Tara Murray
Hume City is hoping to put a disastrous 2022 behind it as it aims high in the National Premier League.
Having narrowly avoided relegation, Hume has been putting in a lot of hard work behind the scenes throughout the off season.
Ersan Gulum, who took over late last season, has been reappointed and will lead the team again.
Hume senior assistant coach Halil Hussein said they’d had a big pre-season so far and things were looking good.
He said the opportunity for Gulum to coach some games late last season had given them a head start.
“The transition has been really good,” he said. “Ersan got to see everyone during that time and was able to assess everybody to plan for this year.
“He was able to see what we needed and who we needed to sign and gave him a good chance to have a look at everybody.”
The core group from last season has returned, with five or six additions added to the side.
Leo Mazis, who spent time with the Celtic FC youth squad, Zach Maltby, who comes down from Queensland, Yagoub Mustafa, who will add to the front third, and Tomas Maricic have all committed to the club.
James Brown returns to the club after a short stint elsewhere in another bonus for the club.
The club has also signed international Dylan McGlade.
The midfielder joins Hume from League of Ireland First Division club, Cork City FC after spending the last 10 years in The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Hussein said they had put a lot of work in to get McGlade across to Australia. He was expected to arrive this week.
“He comes across from Ireland where he has a lot of experience playing at the top level over there,” he said.
“We’re excited for him to arrive and he’s going to provide some quality, and hopefully keep us as high as possible.
“Ersan and our president did a lot of hard work along with the scouts in the UK. We found the player that we needed for the attacking area.
“He’s a player who can make his mark in the league.”
Danny Dixon, Alex Walter and Lucas Trenkovski are among the players who have departed the club.
Hussein said they believed they had the squad to achieve some good results this season, it was a matter of putting it on the park.
The club has won its three pre-season matches so far.
“For us as coaching staff, we know we have got quality in the changerooms, it’s about putting it on the pitch,” he said.
“We’re giving them tools in training sessions and they need to perform at a high level. We struggled last year.
“We have the depth and in our mind we want to be as close to the top as possible. The boys are looking forward to it and they’re putting last year behind us.”
“They’re using it as motivation.”
Hume kicks off its season on February 16 against Altona Magic.
