Tara Murray
New Hoppers Crossing men’s coach Reardo Luka is keen to help the whole club progress further next year.
Luka, who joined the club as a player this year, will take over the coaching reins from Kevin Smart, who will stay on as a player.
Vito Cichello will be the assistant coach.
Luka said it was an exciting opportunity that he was looking forward to.
“It’s a good group, a good club and I’m looking forward to it, ” he said. “It’s an exciting upcoming 2025 season.
“It would be good to get more sponsors on board and get some more local community on board and we are playing a number of open events to encourage juniors to attend.
“We’re trying to get our women’s side back, we didn’t have a senior women’s team this year.
“For me, it’s more than just a coaching role with the senior men, it’s about trying to help the club build as well.”
This will be Luka’s second opportunity at coaching having played most of his life.
He spent time in the coaching hot seat at Point Cook last year.
“I retired last year from soccer and took on a coaching role at Point Cook with my assistant coach,” he said.
“We were both playing there and took over after the coach left while the club was looking for new coaches.
“We managed to get some really good results and keep them from getting relegated… Things didn’t go the way it was planned over there.
“We both went back to playing this year [at Hoppers]. Once the season was finished, the coach Kevin approached me and asked if I would be willing to take it on.
“He said I think it would be a good opportunity for you and the club and I agreed.”
Luka said having those connections at the club already would make things easier heading into next year.
It’ll be a different challenge for the Reds after being relegated from state league 2 north-west this season.
They will play in state league 3 north-west next year.
Luka said they wanted to make sure they were competitive.
“Things can change pretty quickly in the off season,” he said. “Going down doesn’t mean it will be any weaker.
“There’s lots of clubs that are highly ambitious, all chasing for promotion, all really competitive.
“It’ll be a challenging year, the teams we are going to face. It’s a tough league, state league 3.”
Luka said they would officially start pre-season in January but would have some sessions and catch ups before Christmas.
Tara Murray
