Wagga City Wanderers coach Ross Morgan will take a renewed focus on away form as the city’s representative side prepares for a fresh set of challenges in the nation’s capital.
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Coming into his second year at the helm of the Wanderers, the former Riverina Rhinos general has been tasked with leading the charge against a new set of rivals following the club’s recent shift into Capital Football’s NPL competition.
Wanderers’ poor form on the road plagued much of their State League tenure and Morgan is hoping the reduced travel time will allow his side to play their best football on enemy turf.
“I think it’s a really good chance for us to start picking up some results on the road,” Morgan said.
“It’s tough to get results when you’re travelling all the way to Sydney and those eight hour round trips take it out of the players.
“We’re confident we’ll be able to have more players on board with the reduced travel and that means we can take stronger sides out and play our best football.”
Having fronted up against Canberra opponents in the past, Morgan has better insight than most into the ACT system but the coach insists there’s not much difference between their State League rivals and those that await them in 2019.
That’s not to say Wanderers can’t make an impact in their debut season.
“I’ve had a bit of experience with those Canberra sides with Rhinos and I can say that standards-wise the competition will be similar (to State League),” Morgan said.
“Sides like Belconnen and Canberra Olympic are really, really good and probably above what we’ve played against in the past or last season, but I’m confident that we can get a really good run in NPL 2 and get some positive results in the year.
“I think this whole transition has been really good for the club and there’s a real buzz around at the moment with the men and women moving into the same competition.
“It feels more accessible to players and at the end of the day, we want the best local players in the Wanderers and playing at a representative level.”
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