engaged in ball work.
The injured players also did light ball work, concentrating on technique.
The goalkeepers, under the supervision of goalkeeping coach John Crawley, worked separately for part of the session, concentrating mainly on kicking.
Their kicking was superb and, over a distance of 50 metres, the receiver rarely had to move a centimetre to receive the ball.
No comments:
Post a Comment