Bayswater City are overwhelming favourites to win the inaugural NPL WA but check out Coach Talk to find out who tipped Sorrento, who's backing Stirling Lions and the players to watch in 2014.

 

 

Lee Bamber - Armadale
Season preparation: It’s gone really well. People might look at some of the Night Series results and think we’re struggling but since then it’s all been very positive. We’ve won every game since then and the confidence is high with the lads.
Players to watch: Jason Barrera and, when he starts to play, young Alex Clarke. Alex made his debut as a 17-year-old. He plays on the wing and is absolute lightning. If has the right attitude, he can play at a much higher level.
Tip: No-one will go close to Bayswater. They’ve got the best players and they’ve got a coach who’s got more time on his hands to prepare than anyone else.

Ramon Falzon - Balcatta
Season preparation: It has been long and we’ve worked hard so quite obviously everybody is looking forward to this weekend. We’ve been blending in youngsters with the experienced players because it’s needed.
Players to watch: I always think people should look out for the entire squad. We’re not there yet but we’re trying to blend individuals so that they work cohesively in a unit. Adam Tong is captain and he will have an important role to play.
Tip: I think Bayswater because they are definitely the outstanding team in our competition. It’s not just the fact that they’ve won practically everything last year but even watching them in the Night Series they’ve definitely got better qualities compared to other teams.

Chris Coyne - Bayswater City
Season preparation: I’ve been very pleased. The boys looked after themselves and came back super fit and it’s been good in terms of the type of football we’ve started to play.
Players to watch: I’m not going to name one. I’ll name the whole squad because I think we have good quality all over the pitch. Obviously some of the new faces that have come in are Chris Saldaris, Danny Dixon, Sahr Musa, Declan Hargreaves.
Tip: I think Sorrento will go close this year. If they keep people fit, Trevor (Morgan) and Jamie Harnwell will have them super-organised and I think they will be hard to break down.

Marc Anthony - Cockburn City
Season preparation: They’re fit enough,it’s just a case of the boys taking everything we’ve done in training into the game come Saturday. It will be tough against ECU first game. They are renowned for their youth set-up and I know that (coach) Dale (McCulloch) will have them fired up, so it’s going to be a massive game for both clubs and hopefully we come out on top.
Players to watch: Well obviously we want everyone to come on from last year, we want everyone to improve. You’ve got Paul Natale, who’s one of the older boys, Eamon McNelis and Conor Kavanagh. We’ve also got Steve Howson from Bunbury, who we really wanted last year, so he’s one to look out for as well.
Tip: I think Bayswater are quality. We will try and give it a crack and try to finish as high as possible, but I think Bayswater will be the team to beat. I think you’ll find that teams like Balcatta and Perth and teams like that will also be a lot stronger this year.

Dale McCulloch - ECU Joondalup
Season preparation: It’s been excellent. The boys have been training really hard. It’s a long pre-season so we’re raring to go for Saturday.
Players to watch: Everyone comes to watch attacking players so you can’t go past Tommy Amphlett and John Higgins. Tommy gives you leadership but he’s still a young lad as well, so he’s got plenty in front of him. He’s been training well and he’s a player who can shift you two or three spots on the ladder.
Tip: Bayswater are the benchmark. Football is a funny game and Stirling proved they were the best team after 22 rounds last season. But I can’t go past Bayswater.

Chris Barbas - Floreat Athena
Season preparation: Pre-season has been enjoyable, at times, and we’re happy with the way things are progressing.
Players to watch: I’m looking forward to seeing Bobby Wilson back. He had to deal with a pretty bad injury most of last year so he’s looking good and is about two weeks away. I think Aryn Williams is going to show a lot coming back.
Tip: Stirling are probably going under the radar a bit again and they will be difficult to beat but Bayswater will be a bit wiser after last year.

Graham Normanton - Inglewood United
Season preparation: Pre-season went really well and we’re happy where we are, so we’re looking forward to it.
Players to watch: There are obvious players in Greg Sharland, Ryan Francis, Ryan Clarke, David Perich, they are the sort of players people will enjoy watching. We’ve got a few young kids coming through that I’m really happy with in Joey Pullella and Dhuors Chol.
Tip: It’s an obvious answer to an obvious question. Bayswater will win it by a large margin and the rest of us are playing for second. I think they’ve learnt from last year when they got complacent at times. But who will finish second? Inglewood.

Taki Nicolaidis - Perth
Season preparation: It’s been good. We’ve experimented with a few players. We’ve got a lot of new faces – I think nine new signings for the season - and we’re still looking at topping up our squad because we need to be successful. Inside the club, we’ve got Gary Marocchi as the president and  some ex-coaches on the football operations side of things.
Players to watch: We’ve got a lot of experience in Clark Keltie, an ex-English pro, Mark Pritchard, whose been in the State League for a few years, and obviously Ash Rosindale, a top goalscorer.
Tip: Bayswater have got the experience and the depth in cover but it’s a 22-week season and things happen. They may lose a player or two whether it’s injury or suspension or an A-League club picking them up. They are beatable but at the moment they are going strong, they are the benchmark and we’re all striving to beat them.

Scott Miller - Perth Glory
Season preparation: We’ve got a really young group of guys in the NYL who’ve had a tough learning season. It was a great thing because towards the end of the year they started to show improvement. Hopefully we’ll get them to a stage where they can be competitive against the big men and strong bodies.
Players to watch: The usual suspects from the NTC in the likes of Jacob Collard, Blamo Quaqua, Scott Robertson and Joe Knowles. Every week one of the young boys steps up and shows that he’s listening.
Tip: It’s the Rolls Royce. If anyone gets close to Bayswater they’ve done very well.

Trevor Morgan - Sorrento
Season preparation: It’s always difficult because some of the boys can’t make it some nights and some of them have different levels of fitness. They’ve worked hard and they are a good set of lads. From what I’ve seen Jamie’s going to be a good coach. It’s up to us to make it as professional as we can.
Players to watch: We are strong in midfield with Reece Vittiglia and Scott Bulloch has come back. We’ve signed a couple of lads, Michael McGinley and Sean Canham. Sorrento have always been a difficult team to play against and we will be well organised and hard to beat.
Tip: You really have to say Bayswater because of the players they’ve got. But that won’t detract from what we’re trying to do because we want to win the league and we want to win every game we play. We have the players who can do it. Historically players get a little mental blockage about coming to play at Sorrento and we will look to carry that on.

Gary Williams - Stirling Lions
Season preparation: It’s been good. It’s obviously been different for me stepping up and the players have responded really well to our methods. Predominantly things haven’t changed that much since Doug (Hesketh) left. It’s been going really well, we were a bit unfortunate to get knocked out of the Night Series, which would have helped our preparation, but we’ve had friendlies every week since then so we’re in a good space at the minute.
Players to watch: I’m not one to talk about individuals. I really want to promote the team concept. We have good individual players but generally everybody’s going to be in it together. There’s one or two new faces, Hayden Doyle’s returned from Victoria, Danny Milne has come in from Scotland and then we’re looking forward to Dave Micevski coming back after 12 months out with injury.
Tip: I think everybody’s going with Bayswater aren’t they?

Gerry McEwan - Subiaco
Season preparation: We’ve come up from the second division so we’ve had to sign a few new players but we’ve managed to keep a couple of the first team players from last year and we’ll blood a lot of the under-18s, who won the second division last year. We played our last friendly of the pre-season against Sorrento and got a draw so the boys took a bit of confidence from that and we’re looking forward to Saturday.
Players to watch: We’ve got Jordan Rhodes back in, he used to play for us and he has Premier League experience. We’ve signed Ian McMurray because he’s looking to be a player-coach. We’re putting him through his C Licence and he’s going to take our under-18s. With the NPL when you sign an experienced player he’s got to have good character. So Ian will have a huge influence. We’ve also signed a centre back, who was with Liverpool and Celtic Academies. He wants to put himself in the shop window, Laurence Gaughan.
Tip: Bayswater have set a very high standard so everyone is going to be gunning for them. But I think Stirling Lions will go close again. I’m going to tip Stirling Lions.