SOCCER
JEROME Valadon and Sonny Lindsay are the first new signings of the Ross Wallis-Stephen Duffy era at Peninsula Strikers.
The Centenary Park outfit has been on the hunt for promotion from State 2 South-East for the past four seasons and joint coaches Wallis and Duffy hope to realise the club’s dream.
The senior squad has held five training sessions but the reserve squad is yet to assemble as the club continues to search for a new reserves coach following Paul Nott’s departure.
“We didn’t want to do an expressions of interest sort of thing and have all these lads rocking up,” Walliss said.
“I wanted to give the senior squad from last season their opportunity first to show us what they can do.
“Quite a few left without even coming down so now we’ve brought in a couple of players.
“We were advised about reserves who were knocking on the door last season and they were invited to come to senior training.
“I don’t want to sound disrespectful but we didn’t want to bring down new signings and have them training with reserve players who are not going to get a look-in with the seniors just yet.
“That brings the standards down too much and is another reason we didn’t want to hold open trial sessions.
“Every session and the drills we do are with a ball and every session is intense.”
Strikers have a preferred candidate for the reserves job but Wallis won’t name him yet.
There’s no doubt that more re-signings and new signings will be announced over coming weeks.
You can expect to see former Strikers midfielder Cal Bradbury among the new signings and Wallis is open about his admiration for him.
“He’s fantastic and he’s my favourite player,” Wallis said.
“Technically he’s brilliant and has the best attitude.
“I just can’t fault the fella.”
Bradbury and Wallis were at Hampton Park United for part of last season and another Hampton Park player – defender Rayyan Siddiqui – seems certain to be another new signing.
Of the old guard (no pun intended) quadragenarian Wayne “Buzzer” Gordon should soon be announced as re-signing with Strikers.
“Yeah he’ll go around again,” Wallis said.
“We’ve sat down and had an open and honest discussion and he knows if he’s fit enough he’ll play.
“I can tell you right now he’s looking very sharp indeed.”
Both Valadon and Lindsay have played under Walliss previously and this has made the switch to Strikers a seamless process.
The players are well versed in Wallis’s methods and he is in prime position to get the most out them.
“Jerome’s workrate and attitude to the game are first class.
“He’s an absolute nuisance to play against similar to ‘Buzzer’.
“He is the sort of player you want in your side and would hate to play against.”
Valadon made his senior debut under Adam Jamieson at Mornington back in 2019 and his CV includes spells at Dandenong City, Mazenod, Mooroolbark and Croydon City.
“Ross is the reason I signed at Strikers,” Valadon said.
“I worked with him at Mooroolbark and he’s a really switched-on coach.
“He knows his stuff and is very committed.
“I have no doubts that he’ll get the best out of this group.
“I expect us to be very competitive in every game and I think we can be successful next year.”
One of the players that caught Walliss’ eye during his spell at Hampton Park United was Lindsay.
“You could see his potential straight away and there were never any doubts about his ability,” Wallis said.
“I don’t want to say too much about Hampton Park but I was keen to give Sonny the opportunity at a different club with a different culture and I think he’ll thrive here.”
A number of Strikers players are training under Lachlan McMinimee at State 1 outfit Doveton.
Former Strikers defender Billy Rae is training at Doveton along with current Strikers players Sam Maggs, Tom Wood, Kyron Kerr and Cooper Andrews.
Andrews has also trained with Hampton East Brighton.
“While I’m disappointed that a few boys never mentioned that they’d be training with other clubs I certainly accept that they have every right to improve themselves and try and play at a higher level,” Strikers president Adrian Scialpi said.
Late last week Strikers announced that Ben Caballero, Matt Harrington and Alex White had re-signed.
The local club remains confident that Riley Anderton and Danny Brooks will re-sign but there’s uncertainty over Jaiden Madafferi’s plans for next season.
Strikers have arranged six pre-season matches next year.
On Friday 23 January they play Croydon at Dorset Recreation Reserve (KO to be confirmed); on Saturday 31 January they play Mazenod at Centenary Park at 3pm; on Saturday 14 February they play Skye Utd at Centenary Park at 1pm and 3pm; on Saturday 21 February they play Heatherton Utd at Centenary Park at 1pm and 3pm; on Saturday 28 February they play Ringwood City at Centenary Park at 1pm and 3pm; and on Saturday 28 March they play Collingwood City at Centenary Park at 1pm and 3pm.
In VPL1 Langwarrin lost 1-0 to Altona City at Lawton Park on Saturday.
Langy head coach Jamie Skelly wasn’t fazed by Saturday’s result.
“While we haven’t been scoring goals we’re creating chances and once the players become sharper as the pre-season progresses the goals will come,” Skelly said.
New Langy signing Alex Kubenko, Zac Bates and Tom Youngs all had game time after missing the Dandenong Thunder game through injury.
Kubenko was first signed by Langwarrin as a youngster from Springvale White Eagles in December 2020 but left to get more regular senior experience.
He can play anywhere across the front and is quick and direct.
He has scored regularly at VPL2 level for the past two seasons with Nunawading City.
In other news 20-year-old Langwarrin prodigy Alana Murphy is making her mark in Germany’s second division with SC Sand.
She’s primarily being used as a defensive midfielder but scored with a long-range effort in a recent 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt and won player of the match honours.
Finally this week’s friendlies kick off with Langwarrin hosting Box Hill at Lawton Park on Tuesday at 7.30pm.
On Saturday Langy hosts Melbourne City at 11am (seniors) with under-20s/23s at 1pm.
Skye United is in action on Saturday travelling to Comets Stadium to take on Casey Comets at 11am and 1pm (seniors).
