Adelaide United midfielder Travis Dodd is confident his hugely underrated side will once again prove the pundits wrong when the 2009/10 Hyundai A-League Season kicks off this weekend.
Last season’s grand finalists have barely rated a mention in most pre-season discussions with reigning champions Melbourne Victory and newcomers Gold Coast United enjoying the most air time.
But Dodd, a veteran of 92 appearances for the Reds, expects his side to be well and truly in the conversation after 27 rounds.
“If the media wants to put all the attention on the other clubs that’s fine,” he said.
“We’re used to it I guess, we just fly under the radar and we have again this pre-season so we’ll come out on Friday night (against Perth Glory) ready to go and hopefully we can start putting ourselves out there.”
“We’re confident in ourselves we’ve had a solid pre-season so we know what we’re capable of, and we’ve had some good results in the pre-season so we look to continue it.”
While upbeat about his side’s prospects, the 29-year-old admits the Reds can ill-afford to meander through the opening rounds.
“We’ve got five of the first seven games at home so it’s going to be a very important start for us,” he said.
“We do need to put points up on the board early, we’ve got a very difficult run home so we don’t want to be waiting for the last few games to try and go away from home to try and pick up a point here and there and secure a spot in the finals.”
“To be honest we set ourselves targets and one of them is to win all of our home games.”
“And to have five so early on in the piece, we want to win all five games.”
Dodd admits the pain of the club’s second grand final loss in three seasons is still fresh, but vowed to go a step further in the upcoming campaign.
“It was a massive disappointment to lose the grand final the way we did but unfortunately it’s part of the game,” he said.
“You work hard again to try and get yourself in the same position, try and make another Finals series and make another grand final.”
“That’s certainly what we’ll be setting out to do this year and hopefully bring the championship back to the fans.”
The Reds host a new-look Perth Glory boasting current Qantas Socceroos Mile Sterjovski, Jacob Burns and Chris Coyne on Friday night.
“They do look good on paper but paper doesn’t win you games,” Dodd said of David Mitchell’s men.
“It’s going to be good to play against them, they’ve certainly recruited very well and I would expect them to do well this season.”
