City won Friday night's season opening game at AAMI Park 2-0 against Brisbane Roar, and looked a far better side than the one that fell to Sydney FC in the FFA Cup.

A slimmed-down Luke Brattan was a walking testament to the new coach's tough preseason regime and focus on discipline.

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Brattan told Fox Sports: "We’ve worked all pre-season about being solid defensively because last season, we copped soft goals.

“It’s a different squad to last year so we’ve had to change a lot.”

Brattan put the performance down to Joyce’s coaching.

“He’s a brilliant motivator,” he said. “He’s been on my back since day one. I’ve got to get fitter, but it’s a long pre season and we’re very fit.”

Nick Fitzgerald was everywhere throughout the match and was just shaded for best on pitch by double-goal scorer Bruce Kamau.

An exhausted Fitzgerald said afterwards: “The result today was great.  I like the midfield, they got the ball out wide and let me and Bruce do our thing

“I think our work ethic this season has been top notch. We’ve come in on days off and done extra running because it’s all about working hard for each other.

“We wanted to hit the ground running which we did. On day’s when we could have been sitting at home doing nothing, we’ve come in to work hard as a team.”