Wellington Phoenix's 2-1 win over Perth Glory on Wednesday night, denying Sydney FC the Premier's Plate for at least one more night, marked the fifth game staged since the competition resumed last Friday, but in a significantly differing tone from those prior to the shutdown.

VAR has been suspended until August’s finals campaign at least, and five substitutions can now be made during a game.

Players have gone about their business with few or no fans in the stands, and the current slate of games represent the first time Australian football has played regular-season games this late in July since the 1988 NSL season – when the likes of Footscray JUST, Preston Makedonia, Wollongong City, APIA Leichhardt and Brisbane Lions were in action.

Rudan has already spoken of his intentions to fully use the new five subs rule in his side's remaining six fixtures, which will help the squad cope with the departures of internationals Dario Jertec and Panagiotis Kone.

And he says he's been encouraged by the quality of the football he’s seen so far.

“Watching all the games, you can see that it’s quite patchy at times and I’ve sort of forecast for that anyway,” he said today.

“But in general, I think the level has been quite good. When you think about how long it’s been since we last played – and last night we watched two teams [Wellington and Perth] back up in their second game in the space of a few days – I thought again the quality was quite good.

“There’s nothing to fear there. I think that bodes quite well.

“I think everyone’s system and philosophy has remained the same. When you look at the teams, they haven’t really drastically changed their formation or their playing style.

"There are a few little tweaks here and there but that’s always dependent on the result.

“It’s a bit of maturity for our competition knowing that in this short space of time that players and the clubs are able to piece together a strategy to get players through mid-week games. That what they all want to do. You always challenge your players to go to that next level

“Playing in winter has helped, I’d hate to think what this would look like if we were starting in December or January because it would be a very different conversation – the weather has been a huge leveller."

 

Western will belatedly recommence their debut A-League season this Saturday when they take on Melbourne Victory at Bankwest Stadium.

The fixture had initially been slated as the first contest that would be staged following the competition’s COVID-19-enforced suspension. However, a failed attempt to leave Victoria ahead of the closure of its border with NSW force Western, alongside Victory and Melbourne City, into a mandatory two-week quarantine and forced the game's rescheduling.

That confinement is set to end on the morning of Western and Victory’s third meeting of the season, with Rudan’s side looking to make it three wins from three games against the big dogs of the Melbourne A-League yard in their first season in the competition.

The pressure will be on Rudan and his side to get a result in the contest, with Adelaide United’s win over Brisbane seeing them vault the expansion side and occupy sixth-place on the A-League table and Newcastle Jets' 2-1 win over Sydney FC closing the gap behind them.

“That’s good, that’s what we want,” Rudan said of the tightening margin for error.

“We want good competition and we want there to be those kinds of results we saw with Newcastle, who I thought was great value and probably the best team that I’ve seen so far since the competition re-started.

“But we’ve just got to take things one game at a time. We can’t let all those other factors affect us. We know who we are, we know we are still in control of our destiny. Other teams have played more games than us. If we start thinking too much about the what-ifs we will not be in the present.

“And we’re trying to stay in the present as often as possible.”

While Western’s coming fixture against Victory carries a number of question marks given the significant upheaval that both sides have experienced in 19/20, Rudan has been doing what he can to prepare.

“We can only go by the coaching staff, we know who the coaching staff is,” he said.

“My oldest boy plays for Victory so he knows what [Victory interim-Head Coach Grant] Brebner does in his training sessions and things like that. So it’s good to get some insight.

“And there assistant coach Jeff [Hopkins], we’ve had a look at a lot of his games coaching the women’s team at Victory; looking at their set-pieces, their playing style, their formation, how they defend.

“We’re trying to cover all bases. It doesn’t really mean that’s what’s going to happen, but we’re trying to cover all the what-ifs.

“The other important part is making sure we do our job properly.”