Winning Edge Presentations NPL 1 Player of the Month (Rounds 1-4) - Simon Tolli (Moreland Zebras)

Simon Tolli might not be a name too many people are familiar with.

He’s an industrious player, but not illustrious. He’s the type of player coaches want in their team; he gets the job done.

But to date, he is the only player in both NPL and NPL 1 to have been in FFV's match reporters’ top three men on the pitch in every round.

He’s a name you should familiarise yourself with nonetheless, having already contributed two crucial goals to his team’s effort.

FFV's Alen Delic caught up with Tolli to find out what the secret is to his consistency, and what the season has meant for him so far.

AD: How does it feel to be the inaugural player of the month?
It feels good. It’s an honour to win any award, but it’s a good feeling to know you’ve been recognised for your hard work.

What do you put the fast start down to?
I think our hard working mentality to be honest. Believing in yourself, really.

You’ve scored a couple of crackers so far this season. Which one has meant the most to you and why?
I think what meant more to me was the final minute goal against Bendigo. We were behind 2-0 in that game and we really fought hard to make things happen.
To score in the final minute and to at least get something out of the game was a credit to our effort to coming back from a two-goal deficit.
Sunday's goal was good, but last week for sure, meant more.

Is there a difference at Moreland this year than there was last year?
I think overall, the boys, we gel. We’re really good mates and we get along really well.
I wouldn’t say there’s a major difference; the difference is that we’re a lot closer as a unit. Last year we were all new, starting to become friends.
This year, we’re quite a good bunch of guys and we all like each other a lot.

You’ve got the weekend off, looking forward to the break?
Ideally, we’d like to be playing.
We lost 4-3 against Sunshine George Cross last week, but we want to keep playing. Just because we’ve been working hard and I know what our training is going to be like.
We’ll be making sure what happened last week doesn’t happen again.
But having that break might actually be better for us, giving us a chance to reassess and to bring it back into the next game.

The NPL 1 Player of the Month is voted by FFV’s match reporters in a 3-2-1 voting system for each match.

Image credit: Bruno Silverii