Leckie, Good return from City as they begin finals' push
Dark clouds may be hovering over the Newcastle Jets but Melbourne City will still prepare for their best on Saturday, bolstered by Mat Leckie and Curtis Good's return as they push for the top six.
Mat Leckie and Curtis Good’s return is set to bolster Melbourne City’s ranks for Saturday’s clash with the Newcastle Jets, the first of six games the three-time defending premiers have to salvage their seasons and avoid snapping a decade-long run of finals football.
Seeking to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 2013-14, City resumes their campaign following the international break sitting seventh on the A-League Men table, two points back of sixth-placed Western Sydney Wanderers – who they put to the sword with a 7-0 thrashing in their last game – but possessing a game in hand.
With four of their last six games set to be staged at AAMI Park, their focus now turns to the first of those clashes, against a Newcastle Jets outfit winless in their last eight hitouts on Saturday afternoon.
And while they face the prospect of doing so without coach Aurelio Vidmar in the dugout, the 57-year-old still recuperating from an illness that meant it fell to assistant Ralph Napoli to perform pre-match media duties, they will at least have two of their biggest names back.
Leckie has been restricted to just six league appearances for City this season, with his last coming back on February 24 when he played 69 minutes in a 1-1 draw with Sydney FC. Good, meanwhile, hasn’t featured in two games, missing his side's 7-0 mauling of Western Sydney last time out with illness.
Beyond that pair, Napoli said that Marco Tilio was progressing well in his recovery from a hamstring injury and was targeting April 6’s Melbourne Derby as his return date but that Scott Galloway had suffered a setback in his attempts to return from a calf injury by picking up a knock to his knee that will rule him out for a few weeks yet.
“We won't be able to get greedy with him,” Napoli said of Leckie. “Even though we'd love to.
“We're looking at the next three games and trying to manage his load appropriately and his game time. Expose him [to minutes] and get some continuity into him because we know how important it is for the group. And giving him every opportunity to succeed long-term.
“So that's the focus and we'll get more into that with sports science and medicine post-training today.”
Good, meanwhile, will re-enter a centreback mix in which Samuel Souprayen and Nuno Reis have started back-to-back clean sheets, with Napoli saying the surplus of talent and the resulting competition for minutes would serve to strengthen the side.
There is also competition, unexpected competition, up top, where skipper Jamie Maclaren has come off the bench in City’s last two fixtures as, in an effort to take some level of pressure off him, Max Caputo was tapped to lead the line.
The teenager hasn’t done a lot wrong in his two starts, either, using his bigger frame to great effect in wins over top-of-the-table Wellington and the Wanderers and grabbing a goal in the latter fixture. Of course, Maclaren also scored in that 7-0 win, his first since City put eight past Brisbane in late December, and Vidmar has made a habit of saying during his dry spell that if he gets one, the goals will flow in the weeks that follow.
“Max has done a lot right but Macca [Maclaren] is our captain and he does a lot right day to day,” said Napoli. “That's the great thing about Jamie, he hasn't started the last couple of games but he's done really well when he's come on and scored a nice goal. And Max [has] also done really well.
“It all bodes well for competition, for spots. Macca, he's the ultimate professional. And even though he hasn't started the last couple of games, he's done a lot with Max in terms of mentoring, and helping him. That’s the beauty about Jamie, team first and he trains the house down. It bodes well for selection at the moment and we're in a really healthy place with that situation there.”
Unfortunately, the Jets as a whole can’t be said to be in a healthy place right now.
While reports continue to dangle hope in front of supporters’ faces, the four A-League owners propping the club up and looking for a buyer for its licence remain unable to get a deal over the line. And with that consortium looking for the exit, APL chairman Stephen Conry heightened existential fears surrounding the club when he said during the international break that the league was no longer in a position to support struggling teams.
Effectively, that means that the Jets either need to be sold or for its benefactors to commit to funding them for next season, or it may fold.
“Well, historically, these things, they go two ways. They galvanise a team or teams capitulate,” said Napoli. “We prepare for their best. And their best is very, very good. They push all teams. [They're] mobile, [they have] different options in attack, they have interesting rotations in their midfield. They're a very good team, very well-coached. So we'll just prepare for their absolute best and that's it.”