Kingborough Lions United will have their third pre-season hit-out tonight when they welcome Hobart Zebras to Lightwood Park for a 7pm kick-off.
The
Lions’ previous two games resulted in a 4-0 win over Riverside Olympic at
Lightwood Park, and a 2-0 loss away to champions Devonport City on the
artificial pitch at the back of Valley Road.
Lions
coach Greg Calvert was not too disappointed at the loss to Devonport.
He
said his team had matched the champions for the whole game in terms of
work-rate and defensive organisation.
He
said Devonport had scored their first goal in the 25th minute after
a Kingborough free-kick deep into Devonport territory had been played into the
penalty area and then been cleared and they mounted a quick counter-attack.
The
second goal came early in the second half after the Lions had made a few
changes.
Calvert
said his side had been missing five players and they had travelled to the
North-West Coast on a very hot day and played on a small, artificial pitch.
“For
me, it was pleasing just in terms of the attitude, the effort, the endeavour and,
indeed, knowing that we have at least four and maybe five guys to come back
into that team,” Calvert said.
“I
thought it was promising.
“They’ve
got a pretty experienced team. They were
talking about two more imports and they had most of the players from last year,
and they had Todd Hingston as well.
“Personally,
I think they are absolutely going to be in with a shout of winning the title
this year.”
Photo: Brentyn Muir (right) has joined Kingborough from Beachside and is impressing the coach [PlessPix]
Calvert
said tonight’s game would see a few new faces, including Christian Di Martino
and Greg Downes.
Downes
has been recovering from injury and may get a run for half an hour, while it
will be Di Martino’s first appearance of the pre-season.
Calvert
is quite open in his vision and plans for the club.
“For
me, success is about winning premierships,” he said.
“For
me to do that, you’ve got to build a team of really good people.
“Tonight,
we’ll be looking to build further team cohesion and also understand what
individuals can offer in the roles that are asked of them.
“I want
to know how driven individuals are, and how positive they are, and how much
energy, enthusiasm and encouragement they can bring to the group.
“I’m
looking at team cohesion, and at what I can learn about individuals in terms of
what they can offer.”
Photo: Zebras coach David Smith issues instructions to his players at half-time in the game against Clarence last week [PlessPix]
Hobart
Zebras will have Mathew Sanders down from Melbourne for this game, but Luke
Huigsloot and Dwayne Walsh will be missing.
“Realistically,
it’ll be the same sort of squad that played against Clarence last week,” said
Zebras coach, David Smith.
“We’re
hoping for another good workout and we’ll be continuing to work on some systems
of play.
“We’re
looking for quicker ball movement and the timing of runs and the angle of runs
and balls into the front-third.
“We’ve
been off-side too often.
“We’re
not going to change much of what we did the other night and I hope we can be
more confident in possession and, when we lose it, try and win the ball back as
high as possible.”
Photo: Kingborough's new American keeper, Hunter Harrison, will be tested tonight [PlessPix]
2 comments:
Only 3 clubs South Hobart Devonport and Olympia have won all the trophies since 2013.
I predict more of the same in the 2019 season.
In one word boring.
Could be worse like when south won about ten in a row
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