It’s fair to surmise that the relative silence of the pre-season transfer window left many Western United fans worried about this season’s prospects.
A slew of experienced players – Steve Lustica, Josh Risdon and midfield maestro Daniel Penha – silently slunk out the men’s team back door.
Memories of the match-savvy Alessandro Diamanti, Leo Lacroix, Neil Kilkenny and Jamie Young had long faded, too.
When the club’s share of the league’s budget was slashed, Western seemed to dawdle while richer clubs doled out bigger dollars on the Costas, Klimalas, Matas and Sakais of the world.
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Aside from securing a couple of experienced heads from its A-League competitors, the Tarneit team focussed on promoting a series of prospects from within the club’s youth ranks to its senior squad.
Echoes of Alan Hansen’s infamous and erroneous “you can’t win anything with kids” jibe at Manchester United in EPL season 95/96 reverberated mentally, as some fans wondered if WUFC would only be cannon fodder for their more cashed-up contemporaries.
Western United fans at Ironbark Fields. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
However, after nine games, head coach John Aloisi’s side sit fifth on the table after recent, gritty back-to-back away wins first at Sydney and then at the hitherto unbeaten Auckland FC.
Credit must go to the club and coaching staff for failing to panic when tasked with replacing some of its bigger-earning players.
Instead, they calmly and quietly went about building capability and strength on the Western front, from within. In truth, there probably weren’t too many other options available: John Aloisi himself has previously publicly acknowledged the club’s rather tight financial position.
So, the manager and his coaching team deserve huge credit for developing and forging a side replete with energy, belief and unison.
With an average squad member age of just 23.83, Western is notionally the ‘greenest’ team in the league. On-field, Tomoki Imai, Angus Thurgate and Hiro Ibusuki are the reliable ‘old heads’ guiding their younger contemporaries through each match (though it’s easy to forget Thurgate is only 24 years old himself!).
So the lack of seasoned pros hasn’t held the club as it seeks to restore its over-achieving, dark-horse reputation. In fact, I suggest that the current team is playing at a pace and tempo that would be unfamiliar to – and uncomfortable for – some of the old-stagers who had previously starred for the green and black. This year’s United are way more ‘offensive’ in the best footballing sense of the word.
Michael Ruhs of Western United celebrates scoring a goal. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
By using more academy graduates, Western have developed some revelatory fresh talent all over the pitch, via its (perhaps enforced) youth policy and maybe created some saleable assets who could help the club’s bottom line, somewhere not too far down the line too.
Several young players deserve special mention in this regard:
Dylan Leonard – at just 17 years of age – has been calm, consistent and robust in central defence; showing deft dribbling skills and doughty interceptions aplenty.
Rhys Bozinovski – 20 years – is energetic and tigerish in the tackle, giving the midfield a sprightly urgency it had lacked in prior campaigns.
Abel Walatee – again 20 – combines control, speed and a low-gravity physicality that gives defenders of any vintage a torrid contest.
That’s not to say that Kane Vidmar, Charbel Shamoon, Noah Botic and Matthew Grimaldi don’t merit recognition either; at under-23 all, they have played their part in Western’s stoic – if not stellar – start to this season. This team is calmly and quietly going about their business.
However, the longer the campaign goes on, some of these young ’emergers’ might need a little more support and the occasional rest to help them carry the match load plus, maybe, the load of spectator expectations.
It would be reassuring for Western to get James Donachie (blighted by injury since signing) and captain Ben Garuccio back available for the entire second half of the season. Yet on current form, would the experience of Donachie and Garuccio automatically get them a start ahead of some of the younger players who seem to have bought into a more aggressive and pacey Aloisi playing style?
Ideally, another senior utility player (to be secured in the transfer window) is at the top of Mr Aloisi’s Santa wishlist! Although, the Western manager isn’t relying on hopes and wishes to deliver some joy to the fanbase this season; instead it’s coaching, graft and implementing the plan that’s putting smiles on dials.
For a side with something of an underdog and battler identity, the Western United proteges seem to have embraced the old adage claiming that ‘the greatest teacher is adversity’.
Who would wholly bet against Western’s ‘green shoots’ having the front and belief to transform their current tough learnings (and deserved successes) into finals qualification towards the end of the season?
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