New Melbourne Victory Women’s coach Joe Montemurro has already set his sights on glory, revealing he’s targeting a second successive premiership for last season’s champs.
The Victory won their maiden title last season after a 2-0 victory over Brisbane Roar in the finals, with then head coach Dave Edmondson departing to take over at Bristol Academy.
“I’m looking forward to the challenge. Obviously the expectations are there and I don’t think we’ve left any stone unturned in regards to preparing ourselves for Round One,” Montemurro said.
“Yes, everybody’s going to come out and try to beat the champions but it’s a big challenge for me, massive challenge for the girls and for the club. So I’m looking forward to it.
“To take a team that’s just won a trophy in a championship but to also lead a back-to-back scenario [is the aim].”
While Edmondson did lead a good squad to the championship last year, Montemurro plans on making his own name at the club, and has delved into what makes him the coach he is.
“I’m very much a players coach. I’ll always ask opinions, how things are going,” he revealed
“I think players now days are a lot smarter than when they were in my days. They watch a lot of football, they understand football better.
“So healthy discussion, healthy ways of solving problems and for me it’s about good character.
“It’s about good characters who’ll represent the club well and good characters on the park that’ll battle and work as a unit and rely on each other.
“I’ll bring a more, player-coach relationship into the group.”
Having also recently undertaken the highest qualifications possible for coaching –the UEFA pro-licence – Montemurro explained that the knowledge imparted on him has completely changed the way he looks at the game.
“Attention to detail,” the head coach highlighted when asked what he’d learnt from the course.
“Having done [the pro-licence] in Italy, we’ll probably defend pretty well.
“Just the ability to look at games differently, analyse differently, and just that level of professionalism I want to bring to the group.”
Melbourne Victory will start their W-League title defence on Saturday, 13th September at Magic Park, to take on the Newcastle Jets. Kick-off is scheduled for 11:00am
Photo: Anita Milas/Melbourne Victory