Brisbane Roar defender Matt Mundy has insisted that his side doesn’t intend to cruise through this year’s training fixtures, instead predicting strong performances in all of the club’s pre-season games.
The long road to their Hyundai A-League title defence kicks off tonight at Cleveland Showgrounds when they take on Brisbane Premier League club Redlands United.
Over the next month, the Roar will face BPL sides Peninsula Power, Eastern Suburbs and Brisbane Olympic, as well as current Queensland State League champions Sunshine Coast Fire with more fixtures in July soon to be confirmed by the club.
The 24-year-old said the squad wanted to use the training games to showcase their talents to the local community but also to reacquaint themselves with Head Coach Ange Postecoglou-s football philosophy within the context of a 90 minute match.
“We-ll use these games to try and get our combinations right, work together as a team and making sure we-re still familiar with the way each of us plays,” he said.
“In saying that though, no one wants to lose.
“We-re supposed to be the flagship team of the state and we want to show that.
“We definitely don-t want to lose any pre-season games.”
Capable of playing in the centre of the back four or on either flank, the former Rochedale Rovers junior made 15 appearances during the club-s Hyundai A-League Premiership and Championship-winning season of 2010/11, providing Postecoglou with a reliable defensive option to call upon when needed.
While insisting it-s was premature to be thinking about claiming a spot in the Brisbane Roar starting eleven next season, Mundy made it clear he was ready to fight for more appearances in the orange jersey.
“It-s still too early in the pre-season to be worrying about that,” he said.
“I-ll just go out there in these games and play my best to make sure I-m in the gaffer-s plans.
“Every player wants to start games and get as much game time as they can so I-m going to be striving towards that certainly.
“From a personal perspective, I had a calf injury for a week or so at the beginning of pre-season which sort of hindered things but I don-t feel I-ve lost too much momentum or fitness so it-s all going smoothly.”
Friday night-s fixture marks almost twelve weeks since the stunning Hyundai A-League Grand Final decider – the Brisbane Roar players- last competitive hit-out – and Mundy said the squad was more than ready to return to the fold.
“We-re definitely ready to start playing some games,” he said.
“We-ve been hanging out for some games and we-ve been counting down so everyone is looking forward to it.
“We-ve come back into training and instead of starting again, we-re carried on from last year so everything is flowing very nicely.”
