Green Gully player-coach Jeffrey Fleming was delighted with his side’s 4-0 home conquest over NPL newcomers Werribee City FC.
The veteran New Zealander acknowledged Gully’s history of slow starts and late-season form, and flagged the importance of shooting out of the blocks with early-season momentum.
“I’m feeling good, positive start to the season. We’ve had poor starts for the last couple of years but today we controlled the game and our possession was excellent,” he said.
“We could have scored even more. We kept a clean sheet – it’s important to defend well, this season.”
Fleming was upbeat about the new state league structure brought about by the arrival of the inaugural NPL.
“[The NPL] was a bit of an unknown for everyone. It started sooner than what clubs were expecting,” he said.
“I didn’t quite know what to expect coming today, not knowing much about Werribee, but [the NPL] is positive for the league, and I hope that continues.”
The absence of revolutionary changes to the Green Gully squad has not bothered Fleming.
On the contrary, the Gully stalwart is confident that the settled nature of his team’s lineup will constitute the foundations for a strong tilt at winning the title.
“It’s positive that we’ve been able to keep the squad together for so long,” he said.
“We’ve got a couple of really good young boys who have come through the U20s that are really working hard at pushing the older boys for places.
“We may have to reassess during the season but for now we’re happy with the squad.”
Fleming anticipated that the usual suspects will lead the challenge for the honour of being the first NPL champions.
“It’s hard to know, but we’ll look at the results from Round 1 and see where teams are at.
“The normal teams that are sort of there and thereabouts – your Oakleigh’s and South Melbourne’s – are going to be pretty dangerous but until we’ve played every team once and seen a bit more, it’s hard to tell.”
Following a one week break for a round of Dockerty Cup fixtures, Green Gully will next travel to George Andrews Reserve to face off against Dandenong Thunder on Saturday 29th March at 7pm.
Follow Steven Chang on Twitter at @Gixibyte.