The event, in Qatar next January, is likely to see a number of A-League players called up. Williams is hoping he'll be one of them after debuting for Australia under Pim Verbeek in 2008.

"Every time you put on the green and gold it's a very proud moment - you feel you're doing something for your nation - but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself," he told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"I've got a lot work ahead of me and I just want to stay focused. I'm here to do whatever I can in whatever role the club wants me to fill but for sure, the Asian Cup is my aim in terms of the Socceroos."

Fury officially began their season's preparations on Tuesday with the majority of players joining in the session. The players are being eased back into it with cross-training such as mountain biking, kayaking and some ball work and physical testing.

Williams, 22, isn't worried about a two month pre-season being too late for Fury to regroup ahead of the new season, although he concedes: "I hate pre-season. I just want to be playing games. But personally, with two months, I think we can hit our peak even before the season starts.

"I don't think we have to have a three-month pre-season. And obviously if the coaching staff thought otherwise, we'd have started sooner."

The Fury coaching staff is currently being led by assistant coach Stuart McLaren. The new head coach, says Williams, is likely to be announced in the next week with sources saying it could be a German.

"Obviously it would be good to do some shape work with the new coach and know who the new boss is but we'll see what happens in the next week or so," he said.

"Germans like hard-working teams and you get nowhere without hard work.

"People like to think we're on the back foot," Williams added of a club already being written off. "I don't think we're on the front foot just yet but we're kind of in-between."

And like last season, Williams feels the climate in Townsville will enable Fury to run over the top of sides in the final stages of games.

Whether that will be enough to lay a finals platform remains the question, but he says writing off any A-League team so prematurely is foolhardy.

"Those people can keep talking; they were the ones who said last season we were wooden-spooners and look what happened with us," he said.

"We had a pretty good record at home and if we can just do what we can on the road and maintain our strong form at home then we'll do well."

Williams added that former Fury marquee Robbie Fowler "had every right to comment" on the way Fury players were treated by the club after the club went bust at the end of last season.

Fowler, now with Perth Glory, has publicly rebuked hsi former club for the way it handled the scenario but Williams says there's a good feeling at the club that now features a new ownership model and former FFA staffer Archie Fraser as interim CEO.

Williams added: "I reckon we'll do well. And if people want to write us off, so be it.

"We'll just keep working hard and surprising people."