Familiar Faces and a Friday Night That Matters
Three rounds. No points. One goal scored.
There is no dressing it up. Green Gully’s start to the 2026 NPL Victoria season has not gone to plan.
But football does not wait for anyone to feel sorry for themselves, and this Friday night at Green Gully Reserve (7:30pm) offers something the Cavaliers badly need: a home fixture with a genuine sense of occasion.
Hume City are the visitors. The connections between these two clubs make this more than just a ladder fixture.
David Chick, now in his second season as Gully head coach, took Hume City to the finals before making the move to Green Gully Reserve. Swedish midfielder Oskar Karlsson followed him across this season. Hume, meanwhile, have former Gully junior Adisu Bayew leading their attacking line. Bayew came through the ranks at the club and spent the last two seasons in the senior squad, but struggled with fitness during his time in green and white. He seems to have found his feet at Hume, with two goals in three rounds this season, including the match-winner against Bentleigh Greens last week. Former Cavaliers captain Taylor Schrijvers is also in the Hume squad, though he was forced off injured in the 25th minute of Round 2 at South Melbourne and his availability remains unclear.
Hume sit fifth on six points after back-to-back wins. Steve Whyte and Bayew did the damage in a 2-1 win at Lakeside Stadium in Round 2, before Bayew’s 65th-minute strike sealed a tight 1-0 victory over Bentleigh at Nasiol Stadium last Saturday. After an opening round 3-1 defeat to Altona Magic, Nick Hegarty’s side have found their feet.
Green Gully sit 14th. The context behind the numbers matters, though.
Round 1 at Olympic Village saw the Cavaliers match reigning champions Heidelberg United for more than an hour. Jalil Regague’s header in the 63rd minute gave Gully the lead before two goals in ten minutes turned it. The Round 2 Maltese derby against Caroline Springs in front of a bumper crowd at Green Gully Reserve was decided by a blistering opening 30 minutes that Gully could not recover from, despite an improved second half.
Round 3 at Avondale was the low point. Five-nil, a half-time injury to goalkeeper Michael Weier, and a late red card to Diego Cuba compounded a difficult evening.
Cuba is suspended for Friday’s match after his dismissal at Avondale. Weier’s fitness remains a question mark. Those are real concerns. But so is the evidence that this squad, when composed and organised, can compete with anyone in the division. The first hour against Heidelberg proved that.
What the Cavaliers need now is a performance to build on. A clean start, control through the middle, and the kind of second-half energy that surfaced in the derby but arrived too late.
Bilal Habib has been the most dangerous player in Green Gully’s attack through three rounds, unlucky to have had goals ruled out against both Heidelberg and Caroline Springs. Joshua Hope and Kur Kur have shown moments of quality in transition. The pieces are there. Friday is about putting them together for 90 minutes.
