A new season is almost upon us, and Mathew Leckie is ready to get back to business.
After injury brought his FIFA World Cup campaign to an early end, the experienced Socceroo has spent much of pre-season carefully building his fitness ahead of another year in City blue.
Now back in team training and with the 2026/27 A-League Men’s season just around the corner, Leckie is feeling positive about where things stand.
“Yeah, I feel pretty good,” Leckie said.
“After the World Cup, when I went home I had a month off, so when I got back into pre-season off the back of the hamstring strain, I built up slowly to the team training. I was training on my own for a while.
“A lot of the times in the A-League there aren’t complaints about having a long pre-season, but it probably benefited me. I had a long period to be able to get myself in slowly and build up to team training.”
While the 35-year-old knows the importance of managing his body, he’s confident his gradual return has put him in a good position ahead of the season.
“Obviously I’m not 20 anymore. So if I feel good, I train, but then if I wake up one day and I’m not feeling too well, sometimes I’ll sit out of that training. But for the most part, as long as I’m feeling well, I’m in sessions.
“I’d like to think [I’m ready to go]. It’s been a long pre-season, but I think it’s been important. The season’s finally coming up, and I’m excited.”
Another year in City blue
Having recently committed to another season at Melbourne City, Leckie says the decision to remain at his hometown Club was an easy one.
“Melbourne’s where I’m from. The Club’s done right for me since I’ve been back and it just made sense.”
And while there’s been plenty of change across the league over the off-season, Leckie believes City will once again be right in the mix.
“I think we’ll be competitive as we always are. I think we’ve shown a lot of consistency over the last ten years in the A-League, getting ourselves into the finals, and we have high expectations on ourselves.
“It’s always tough to see where everyone will end up throughout the season, but I guess, looking at the squads, a lot of teams have made some changes and brought new players in. I feel we’ll definitely compete again this season.”
Plenty of options in attack
With several exciting attacking additions arriving over the off-season, Leckie expects to continue spending much of his time in midfield, a position he’s become increasingly familiar with over the past two seasons.
“I think [my role] will be more in the midfield,” Leckie said.
“We’ve made a few good signings, and we’re very healthy in the attacking line with the addition of Awer [Mabil] and a couple of others, so I believe my place will be in the midfield. I’m happy to play wherever suits.”
And when it comes to his Socceroos teammate Mabil, Leckie is excited about what the new number 11 can bring.
“Everyone is already well aware of what he’s capable of doing. He’s a very exciting attacking player and has got a lot of experience at international level as well.
“He’s been training really well and we can’t wait to see him score some goals this season.”
More goals on the agenda
After a campaign where City regularly created chances but couldn’t always make the most of them, Leckie is hoping the new arrivals can help add another dimension in the final third.
“Hopefully [our biggest improvement is] scoring goals,” he said.
“We play a very attacking style with and without the ball and create enough chances in games, but we just weren’t getting that on the scoreboard last season.
“As a team, we definitely would like to score more goals this season, and it’s very possible with all the chances that we create, and I think the additions that we have, the foreigners that we’ve brought in, they all look promising.
“They are all very good quality players and it will be exciting to play with them this season.”
City will begin the new campaign away to Auckland FC on Saturday 17 October, before returning to AAMI Park for our Halloween home opener against Sydney FC on Saturday 31 October. Click here to get tickets!
