Tuggeranong United Head Coach Mitch Stevens led the club to their first Men’s first grade finals series in 15 years last season as his young side secured fourth spot on the final day of a thrilling season before a semi-final shootout loss to Tigers FC ended the campaign.

But a month out from a round one rematch with their semi-final conquerors Stevens is not putting expectations on his largely unchanged side, sticking by last season’s mantra of taking the year on one game at a time.

“What served us so well last year was going back to the age old ‘one game at a time’ theory,” Stevens said this week.

“We won’t be messing around with that formula this time, but in equal measure the monkey is off our back in a way now.”

“The club made it to finals, we’re a top four side as of last year so the challenge now is whether we can build off that foundation.”

United have kept the core of last season’s top four side largely together despite lots of movement across the league, although Stevens admitted that the loss of standout midfielder Shane Murray was a big one for him ahead of the new season.

Murray was consistently amongst the best for Tuggeranong, and in the league, during 2018 as he marshalled the midfield for Stevens’ side and chipped in five goals including their first in the Elimination Final.

But the 27-year old has relocated to Sydney for work, so Stevens was forced to go in search of a midfield replacement, bringing Goran Mukevski across from Belconnen United for the new season.

“Losing Shane was a big blow, he was a super important player for us last year,” Stevens said.

“We had to make a move to ensure we got an adequate replacement, and so we’ve brought in Goran to fill that role.”

“Gozza has come in, he’s an excellent player and just a really great guy as well so we are hoping that it can be a seamless switch there.”

As well as Mukevski Stevens has recruited former Monaro man Daniel Linstead, but they key for United this season will be the consistency of Aisosa Ihegie who led the line for Tuggeranong with 10 goals and some outstanding performances in 2018.

Naturally talented and blessed with genuine athleticism, Ihegie put together arguably his most consistent season to date last year to help Tuggeranong on their finals run and Stevens knows what the 23-year old is capable of.

“When I took over Tuggeranong it was clear to everyone in Canberra that Aisosa was this electric winger who in one game could be outstanding but also struggle,” Stevens said.

“We worked really hard on the mental side of his game, because physically he is just outstanding.”

“He is so quick, he has great feet, there’s a real gem of a player there.”

“If he can do on the pitch what we see him do at training, he could truly be one of the outstanding players in the competition without shadow of a doubt.”

United’s local season begins in the Federation Cup against O’Connor on the 31^st March, before they get their National Premier Leagues season underway the following weekend against Tigers at Nijong, a clash Stevens said the side will have no trouble finding motivation for.

“Round one is always very interesting, there’s more expectation on you from outside after making finals,” he said.

“But it is good to have a game straight up that I won’t need to motivate the boys at all for, and to go head to head with a strong team straight away.”

“It’s always hard to know what to expect from another side in round one, but I just know that we need to be ready for anything.”

 

FFA Cup Qualifying Round 4 | Tuggeranong United v O’Connor Knights – 4pm, 31^st March @ Greenway

NPL Round 1 | Tigers FC v Tuggeranong United – 3pm, 7^th April @ Nijong Oval