Adelaide United Head Coach, Carl Veart, spoke to media at Coopers Stadium on Thursday morning ahead of his side’s Original Rivalry clash with Melbourne Victory on Friday night.
It’s a rivalry Veart knows better than most, having featured in a number of South Australia vs Victoria clashes during his playing days.
Now the 52-year-old will lead his side into Friday’s Remembrance Day clash looking to get three valuable points prior to the league going on hiatus for the World Cup.
The origins of the rivalry:
“Being part of those first couple of seasons (of Adelaide United), that’s when it first sort of really took off.
“It’s back then (that) we were a very South Australian side, nearly all the players were from South Australia.
“We had a huge rivalry with Victoria.
“(John Kosmina) really pushed it back then and it sort of just grew from that.
“I think both sets of supporters, the atmosphere at these games, can’t be beaten for the rest of the games that we have all season.
“It’s a great atmosphere, it’s a great spectacle (even) just as a neutral to come and watch as well.”
Fanning the flame:
“It’s a big game and you want to challenge the players to step up for these games.
“It’s a big rivalry and we make sure we fire the players up to go out and be aggressive and get the points that we need to move on in the season.
“You want to play the game fair, but you have to also be aggressive and make sure, especially here at home, we get our fans on our side and get them to really drive us.
“That lifts you up and gives you that little bit of extra adrenaline, so it’s important that we start the game well and get the fans on our side.”
Injury update:
“We’re very fortunate that we still only have the long term injuries and they are tracking along really well.
“Johnny (Yull) is only one or two weeks away from re-joining full training.
“Zach Clough and Bernardo should be back in four to five weeks as well.
“Josh (Cavallo) has been given the clearance this week to start contact training.
“After the World Cup break, hopefully we’ll have everyone back on deck.
“We’ll have a good five, six days off for the players to refresh and then we’ll come back and have two or three weeks of prep work to get ready again for the second part of the season.”
