North Geelong Warriors coach Ante Skoko was delighted with the efforts of his injury decimated back four after they secured a 2-1 victory over Dandenong City in their NPL 1 season opener.
Warriors centre-back Michael Grgic was substituted early with a recurring groin injury, forcing Reha Kurul to fill the gap in what was an unfamiliar position for the midfielder, who started from full-back on the day.
Kurul partnered the equally impressive Matt Townley, with Nathan Long slotting into right back, in what became a football version of musical chairs.
Skoko was immensely proud of the makeshift back four which got through the match comfortably, bar City’s goal within the opening few minutes.
“Defending is a specialist trait and when you’ve got guys wandering off on their own it’s very difficult,” he said.
“We found the first ten minutes were very difficult when we were trying to pull them together to work a bit more compact and then after that I felt we started getting back to a little bit of shape.”
Skoko was also pleased with the level of effort his side put in on the day, adding that he believes his squad is more than capable of competing in the upper half of the league.
“I think the boys know what I want and that’s what I want. I want that fight, that fight wins you games,” the head coach said.
“We’ve never been the prettiest team in the world but we’ll put that effort in and guys put their hand up like Reh [Kurul] today, out of his depth and he does a job for you so it’s fantastic.
“From what I’ve seen from of these boys and now seeing them first hand there’s sixteen guys that can play at this level and it’s just handy when you can make a change and it just works for you.”
Despite the positive result this weekend, Skoko won’t be thinking too hard about promotion, rather he’s more than happy to set the club up right for success in the future.
“You never know really where you’re at – we want to finish in the top half and we want to continue giving young guys an opportunity so that’s the major aim and just keep building on it.
“If we can get something better out of it we’ll just keep working towards it.”