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Melbourne Victory's Billy Celeski challenges Adelaide United's Sasa Ognenovski in the A-League football final match, at the Telstra Dome, in Melbourne, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009. AAP Image/Martin Philbey
One of the most fascinating aspects of any season, be it in the domestic competition or an overseas league, is to see who emerges from being a fringe player or unknown at the start of the season to becoming a permanent and vital member of their respective side by season’s end.
These are the breakthrough players. Last season there was a stack in the A-League.
Now comes the difficult bit, ensuring they consolidate their great work of last season by continuing to build consistency and develop their games.
So for these 15 players, the upcoming season will be a critical one.
Billy Celeski; Arrived at Melbourne between seasons three and four, for the ACL campaign, and often found himself out wide. But soon his adroit work on the ball and mobility had him ousting the likes of Lopez and Brebner from the crucial holding role.
He did an outstanding job anchoring the champions’ midfield, but when I caught up with him at the A-League awards night, one sensed there was still a slight desire to influence things further up the pitch, where he caught the eye for the Olyroos in Athens. With Hernandez re-signed, he may have to bide his time to get higher up the pitch, but must keep doing a job, wherever he’s asked to play.
Scott Jamieson; Escaped the attention of most by developing in England and arrived at Adelaide rather unheralded. But soon he was forcing Aurelio Vidmar to use Cassio higher up the pitch. Up until the final third of the season, when he went a little quiet, he was on course to being the player of the season.
With Australia still seeking some depth in the left-back area, Jamieson could conceivably do a “Milligan” and force himself into the Socceroos World Cup squad with another outstanding season.
Adriano Pellegrino; Along with Rukavytsya and Dadi, and to a lesser extent Coyne and Srhoj, Pellegrino was one of the real success stories of Perth’s season. Essentially a right midfielder, he caught the eye with some outstanding technical work and an eye to create chances and score from long range.
When I caught up with him at the A-League awards, he was hopeful of continuing his excellent season four form and catching the attention of Pim Verbeek.
Fabian Barbiero; At the start of last season, there was no doubt Diego was the main driving influence of the Adelaide central midfield. But by the end of it Barbiero had emerged from state-league material to being one of the first names on Vidmar’s team-sheet.
A modern box-to-box driver, with excellent touch, passing and game-sense, Barbiero was one of the stars of the ACL campaign, and looked equally as comfortable whenever he was asked to hold the midfield.
Daniel Mullen; At the start of last season, Adelaide fans might have been forgiven for thinking they would have to wait a while to find a replacement for Richie Alagich, but then along comes a kid like Mullen and soon they’re thinking, Richie Who?
Demonstrating poise at carrying the ball forward and very sound defensive ability, Mullen is another who could soon be regularly knocking on the Socceroos door if he carries on from last season.
Matt Simon; Like Bruce Djite in season three, Simon emerged from his previous season as a promising striker who couldn’t score to become one of the most lethal and hard-to-handle front-men going around. He proved he could finish and confirmed he is handful, but then went a bit quiet as the Mariners’ season went into free-fall.
To my mind he is still raw, far from the finished product, so this season will be crucial.
Luke DeVere; Much to the displeasure of some Roar fans, I left them out of my top four at the start of last season, mainly due to the fact they looked short on numbers in defence. That was before DeVere emerged to become a promising addition alongside Moore in the heart of the defence.
Cool and composed, he demonstrated a very level head and filled in admirably for Ognenovski.
Ben Kantarovski; With so much off season movement in Newcastle after a successful season three, it was vital a number of kids stepped-up. While the Jets had a season to forget, the emergence of 16-year-old Kantarovski as a handy stopper-come-holding midfielder provided plenty of joy to the Jets and the league in general. The hope is he can continue to develop.
Tarek Elrich; Like his Jets teammate, Elrich stepped up, providing wonderful drive from right-back and proving a handy goal-getter when pushed into the final third.
Not the greatest technician, it’s his raw pace and athleticism that makes him such a threat, and he will need to continue to work on his final touch in order to take the next step.
Mitch Nichols; When Charlie Millers body started playing up, it was the driving influence of Nichols, who played closer to striker van Dijk, which made a massive difference to the Roar’s final third of the season.
To my mind he is the player that most resembles Tim Cahill in his ability to drift into the box and get on the end of things. He just has this knack of being in the right spot at the right time, a quality that can hardly be taught.
Michael Zullo; When van Dijk was struggling to adapt in the early part of the season, it was the electric left-winger causing much of the front third angst for the opposition. Went a little quiet later in the season and will have even more attention this season, so let’s see how he copes.
Tahj Minniecon; Like Zullo, a very positive kid who likes to get the ball on the deck and take defenders on, but he must continue to look for consistency. Very interesting to see how Bleiberg uses him, but the early indication is that he’s a vital member of Gold Coast’s first 11, evidenced by Bleiberg’s attempt to stop him from joining the national under 20s squad in Argentina.
Evan Berger; Like Elrich, his greatest asset is his athleticism, and he made a real impression flooding forward from his starting spot at left back. Also like Elrich, more work is required on his final ball, and with Surat Sukha in the mix, it will be interesting to see how much game time Berger gets.
Shannon Cole; while others like Gan, Grant and Danning emerged late in the season, Cole was a fixture early and caused quite a stir with his cultured right foot and ability over the dead ball. But his Achilles heel continues to be a lack of pace, an issue that could see him miss out on game-time this season.
Eugene Galekovic; Often keepers are left out of such analysis, but there’s little doubt last season was a breakthrough one for the Adelaide custodian, both in the A-League and ACL. So much so he has moved above Vukovic as the number one A-League number one.
There are goalkeeping spots up for grabs in Verbeek’s World Cup squad, and that should be just the motivation for Galekovic.
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