Jason Geria | Fit and Firing | Melbourne Victory

“I missed a lot of football and I think once that’s taken away from you, you realise how special it is.”

After an injury-plagued 2022/23 campaign, Jason Geria is as ready as ever for the new season.

Having suffered a hip injury that saw him miss the entire 2022/23 pre-season, Geria says he’s finally feeling “really good”.

“I missed the whole pre-season last year and I only played, I think, less than half the season, so I missed a lot of football and I think once that’s taken away from you, you realise how special it is,” he said

Training for a full pre-season, the 30-year-old defender is now even more excited for tomorrow night’s Isuzu UTE A-League opener against Sydney FC.

“To be able to get a full pre-season under my belt has been amazing for me and yeah, I’m feeling really good, really confident going into the first game,” he said.

Despite recent friendly results, Geria remains confident in what the team is building towards ahead of Round 1.

“I’m very confident and very satisfied with the work we’ve done and the progression we’ve made from day one to now,” the former Socceroo explained.

“Regardless of the result against Wellington, I think what we’ve been building towards, a lot of that was evident in the game and how we played and how we controlled the game and albeit not scoring goals, we created a lot, we defended really well.

“They had two shots on goal and scored a goal, so if you’re limiting teams to fewer chances like that, I think it’s a really big positive.

“I have no worries going to the Sydney game.”

With a wealth of experience as a defender himself, Tony Popovic has built a back line that will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

“The Boss, obviously being a defender, drills in a really disciplined mindset and really emphasises the importance of keeping clean sheets, keeping a strong back line and being the platform in which attackers can go and win us games,” Geria explained.

“We have a lot of confidence in each other that we’ll be able to be a really strong wall in front of the ball this season.”