Words: Steve Pitman
Image: Tony Dadsen (Brisbane Strikers)

Brisbane Strikers captain Jonti Richter believes his side can take more positives than negatives from the weekend’s opening-round 2-2 draw with Redlands United.

While admitting the Strikers dressing room was sombre after conceding a stoppage-time equaliser, the former Hyundai A-League player is remaining upbeat.

“Personally I thought it was a good performance that we can take encouragement from and if we can improve on that we are going to win a lot of games this year,” Richter said.

“There was great energy, great spirit, some really good football and you can’t really ask for much more than that, other than the three points from the first game of the season.”

The winger said Strikers could take could further encouragement from scoring two goals in its first match without prolific forward Matt Thurtell, who netted over 100 goals for the club before moving to PlayStation® 4 NPL Victoria side Bentleigh Greens in the off-season.

Richter identified the likes of himself, Jheison Macuace, Trent Clulow, Greg King, Scot Coulson and Josh McVey as key to a more even scoring spread.

“If we can all contribute 10 goals each there’s no reason why we can’t get as many as we need to hopefully be at the top of the table,” he said.

“In some ways you could say it’s a change of direction. Obviously when you’ve got someone like Turtle (Thurtell) who can score goals like he does you give him the ball and hopefully he does the rest.

“Now we might have to work a little bit harder team-wise to get the same amount of goals.”

While still having plenty of energy left in his 31-year-old legs, Richter expects the enthusiasm of young players will ensure plenty more high-tempo matches similar to Saturday night.

“The whole point of the Player Points System is to promote youth players and give them more opportunity in the first team,” the former Australia U20 international said.

“As a whole I think it’s evened out the league where it doesn’t really matter now if you’ve got the most money, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to put the best team out on the park.”