Wanderers flourish in the new competition with perfect season start

First grade coach Rob Tuksar said there's a good feeling among the playing squad despite significant changes to the roster.

Following relegation at the end of last year, the Wanderers lost a contingent of players who wished to continue to explore National Premier League opportunities with Canberra-based clubs.

With no experience against their 2023 competition, Tuksar said every game is an unknown.

This week's first grade competition, South Canberra, won their previous two games by six and seven goals.

"You don't know the opposition or who they played, and we haven't played everybody once so it's a bit tough to gauge," Tuksar said.

"We thought they'd be pretty strong and they were really competitive, I think we started really well, our first half was fantastic and we dominated the first half."

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Finishing the game 4-2 winners, Tuksar said despite their strong first half the side struggled to maintain their composure in the second.

An ongoing issue for the Wanderers, he believes that their second half performances are improving as the weeks roll past.

Neither side had any real chance of scoring in the last 20-minutes of the game, with both midfields struggling to find a break.

"Again they lost the momentum of the game, but they played pretty tough, my main concern is our inability to play a full 90-minutes at the moment," Tuksar said.

"Learning each other and playing with each other, we're still really green in that regard.

"We haven't learned each other's strengths and weaknesses, and aren't playing to our strengths all over the park and we get caught out on that, and that's okay, we're working on that."

A physical game, Tuksar said it was a good opportunity for his young side to play under rougher conditions than they're used to.

"They gave a little bit of physicality back to them, which was good to see," he said.

"I don't think they expected that or enjoyed that too much so it was good to see a couple of our young girls give it back."

The second grade side also continued their perfect start to the season, which Tuksar said shows good signs for the Wanderers women's program.

"A lot of those girls back us up, they sit on the bench for our State League one side, so it's really important they're playing well," he said.

"When they come to us they're in good nick and feeling positive, so it's good to see them doing well."

The Wanderers remain on the road for the coming weeks, with their next game to be played against BellaMonaro.

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