Bentleigh Greens coach John Anastasiadis was full of praise for his side after officially being crowned National Premier League premiers for the first time.
The 4-1 victory over Port Melbourne saw the Greens get its hands on the Premiers Plate – adding to the FFV Community Shield and the Dockerty Cup they have already secured in what has been a magnificent campaign thus far.
Currently in the midst of a long, gruelling campaign, Anastasiadis paid tribute to the tireless work his side has put in dating all the way back to the pre-season.
“It’s been a sensational year so far,” Anastasiadis told MFootball.
“Like I said to the boys after the game, you work hard all year starting off in the pre-season and you get your just rewards.”
“We’ve won two cups in a week which has been fantastic – I’m very proud of the boys.”
One of the highlights from Sunday’s comfortable win was the emergence of youngsters Fin Olsen and Brady Quinn, who both impressed when coming on as second half substitutes.
The duo looked very much at home in what is a testament to the club’s youth system which mirrors the philosophy of the senior team.
“Fin was great – he scored a goal and showed some very good touches and the same with Brady also,” said Anastasiadis.
“We want our under 20’s, 18’s and 16’s playing the same way as the seniors so they can come in straight away without me having to teach them what to do.”
A huge positive for Bentleigh has been the resurgence of striker Ryan Paczkowski, who netted a brace in the final game of the season to go with his winner in the Dockerty Cup final.
Anastasiadis was pleased that the marksman has stepped up in the absence of some key attacking artillery.
“We’ve lost Chris Lucas for the year and Matt Thurtell is coming back from his injuries so we needed someone to step up,” he said.
“I had a chat to ‘Patchy’ last week saying that the load is going to fall on him and his taken it on board.”
“It’s good that he’s scoring as it puts us in good stead for the upcoming games.”
One of those up-coming games sees the reigning champions make the trip to Tasmania to take on Davenport in their round of 16 FFA Cup clash next Tuesday evening.
The 48-year old expects a tough examination from the Tasmanian champions.
“They’re a very good team who won their league very convincingly and are very strong going forward,” said Anastasiadis.
“We’ll analyse their game-plan in the next couple of days, put that into training and hopefully we’ll be ready for the game next Tuesday.”