AFTER taking all before them last season, 2025 will be a “rebuild” year, according to Swan Hill Soccer League men’s coach Tony Di Palma.
Both the Swan Hill men’s and women’s Bendigo Amateur Soccer League (BASL) teams will begin their 2025 campaigns on the road this weekend, with the women’s side facing Kyneton on Saturday and the men’s team playing the Deniliquin Wanderers in the opening round of the League Cup competition.
Having been knocked out of the League Cup competition in the opening round last year, this weekend presents as the perfect opportunity for the reigning BASL Division 2 premiers to progress to the second round of the knockout competition against a team in which they have had several tough encounters with over previous seasons.
But the loss of several key players over the off-season, including best and fairest winner Jason Stokes, Stephen Whittaker and Gareth Johansen, is expected to leave a massive hole in their side, with the team set to rebuild from the ground up, according to Di Palma.
“We’re going to need to be realistic with our expectations, it’s a completely new group of players and having lost our core group from last season, this year will be a bit of a rebuild,” Di Palma told The Guardian.
“If we could potentially end up mid-table, I think that’s a win for us, and anything more than that is going to be a bonus.
“That’s not to say we won’t be aiming at emulating last year or working hard towards doing the same again, but we’ll probably get more of an insight with our first game (on Sunday).
“It’s always hard to know where you sit until you see where all the other teams are at, because they might be in the same situations and being so far removed from the rest of the competition, it’s always hard to tell until you play that first game.”
With so many changes to their playing squad, the Swans will be almost unrecognisable, with the team’s midfield and defence likely to be their strengths.
Cooper Fox will return to lead the side once again, while leading goal scorer Conner Brown, goal keeper Riley McCosh and key defender Anyueer Buol will also play key roles for the inexperienced team.
But despite the majority of the team never having played together, their confidence is high according, with a long pre-season coming to a close on Sunday.
“About 70 percent of the team haven’t played outdoor soccer ever, or at least since their junior days, but the positive is that they are super keen,” Di Palma said.
“Their spirits are high and I think they just want to go out there and have a kick, have a bit of fun doing it and just see how things happen.
“This Sunday is a great opportunity to do that and even though the League Cup is still important, it’s also a good chance to just dust the cobwebs off against a team that we know quite well.
“We’re just looking at this weekend as another pre-season game really and if we win, it’s a bonus and if we lose, we still have another two weeks until the real serious stuff begins.”
While the men’s team will begin their 2025 season in the League Cup, the Swan Hill women’s team will be straight into their first home-and-away fixture, with an away game against Kyneton District.
It will be a tough first up assignment for the women’s team, with Kyneton having two teams in the Division 2 competition after their Division 1 side was relegated last season.
But although the Rangers will be an unknown quantity until they take to the field tomorrow, Swan Hill women’s assistant coach Emma Pitts was confident her team is ready for whatever they have thrown their way.
“Kyneton are always a tough opponent and now both teams are back in our division it’s hard to know what to expect, but we’re just going to focus on what we can control and that will be about giving effort for the full 90 minutes,” Pitts said.
“We have a pretty strong team with a few girls coming up through our junior ranks that have added a different dimension to our forward half, which was an area that we occasionally struggled in at times last season.
“It might take us a couple of games to gel still with a few new players coming in and a reasonably big squad, but if we play to the level that I know we’re capable of then we are a definite chance to come home with the points.”
Coming into the Swans line-up for tomorrow’s match will be Charley Baskin, Judaya Majur, Trinity Shelton, Zyma Aslam and Annabelle Fleming from the club’s under-16 girls program, with the quintet expected to offer an injection of speed up forward and through the midfield.
Also set to play her first game will be Sarah Feltrin, who comes out of the Sunraysia league and will play a defensive role alongside Amity Scott and Abbey Houlihan.
While several new recruits has Pitts and the women’s coaching staff bullish about the season ahead, the Swans will also be without last year’s best and fairest winner Malyna Tants and goal keeper Mardene de Villiers, with Tants set to miss the season with a broken leg.
“We’ve had a couple of challenges with injuries across the pre-season to a few players, but I think we are pretty well placed to have a strong season,” Pitts said.
“We’re fitter than last year, we’re quicker than last year and although we will have a completely different front half, our defence and structure is largely the same.
“Missing Mardene (de Villiers) will hurt, but she’s only expected to miss a few more weeks and we have a great replacement in Sarah (Scott).
“I think the girls are just keen to get out there and whether we win, lose or draw, it’s all about putting our best foot forward over these first few weeks and enjoying being back out there together.”
