LUKE CASSERLY | Auckland FC assistant coach chats their great start to the defence of their A-League crown

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Luke Casserly (0:45)

Yeah, good morning. Pleasure to be with you.

SPEAKER_3 (0:46)

Top of the table, heading to West Sydney. Pretty happy after that first up performance, mate.

SPEAKER_5 (0:52)

Yeah, really pleased.

Luke Casserly (0:53)

I think, obviously in the off season, there's been a fair bit of change and we had a lot on in Auckland over the weekend and to get the support that we had at the game. With the changes and the amount of people that showed up for us, it was really great for us to get off to a good start.

Sammy (1:15)

Luke, Sammy here, really grateful for you to coming on the show. Let's talk about those changes and how it's been adjusted. Obviously, the first real game, competition game in Anger for the ball being kicked for you guys.

What changes, so how hard were those changes to adjust for the players?

Luke Casserly (1:34)

Look, I don't think it's massive changes. Pedro has come in and really respectful about what's been achieved here in the first two years. He wants to keep all the really good things about us and not change the club's DNA.

And then wants to add his own things to it as well. So now I think it's been pretty smooth. It's obviously the nucleus of the squad has been together. There's a few new faces, but the nucleus has been together for a couple of years. So, yeah, it's not exactly drastic changes, but it's certainly some tweaks to how we want to do things. And yeah, it was off to a good start.

SPEAKER_3 (2:10)

Always intrigued with your role at the club, Luke, coaching the IFC team and then as an assistant with the first team. That's a busy old schedule for you. How do you find the balance and how do you operate going from a head coaching position into an assistant role and back and forth throughout the year?

Luke Casserly (2:26)

You know how it is. We all have bosses in life.

SPEAKER_3 (2:31)

Terry McFlinn's got the whip out, has he?

Luke Casserly (2:35)

So last year was a bit different. So the first two seasons, in season one and season two, I was the second assistant coach and head coach of the reserves initially, and then head coach of the LLC Pro League. But this season, I'm solely with the A-League, so I won't be doing the LLC Pro League team this year. So yeah, I'm just basically stepped into Danny Hayes' role as the lead assistant coach for the A-League team.

And my full focus is there. So a little bit different for me this year. It's actually, in some ways, it's a bit easier to just be able to focus on the one team.

SPEAKER_3 (3:06)

I appreciate you clarifying that for me, mate. I wasn't quite entirely sure of how many jobs they've got you doing there at the club.

I want to talk about the opener though. What pleased you most as a coaching group? Was it the approach of the team? Was it the mindset? Or was it the way they were able to execute at the right times?

Luke Casserly (3:23)

Yeah, look, it was all of those things. I think just the unity of the group, it shows. And for me, like, we've shown over the first two years that, you know, we're a really, you know, humble, hardworking, hardworking team and that DNA didn't disappear. So that's what I really liked about it. The boys stuck together in every game. You're going to have some difficult moments and difficult periods, and especially against a good team like Melbourne City. And when they got back to 1-1, you know, the heads didn't drop and we stepped it up in the second half. And then probably, you know, the quality of the goals was pretty pleasing as well.

But in the end, you know, the support that we got to have over 20,000 people there for the first game, it was just really pleasing that we were able to get the three points of people there and send everyone home happy.