Good afternoon. We’ll start today by wrapping up the week’s news and its been a pretty interesting one. The A-League transfer window opened on Tuesday and Melbourne Victory are said to be keen on shopping around. Its understood that Jim Magilton wants to bring in a foreign player but there are some issues stopping him from doing so.

We learnt on Thursday that Ricardinho (remember that guy?) is still on the Club’s books. Anthony Di Pietro said last year that the Brazilian would be released at the conclusion of his loan deal but it seems they’re having some trouble in working out a solution. The board were hoping to make a sale by offloading him, following his loan but its not surprising that it didn’t work out. Now their options are: mutual termination, where Ricardinho would be released on a free transfer or he is released and the Club pay out the remainder of his contract – which is due to expire on April 30.

Having already had to pay out several contracted staff members in the last twelve months its understandable that the board would be trying to minimise the damage but its just further proof of how poorly the Club has been run, both towards the end of the Miles/Lord era and since the Wilson/Di Pietro duo took control.

Moving on then and the focus at Victory training this week has been on playing out games. So often this season the team has dropped off in the second half and that it something that Magilton wants to turn around. Ante Covic admitted that finishing off games has been a major problem for the players:

Mentally, it hasn’t been the greatest season and we haven’t played a full 90, so mentally that plays on some people’s minds. But we have to come out in the second half and we’ve got to be smarter on the ball and retain it more.

We’ve come out in the second half and maybe we’re content or want to hold on to the lead, but we’ve got a team that doesn’t need to do that. Jim’s seen that and mentioned it and the good thing is he’s been vocal and let us know what he wants.

There’s also been a lot of positive talk about Magilton’s training sessions. Under Durakovic the poor performances on the pitch lead to criticisms that the players weren’t preparing for games properly but it looks like Magilton has a greater understanding of what is required. This week particularly, the players have been put through their paces, says Covic:

The sessions have been good and quite intense, three of the sessions have been as hard as we’ve had since I’ve been here.

So, a tough test awaits as we’re away to Perth tomorrow. For some reason we always have difficulty over there – we’ve lost six of the past seven matches at nib Stadium. Hopefully we can change that on Sunday. With the Glory coming off the back of three games in eight days we can use that to our advantage but they’re also on a five-game unbeaten run and in solid form so we’ll have to be wary. Coming up against the dangerous Shane Smeltz we need a good performance from our defence if we’re to get anything out of this game.

As for our own squad there are a few changes this week. Carlos Hernandez has been ruled out with a groin injury and Fabio misses due to suspension after racking up five yellow cards this season. Magilton has said that he wants to give everyone an opportunity to impress so their absences will make way for players like Matthew Kemp and possibly Cernak or Rojas. Jimmy Jeggo has also been included in the extended squad. Celeski and Pondeljak still remain sidelined through injury and Danny Allsopp is expected to be left out on match day so we should see Solorzano play a part for the second week running.

Tomorrow’s match is all about building on last weeks first half performance. With all the positive energy coming out of the squad at the moment I expect to see our most spirited display since that first meeting with Brisbane this season.

Before I go today, a reminder that the latest tickets competition is now on. Check out the competitions page for your chance to score a double pass to next weeks Australia Day clash with Sydney.

Enjoy the game folks. Come on Melbourne!

Can Melbourne come away with the three points tomorrow? Leave your comments below.