THE Swan Hill men’s soccer team will play their first home match of the season this Sunday when they host Spring Gully United SC at Ken Harrison Reserve.
Having suffered a shock 5-3 loss to Strathfieldsaye Colts United last Saturday, the Swans will be desperate to bounce back and remain within touch of the top four ahead of what looms as a tight and competitive 2025 season.
While Swan Hill enter this year’s campaign as the reigning premiers, there is an unknown about this Sunday’s opponent Spring Gully, who come into the second division having been relegated from the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League’s top flight.
Despite suffering their first loss since 2023 last weekend and after undergoing mass personnel changes over the off-season, Swan Hill men’s coach Tony Di Palma was optimistic about his team’s chances this weekend against an opponent they haven’t played since 2021.
“I don’t think the score line last week reflected the effort and the opportunities we had to be honest, they (Strathfieldsaye) were lucky to score two or three of there goals, but that’s the way the game goes sometimes,” Di Palma told The Guardian this week.
“The boys put in a good effort, but this week’s game is going to be a little bit different.
“We haven’t played Spring Gully in so long because they’ve always been in the Division 1 competition, so we just don’t know what they’re going to bring to the table.
“It’s going to be an advantage playing at home for our first game back and our boys are going to have something to prove because we haven’t played them for so long, so our mentality is to try and get a win.”
It’s a vastly different Swan Hill team to the one which took all before them last season, with only five of the 16 players from last year’s grand final side taking to the pitch last weekend.
Cooper Fox, Riley McCosh and Conner Brown remain, along with Anyueer Buol and Tom Paddon, with all but the latter stepping up across every line for the Swans.
For Di Palma though, it’s up forward where his team needs to adjust, with the Swans no longer possessing the attacking weapons that they did last season.
“We probably need to improve with our forwards, our strike rate and shooting on goal has gone down a little from last season and the reason I say that is because we just had more goal scoring options,” Di Palma said.
“We had maybe five or six guys who were capable of scoring goals last year, whereas this year we’re kind of limited to maybe three at the moment.
“That said, our back line has been brilliant and I think we are a lot stronger down back this year than we were last season.
“We’re just trying to get those midfield roles right to feed our forwards and finish well, that’s where we have to work on the most.
“Their efforts at training have been absolutely spot on, the boys are all doing what they’ve been asked to do.
“They all have their roles and are performing them well and you can’t ask for any much more than that.
“There’s going to be ups and downs this season, but the boys are immensely positive and I think if we retain that attitude.
“We’ll give ourselves every chance to bring home some points.”
Swan Hill’s under 14 boys team will also play their first home match of the season this weekend, with the Swans hosting Kyneton District SC on Saturday morning.
Also in action will be Swan Hill’s women’s team, who will be aiming to return to the winners list despite the absence of key players Heidi Annand, Judaya Majur, Zyma Aslam and Alycia Anderson when they play Golden City SC in BASL’s annual women’s round at the Epsom Huntly Reserve.
Swan Hill’s under 16 boys team has the bye.
