Tara Murray
A new-looking Werribee City is hoping to make some inroads in the National Premier League 2 competition this year.
After narrowly avoiding relegation last year, the Bees have a new squad under new coach Domenic Barba.
Barba said after a long pre-season they were keen to get back out there.
“2022 was a tough season for the club,” he said. “We did enough to stay up.
“It was important that we maintained staying in NPL2.
“We are going to be really competitive, but there’s a lot of quality sides that will take another step up.”
Barba said the playing squad was significantly different to last season. He said while the guys did a good job managing to avoid relegation, they needed to make some changes to be more competitive.
“We went to market to try and attract players that would set us apart,” he said.
“The squad is significantly different and we think we have a squad that will be good enough to be competitive.
“We think we will be better than last year, but only time will tell.”
Barba said he was looking forward to seeing what the whole squad could do on the field.
Daniel Petrov will captain the squad, with Barba saying he had earned the right to captain the club which he has been at for a long time.
He also said there’s plenty of new faces that will play exciting soccer.
“Anton Kinnander comes across from Altona Magic,” he said. “He was with me at Banyule previously.
“He’s a quality striker that will serve us well.
“There’s a couple of internationals. Lewis Bamford and Steven Lawless who are high quality midfielders
“We’ve got a good mixture of young and mature players who will play entertaining football.”
Barba said they were setting expectations on what they can achieve this season, with the sport being a funny game where anything can happen.
He’s hoping that the hard work the group has put in will pay off.
“The expectation is to play football at a level we can play at every opportunity to win more games than not,” he said.
“We set out to win every game whether that happens or not, we’ve set our sights high. We’ll certainly be better than last year.”
The Bees start their season on Friday night against Brunswick Juventus.
The Bees beat Brunswick in the final round last year to cement their spot in the NPL2 competition, while ending Brunswick’s finals hopes.
