It started with club stalwart and captain Adrian Chiapetta moving to Oakleigh Cannons after the conclusion of the 2014 season, and ended with talented defender Kristian Konstantinidis being poached by South Melbourne on the eve of the 2015 NPL campaign.
In between, Northcote City also lost classy forward Trent Rixon to Port Melbourne, trio of young prospects Wade Dekker, Anthony Rizk and Phillip Petreski all to Melbourne City after its inclusion in NPL 1, and a host of other players to various clubs.
While high squad turnover is a prominent feature of modern football, Northcote City coach Goran Lozanovski can be excused for feeling his squad’s departures this pre-season may be more detrimental to the club’s fortunes than their NPL rivals.
His task hasn’t been made any easier after Round 1 – a 4-1 trouncing away to Green Gully – which was exacerbated by Jason Hayne’s needless dismissal in the 35th minute.
“It’s disappointing. Obviously clubs are clubs and everyone is trying to be the best they can be,” Lozanovski said.
“Since we’ve had our success in 2013, it’s amazing how people didn’t want to look at these players back then but all of a sudden, they’re wanted players.
“It’s part of our culture at Northcote, which is hard to swallow sometimes but if a player does perform and have a good season, suddenly these big clubs come poaching them and start giving them all the dreams that they think are going to happen in one season.
“It’s part and parcel of football. It’s disappointing on our behalf, especially losing KK [Kristian Konstantinidis] a week before the season starts, but I’ve been a player, I understand where they come from and it’s a bitter pill to swallow, but you need to move on.
The loss of significant players between 2013 and 2015 marks a new look team from that VPL championship side, but Lozanovski is looking on the bright side, with essentially a clean slate to provide his new players – along with existing squad members and youngsters – a chance to test themselves against other NPL heavyweights.
“There’s obviously more opportunities for other players in our group and it probably showed tonight that we are a young side, and with less experience in the competition than others at the moment,” he said.
“But there are a lot of positives out of it at the moment, I think we can work on a lot of things, and I think we’ll grow from it.
“It’s back on track working hard with everyone that we’ve got and making sure we give our roles and responsibilities to everyone, and hopefully they can do it to the best of their abilities.
The Northcote mentor also has a simple formula to ensure his side learns from its experience at Green Gully Reserve ahead of its clash against Melbourne Knights on Friday.
“I think we had some good patches in the game, but the red card put us on the back foot and made it very difficult for a young team,” he said.
“I think this game is so ruthless that teams are just pouncing on people’s mistakes and it’s not so much about teams carving up other teams, so it’s about limiting our mistakes and pouncing on opposition mistakes.”