Tara Murray
Craigieburn City has had a good start to the FV state league 3 north-west season, but it is only the beginning.
After the first four rounds, Craigieburn is the only team that is undefeated with two wins and two draws.
Craigieburn coach Michael Loche said they were happy with how the season had started.
“We’re the only team that is undefeated which is good, but there’s only been four rounds in nothing to get excited about,” he said.
“We want to put ourselves in a position where we are in the top half of the league. We want to be competitive week in, week out.”
The good start comes despite Craigieburn fielding an almost new side this season. Loche said only about three players from last season were part of the squad this year.
“We have had 14-15 players come in,” he said.
“We’re a brand new side and we’ve made some changes. There’s a good group and the culture has changed.
“We’ve brought in some good quality people that put into the club as well. We have a massive junior base and we can’t neglect them.”
Loche said while they had lost some players that they wanted to keep, they had used the opportunity to bring in some new players.
One player that Craigieburn lost is Jordan Connerton. Connerton has been a star for Craigieburn since coming to Australia to play.
“Jordan has pillar of the club and I’m really close with him,” Loche said. “He played pre-season and his heart was not in it and he pulled the pin.
“We got to bring in some other players and turned a negative into a positive.”
Adam Burchell, Nicholas Murphy, Benjamin Russell, Danny Fountain, Alex Opoka Paul and Munashe Chagumaira have all joined the club.
Jack Roult, who signed with the club in 2020 but didn’t play a game due to COVID-19 cancelling the season, is back for a second tilt at the club.
Craigieburn are set to face Fawkner in round five on Monday night.
Loche said before the match that Fawkner had some weapons, but they didn’t fear anyone.
As well as the senior side making inroads, the club’s junior program continues to go from strength to strength.
Loche said they now have more than 500 junior members.
“The juniors are training four nights a week to cater for everyone,” he said. “We only have two grounds and are under-resourced for the amount of people that we have.”
