Tara Murray
Spring Hills isn’t far away from getting more wins on the board in FV state league 4 west.
The Stallions have just one win in the first half of the season and find themselves sitting second bottom.
Stallions president Tom Markovski said they always knew it was going to be a tough season, with the side expecting to be in the bottom half of the table.
“Once COVID hit, we decided to go with local young players and start from scratch,” he said.
“We did it with the women’s side a few years ago, where the focus was giving youngsters at the club the opportunity to play.
“For us it’s a three year plan to get things on track.”
Under new coach John McAloon the group has started to show some good signs. The vibe on the training track has been good and they’re getting on average 30 players on the track.
“We knew it would be tough to get the kids going after a couple of interrupted seasons,” Markovski said.
“The culture though has been really good. We’ve got a couple of under-18s getting experience each week and we’re starting to see some good signs.
“John is used to coaching 18-19-year-olds. He’s a coach at SEDA.”
Markovski said the side could have quite easily been sitting in the middle of the table.
“The unfortunate thing has been the inexperience of the group,” he said.
“They’re conceding goals in the last minute.
“On the weekend it was one-all with two minutes to go and we conceded. Another week we were 0-0 and lost on the last kick of the game.
“In another match we were winning 2-1 and with two minutes to go we conceded.”
While the men’s side is down towards the bottom of the table, the women’s side continues to go from strength to strength.
The side is sitting second in state league 1 north-west.
Markovski said they were hoping to do enough go get promoted to the Victorian Premier League.
“The women are going well at this stage,” he said. “Two teams get promoted.
“We were on track last season to get promoted before COVID.
“We think that we are good enough with NPL [National Premier League] clubs are poaching players that we are developing.
“Premier league would be fantastic for the club. It’s been a team of local girls that have worked hard from division 4 and through to division 1.
