Image: Rob Cruse
It was always going to be a baptism of fire for Dom Barba taking on his new role this season at the helm of Port Melbourne.
The first three rounds this season see Port take on three of last year’s top four sides, including the two Grand Finalists in South Melbourne and Oakleigh Cannons.
On current evidence though it seems as though Barba will well and truly be up to the task and Port’s status as a dark horse this season following a minor rebuild holds some credibility.
“It’s hard to predict which way this whole league will go, it’s hard to predict how we’re going to go” Barba says.
“All I can ask for is best efforts from my team week in week out and if we do that we’re going to make a good account of ourselves and hopefully results will take care of themselves.”
A 1-0 loss away to Heidelberg United to start the season was largely an expected result though the narrow score-line was suggestive of an improved outfit that finished just three points above the drop zone last year, not knocking off the threat of relegation until the last round.
All the same, they were unable to create a great deal of opportunities to threaten Heidelberg and Barba feels his team were off the pace in the opening round.
“The first game was a really interesting game, to be honest I’m not sure why they turned up the way they turned up,” he says.
It was a different story last Friday however when Port Melbourne played host to reigning champion South Melbourne and caused the upset of the round, thumping Chris Taylor’s men 4-0.
“I certainly never expected it but at the end of the day we took our opportunities and to be fair the game was relatively well balanced between both sides, it’s just that we had chances that we took.”
Seemingly unfazed by the level of opposition, Barba’s men were able to string together incisive passing combinations and take on audacious shots as newcomers Andreas Govas, Chris Cristaldo and Oleksiy Khrapko all scored their first goals for the club, with the latter netting a brace.
“Fortunately we were able to get on the ball quite a bit and influence the game through (Francesco) Stella and Govas,” he says.
“The introduction of Cristaldo was a really important introduction and Khrapko gave us a lot of strength up top… it all just seemed to work well.”
“In terms of the squad… we did make some last minute inclusions and we took opportunities. Some people may say they were risks and they could be risks if it doesn’t work but we’ve gotta back people and I’m a person of giving people second chances and hopefully we will be able to benefit from that.”
For the Port Melbourne coach, the sky is the limit this season but he knows that every moment is important in achieving the ultimate goal.
“For me, you want to win the Grand Final, it’s as simple as that,” he says.
“The realistic viewpoint is that for me just to be successful after every training session and tick that box. If we can accumulate those moments and get the results we’re out to achieve on a week by week basis – we’re not really looking too far ahead of that – for me that’s all we can really focus on.”
Next for Dom Barba is another home game tonight against slow-starting Oakleigh Cannons. Twice in the opening two rounds Cannons have surrendered a two goal advantage, first to newly promoted Kingston City and then last week to Barba’s old side Bulleen Lions.