Berkeley Vale v Woongarrah
The 2024 MPL season gets underway with a blockbuster match-up when newly promoted Woongarrah makes the trip on Saturday night to face Berkeley Vale under the bright lights of Mingara Oval.
Berkeley Vale with be heading into round 1 with maximum confidence after defeating the reigning league champions and premiers Killarney 2-0 on Easter Monday in the Grand Final of the 2024 Association Cup.
Berkeley Vale will enter this year’s competitions as one of the favourites after retaining the majority of their squad from last year while picking up a few quality players to bolster their ranks.
The Wombats have also had a strong pre-season showing in the Australia Cup, all of which coach Mark Pratt credits to the stability of his team. “Preseason has been good for us as we had a fairly stable squad continuing on from last year which means we could continue on with the journey that we started last year with the rebuild of the whole of the squad.”
As for what to expect in 2024 from the Wombats, Pratt states their goals are pretty simple. “Our ambition never changes and that’s to win every game that we play in.”
“We know that’s not always possible so if we don’t win we know where we need to improve and hopefully get to a point where winning is expected just like Killarney have for recent years.”
With plenty of build-up around this year’s competition, especially when it comes to their round 1 opponents, Pratt also mentioned what he is anticipating from the competition as a whole in 2024.
“I think that the competition this year will be a much more even competition than ever before, normally teams that are promoted are often a reasonably easy game for the established teams but this year’s promoted teams both Budgewoi and Woongarrah have invested well and are in contention to win the league.”
Berkeley Vale will be looking to turn their tremendous pre-season form into three points come Saturday night and will be looking to their leaders of Steven Grimmitt, Nicholas Trengrove, the McGinley brothers, and 2023 Player of the Year Jakeb Brownlow to get them over the line in front of a home crowd.
However, Pratt knows the quality the opposition possesses and is intrigued about how their season will play out. “Woongarrah is a team full of stars with an emphasis on investment rather than development and that’s their choice forward, so good luck to them.”
“They are obviously a very strong team that has high ambitions, they can’t rely on a siege mentality like the past. They have invested in high-quality pedigree players with an expectation to play good football and win games in a technically correct way.”
Pratt also added, “Their preseason socials give us an insight into what they expect this year, and we look forward to seeing how that pans out for them.”
Woongarrah have been a highly talked about subject in the Central Coast Football community this off-season and on Saturday night we finally get to see Luke Rogers and his side take the pitch for their first competition match back in the Men’s Premier League.
The Wildcats have had a major influx of talent compared to their Division 1 side from last season including former A-League players Josh Rose and Jacob Melling. Rogers was also able to attract multiple NPL talents including their new captain Dylan Holtz, Matthew Lewis, Matthew Johnson, and a few more notable names to further add to his premiership-challenging side.
Bringing in quality players is one thing, getting them to build a connection is another but head coach Luke Rogers is adamant they will play as one. “Yes, we have a lot of new additions to our team and the boys have bonded really well. In terms of being cohesive on the field as one, we are still a few weeks off. Now that we have our field to train on, it will speed the process up.”
“Pre-season has been great. while training hasn’t been ideal with the lack of training facilities, the weather has been good allowing us to get in plenty of trail games.”
When Rogers last led to Wildcats to promotion they had quite a successful year making it all the way to the MPL Grand Final. When asked about what their plans and ambitions are for the year ahead, it’s clear Woongarrah will be out to achieve something similar or even do one better in 2024.
“Our ambition is to be League Champions and to win everything we can,” stated Rogers.
On paper, there are no questions about whether this Woongarrah side has the quality or not to finish the season on top of the ladder. However, a lot of questions on the success of this side could be answered come Saturday night when they face an extremely stern test in Berkeley Vale.
“Berkeley first up away is as tough as a game you’ll get,” voiced Rogers. “They have experienced coaching staff who have been there awhile now and with some quality new additions to the already impressive side they had last year, in my eyes makes them favourites to win the competition.”
“They won the preseason cup quite comfortably and will likely no doubt bring that confidence into this match. My boys will need to be at their best if we are going to come away with the points.”
Match Official – Damien Bury
All Round 1 Fixtures –
