Brunswick Juventus coach Oliver Stankovski discusses club’s busy off-season

Brunswick Juventus took immediate and extraordinary steps to reinvigorate its squad after relegation and is looking for a strong response in 2024.

Tremayne Sadler in action for Brunswick Juventus.

Brunswick Juventus has an almost completely new squad ahead of the VPL2 season.

The Zebras suffered relegation last year and took immediate and extraordinary steps to reinvigorate the playing squad.

The club has announced 14 new faces for the coming campaign.

Reigning VPL1 Goalkeeper of the Year Choi Won-Suk, former NPL WA Golden Boot winner Steve Sokol, English forward Terence Carter and experienced defender Matt Lazarides are impressive additions.

New coach Oliver Stankovski said he was also looking forward to seeing the impact of the likes of Phill Petreski and Max Batchelor as well as returning players Stefan Baricevic, Nick Symeoy and Nathan Tidmarsh.

Tom Barforosh celebrates a goal.

“We were fortunate enough to retain four or five boys from the previous year, which gives us a little bit of stability and experience,” Stankovski said.

“It was also really important to bring in some new energy, some experience but also some youthful talent that we’ve been able to secure from around Australia.

“I honestly believe it’s a competitive group and we’re not fazed by the big task in front of us.

“It will be really hard, people are saying we’re going for promotion, doing this, doing that, but the reality is every team wants to win the league.

“Our mentality is we’ve got to lookout for ourselves, what we’re doing and focus on the principles of the club and align that with the playing group.

“We’re going to be an honest team, work really hard, and then add to that the flair and ability of some of these names and hopefully we can put on a good show.”

Juventus suffered a heartbreaking relegation last season, finishing 13th just two points shy of safety.

Tom Barforosh finished the season as the club’s top scorer with an impressive 11 goals but the club as a whole netted just 30 in 26 matches, the fewest in the competition.

Despite the high off-season turnover, Brunswick has made a strong start to pre-season.

The Zebras played Langwarrin and Mill Park before Christmas and picked up a win over NPL power Melbourne Knights in its first friendly of the new year.

Stankovski said the club was tracking well ahead of its season-opening clash against State League 1 South-East champion Melbourne Serbia at CB Smith Reserve on March 8.

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“The games we’ve had so far have been really encouraging,” he said.

“(Melbourne Knights) was a good hit out for us, first game back, and we walked away with a 1-0 win for us.

“As I said to the boys ‘it’s pre-season’ we’ll take the result but there’s still a lot of work we need to do.

“I’ve got a focus on our style of play, we want to get the ball on the deck and play attractive, attacking football and part of the mentality is to take it to people and have belief.”