Western United midfielder Steven Lustica's backed John Aloisi to return the A-League club to the finals.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Canberra product was excited about working with Aloisi again after he was appointed manager of the expansion club last week.
It will be the second time the pair have worked together after the former Socceroo took charge of the Brisbane Roar for the 2015-16 A-League season when Lustica was there.
The Roar were an extra-time semi-final loss to the Western Sydney Wanderers away from contesting the grand final that year.
While Western United made the semi-finals in their first season in the A-League, they couldn't repeat the feat in the last campaign.
It's seen the arrival of Aloisi, with Lustica confident he could return them to the finals as they return for pre-season training on Monday.
"We have a new coach now. Very excited to be working with John Aloisi again," he said.
"I worked with him when I was at Brisbane Roar and really enjoyed my time with him.
"Exciting times ahead for the club and very excited to be working with John again.
"We had a really good year that year. We were one win away from winning the premiership so we did really well in that year that I was with him.
"That's the target [to make finals]. It was a bit disappointing last season we didn't make the finals, but we all come back to pre-season ready to go and ... hopefully we can have a good season."
MORE CANBERRA SPORT
It will be Aloisi's third stint in charge of an A-League club, having also taken the reins of the Melbourne Heart - now City - before his three seasons in Brisbane.
Aloisi will bring experience from the biggest stages around the world - having played in Spain's La Liga, the English Premier League and Italy's Serie A, as well as for Australia at the World Cup.
"He knows his football. He's played at the highest level in some of the biggest leagues in the world," Lustica said.
"He's been there, he's got a lot of football knowledge and he's a great person as well.
"I'm sure everyone's going to really enjoy working under him."
Lustica's off contract at the end of next season, having spent the past season-and-a-half with Western United.
He was looking forward to helping the fledgling A-League club through the next stage of it's young journey.
The club's in the process of building a new stadium west of Melbourne, as well as new facilities.
He's been caught up in another Melbourne lockdown - the city's fifth - and was hopeful it would just be a short one, with the Victorian government initially putting it in place for five days.
The 30-year-old was lucky enough to get back to Canberra during his off-season to see family and friends.
"It's number five for us here in Victoria so we're pretty used to it now for well over a year now," Lustica said.
"You've just got to roll with it and hopefully it's just a short one this time.
"I got back [to Canberra] a few weeks ago when our season finished up for a few days and got to see my family, and caught up with a few friends - because I don't really get a chance to come back that much."