Massimo Murdocca has called on Melbourne Heart’s newly-acquired veterans to lead the way as the club attempt to break their 19-game winless record outside Victoria.
Massimo Murdocca has called on Melbourne Heart’s newly-acquired veterans to lead the way as the club attempt to break their 19-game winless record outside Victoria.
Last week, the Heart lost their first match outside their home state for the new season, going down 1-0 to Perth Glory and extending their abysmal record on the road which stretches back to December 2011.
The Heart will have another chance to break their drought outside Victoria on Sunday when they take on Brisbane Roar.
The concern for the Red and Whites, however, will be that they have only beaten the Roar in Brisbane once in their history – in their first trip to Suncorp Stadium.
But with the likes of Robbie Wielaert (34 years old), Michael Mifsud (32) and Harry Kewell (35) having all joined the Heart this season, Murdocca reckons the injection of experience should help the team succeed away from home sooner rather than later.
“The new boys that have come in, myself and a few others, we’re the ones that have to drive that,” Murdocca said on Friday.
The 29-year-old midfielder, who joined the Heart from Brisbane before this season, believed the Red and Whites were mentally affected by their away form in their loss to Perth last week.
“I think a lot of the boys were thinking about that record, to be honest, that away record and that’s something we’ve got to stamp out very quickly,” Murdocca said.
“This week gives us another opportunity to do that.
“You know, it all comes down to the boys being positive and believing in themselves.”
Heart head coach John Aloisi denied his team were mentally fragile outside Victoria and preferred to focus on what went right at nib Stadium in round three as his team continued their strong defensive start to the season.
“Even last week, we didn’t perform as well as we would have liked and the chances that Perth created were off set-pieces and the goal they scored was a mistake that we made,” Aloisi said.
“So we know defensively we’re strong, we just need to improve with the ball now.”
Aloisi added he will only take Kewell to Brisbane if he is ready to start Sunday’s game as the attacking midfielder continues to recover from a whiplash injury suffered in the Melbourne Derby, while Patrick Gerhardt will replace Patrick Kisnorbo (knee) in central defence.
“He (Kewell) trained the other day and we’ll see how he pulls up (after Friday’s session),” the 37-year-old coach said.
“We won’t risk it if there’s a slight risk because we want to make sure that when he gets back he stays back.
“So I think it’s more of a 50-50 at the moment.”
