New North Geelong Warriors head coach, Micky Čolina believes time is needed before the team is playing the football he wants.
After replacing the departed Ante Skoko last week, Čolina’s took the reigns for the first time against St Albans Saints, the team in which he rose to prominence as both a player and coach.
The Warriors won 3-0 in a fast-paced match, but the new boss maintains that the style of football he wants his Warriors to play will come over time.
“I’ll be honest, we want to be in a situation where we can play a possession-based game,” Čolina said.
“It will take time to give the confidence to people that want to play and receive and it won’t happen over night.
“But that’s the kind of game we want to play: to put it down and knock it around.”
The former Saints, Melbourne Knights and Richmond coach believes that the Warriors need to take its opportunity in the NPL to build up a team worthy of consistently challenging.
“In the long term we obviously want to utilise these two and half years remaining in the NPL where you can’t get relegated,” he said.
“You know, let’s develop a squad that’s going to take you further, rather than the overnight stuff that doesn’t eventuate.”
With a sighter of what he has to work with, Čolina and the board are in tandem with the belief that the Warriors could become a tour-de-force in the Geelong heartland.
“There’s big-picture stuff, and the club’s got the head screwed on the right way. They got their vision that they’re sticking to and working towards,” he said.
“The players probably now realise they represent the whole of Geelong. It’s probably something that hopefully the Geelong community can get behind them and support this team.
“They got some good ideas in place and they know what they want to do. One step at a time and they’ll get there.”
Despite the long-term plans, Čolina will be putting the emphasis on his young team to battle and win at all costs.
“No one is naïve to think that it’s going to happen straight away, it will take time,” he said.
“But in saying that, against the Saints, we said to ourselves: we have to be up for the battle. You got to step up to plate against the big, strong experienced sides.
“It’s pleasing to see that it paid off.”