Winning a championship is one thing, but backing it up the next year is another and in Melbourne City’s case – the hunger to do it all again is still radiating through their four walls.
There is every reason under the sun to believe City can – and will – go back to back. They’ve kept the vast majority of their championship winning squad and brought in additional quality to help compliment their already stacked team.
On paper, and depending on who you ask, there is arguably no team in the A-League Men’s competition that has as much quality or depth as City does.
However, in some cases, once you reach the summit the hunger and yearning to do it all again can slowly wane but according to City captain Scott Jamieson – they aren’t finished just yet.
“I don’t think it (the club’s mentality) has necessarily changed,” Jamieson said.
“I think the club is a realist in the sense that we’ve won our first championship and our first premiership but within the club and the characters inside the club there is no case of complacency or no place of patting ourselves on the back,
“There is still the hunger, there’s still the want to get better individually and collectively so I think the view of the football club has changed from the outside rather than the inside,
“Yeah, we hadn’t won any titles prior to last year but we always knew that there was pressure from outside the football club because of the whole backing [and] resources,
“To be honest, when I played against Melbourne City I wanted to beat them because I always saw them as the spoiled kids so I understand where other clubs and other players have always thought of us. I don’t think it’s necessarily changed inside the club, there’s no necessary change inside the club, there’s always a want and hunger to get better and win titles.”
City survived a scare in their opening round 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar, after a disappointing second-half almost cost them all three points against Warren Moon’s side.
Jamieson believes his side understand where they went wrong in the final 45 minutes and will look to rectify those mistakes when they take on Adelaide United on Saturday evening in what shapes as a potential banana skin for the reigning champions.
“I think we identified where we let slip with our structure, with our press and with our intensity,” Jamieson said.
“That was good to be able to see that where we went wrong and it’s about making sure we don’t make the same mistake twice. For us, we feel that, albeit it was a disappointing second half, we did enough to squash the game inside 60 minutes and we didn’t do that,
“We will look towards looking to rectify a few slips within ourselves as individuals and then as a team but then build on the good stuff from last week,
“[Saturday is Adelaide’s] first home game, so you take that into consideration because of a new season they may have a bigger crowd than they usually get – which is great. It’s always a good situation where you’re playing an opposition with a big following.
“We’re very confident with how we stack up against Adelaide and any other team.”
Image: Getty
