Essendon Mazda Coach’s Comment: Ferrante pleased with momentum generated from run of games
Essendon Royals Senior Men’s Coach Mick Ferrante is excited to see what his squad can continue to achieve as the games keep coming thick and fast for the Royals.
The Royals have played two games in the last seven days with mid-week Australia Cup duties following on from a tough game in the league against Sydenham Park, meaning Ferrante has had to use the full strength of his squad across recent games.
The amount of rotation has had little bearing on the results, with four wins and a draw from the club’s last five games in all competitions.
“It’s a tough one because we’re playing at a level where squads aren’t massive and with the games coming thick and fast there’s not a heap of time for training,” Ferrante said.
“But the flipside is that you can generate a lot of momentum and that’s been good for us. The boys are in good spirits and there’s a lot of positivity in the group, so I’m happy with how we’ve performed as a squad of players and with the contributions the younger boys are making when required.”
Ferrante said that Ziyad El-Tahir and Nobuyuki Usui have been particularly impressive in their recent performances, and was challenging them to turn strong individual performances into a consistent run of good form.
“Our approach to the game hasn’t changed, even if some of the personnel has had to change in recent games,” he said.
“Ziyad has shown he’s a good young player and a great character. He’ll get his chance now to have a good run of games and for him the challenge is turning one or two good performances into three and four. He’s hungry and he’s got a chance to prove he’s worthy of starting no matter who is fit or available.
“Nobu has stepped up again in recent weeks, Josh [Markovski] has been doing a super role off the bench.
“The older boys who have been fit and performing game to game have really supported that consistency, so we’re excited to see how we can continue the good start we’ve had.”
Speaking of Saturday’s challenging game against Altona City, Ferrante said being clinical in front of goal against an organised unit would be crucial.
“We score a lot of goals but we’ve probably missed double the chances we’ve scored as well,” he said.
“I know their coach quite well and I know that he will send a team out there to be committed and organised, so they’re not going to give much away.
“But as always, we are confident that our best football will beat most teams in this league. If we don’t play our best, that’s when we might leave with our tails between our legs, so it’s up to us to bring the sort of game we know we can.”