Harnwell and his colleagues reported for duty today with a real buzz surrounding the club, big names linked with moves to Dave Mitchell's side and high-profile opposition secured for pre-season.

The defender-turned-striker remains as passionate as ever about seeing Glory return to the pinnacle of Australian football, a position the former powerhouse club of the old National Soccer League (NSL) once took for granted.

"Everything's been geared off the pitch now ," he said.

New fitness coach Peter Cklamovski, who's previously worked with the Australian sides at the 2007 Asian Cup and the 2008 Olympics, along with Greek club Panahaiki FC, has now joined the club.

"We've got our full-time fitness and strength conditioning coach with us so I'm sure there'll be a few different things that we haven't seen before," said Harnwell. "We'll obviously get eased in the first day or two but I think it's going to be a pretty strenuous pre-season.

"In the past perhaps we could say we've had excuses, I think this year there's no more excuses, everything's been done to give us the best chance to perform out there and we've got to take that chance now."

As he geared up for Glory's first training session of the new campaign, Harnwell said he was ecstatic when the club confirmed it would be playing against the English Premier League clubs, along with  A-League new boys, North Queensland Fury.

Harnwell said the high profile matches were certain to give pre-season training an edge it may not have had before.

"To get these teams over here is huge and I can't wait for those games," he added.

"I was ecstatic. I've always dreamt about playing in those leagues, unfortunately never quite made it, but to get the chance to play against those sort of players, for me it's probably one of the last chances I'll get.

"For the young boys it's the chance for them to see what they're aspiring too. So it was huge news and I was rapt that the club could finally secure it. I think there's going to be real competition for places just for those games, let alone for the season.

"So it certainly adds a bit more pressure to the pre-season but it's also a great opportunity to perform against some of the best players in the world."