Fremantle City have flown to the Hunter Valley as they prepare for their first national exposure in the Hahn Australia Cup.
The WA side meet Maitland FC on Wednesday in a tie between two of the competition’s in-form teams.
Freo are flying in the New Balance NPL. They have lost just once in 11 matches, with five wins from their last six including Saturday’s impressive 3-0 victory at league leaders Perth RedStar. It is a run that has taken them to fourth in the table, just six points off the top.
They also knocked out Australia Cup heavyweights Olympic Kingsway to reach this stage.
Maitland have been equally impressive and sit third in the NPL Northern NSW after six successive wins. Magpies striker Braedyn Crowley, who hit their winner at Lambton Jaffas on the weekend, has been the league’s Player of the Year for three of the past four seasons.
For Fremantle head coach Scott Miller, things could not be further from where the club was a year ago when they only avoided relegation to the State League via the play-offs.
“This time last year we were fighting for our lives, so we’re worlds away from where we were,” he said.
“For a lot of the players it’s an awesome experience about what happens when you do good things, and we’ve had a good run going second half of the season.”
Most Member Federation players want an away trip in the Australia Cup and Freo are no exception. “There’s excitement since we beat Kingsway and got the draw, and it was an away draw. But I have to remind the players there’s also a game over there!
“We had to play really well against Kingsway, who are a fantastic team, and again we’re going to have to play really well.
“We’ll give a good account of ourselves as we always do. There’s a lot of fight in this team, a lot of belief in the team. We know we’re playing against a very, very good team and we’ll do everything we can to make sure we’re at top level for the game against Maitland.”
– Bayswater City, Football West’s other Round of 32 representatives, are in action on Tuesday night at home to A-League Sydney FC. Tickets can be purchased here: bit.ly/4vX4uKC
Meanwhile, WA’s A-League side Perth Glory are at Queensland Lions FC also on Tuesday.
