The Central Coast Mariners are staring down the barrel of two games in five days and Head Coach Tony Walmsley is using tomorrow night’s match in Coffs Harbour against the Western Sydney Wanderers to see his trialists in action.
With a travelling party consisting of Hyundai A-League contracted players and trialists, the Mariners will use this crucial hit out to for a springboard into next Tuesday’s FFA Cup clash whilst assessing potential Mariners against an A-League counterpart.
In the midst of a heavy pre-season workload, the Mariners are in good shape to take on Western Sydney at Coffs Harbour for the first official hit out of the Yellow & Navy’s pre-season campaign.
Just five nights out from their Round of 32 Westfield FFA Cup match, Walmsley will utilise the trialists on tour as a part of his squad rotation to ensure the best team is available for selection next week.
“Everything so far has been geared towards next Tuesday’s FFA Cup game against Wellington and for me the pleasing thing is that we are in front of where we thought we would be for this part of the pre-season,” Walmsley said.
“The emphasis tomorrow night will be on performance because we’re rotating the squad and I’m really interested to see what players put their hand up for a starting position next Tuesday as well as the performances of our trialists,” he said.
Fabio Ferreira, Roy O’Donovan, Eddy Bosnar and Josh Rose are amongst the list of players who have remained on the Central Coast, which will not have a negative impact on their starting chances for next Tuesday.
Two players who are travelling to Coffs and have impressed ‘the Gaffer’ in the early stages are Anthony Caceres and Nick Fitzgerald.
“Caceres and Fitzy have been rotating well in the front third and if we can get them to do that on the fly within games then teams are going to find it very hard to contain us,” Walmsley said.
With one eye on next Tuesday, Walmsley praised the hard work of Mariners’ new strength and conditioning coach Brice Johnson for preparing his players ahead of schedule.
“Brice [strength and conditioning] has done a great job, we’ve definitely put a lot of work into the players that is going to hold them in good stead, we’ve tapered training a little bit to prepare for tomorrow night and the FFA Cup but things will ramp up again after Tuesday.”
Hyundai A-League contracted players IN Coffs Harbour: Liam Reddy, Glen Trifiro, Matt Sim, Nick Fitzgerald, Harry Ascroft, Mitch Austin, Storm Roux, Paul Izzo, Anthony Caceres, Jake McGing, Mickey Neill, Jacob Poscoliero and Liam Rose.
Central Coast Mariners’ trialists IN Coffs Harbour: Daniel McFarlane, Trent Buhagiar, Lachlan Wales. Dan Heffernan, Francesco Stella, Jake Adelson, Adam Berry
Match details
Friday 7 August 2015
Match: Western Sydney Wanderers vs. Central Coast Mariners
Venue: C.ex Coffs International Stadium
Kick-off: 7:00pm (AEST)
Tickets: CLICK HERE
Twitter: Join the match conversation @CCMariners
