Paul Mikula has been appointed the new head coach of the ACE senior men’s team.
He steps up from coaching the Under 23s following Steve Glockner’s decision to step down from the senior role after years.
Paul played for ACE in 2016 and spent two years with Moreton Bay United, helping them to a grand final and FFA Cup round of 16.
On being offered the head coach role at ACE, he said: “It was a straight-forward decision to make and I’m looking forward to the challenge.
“I’ve always enjoyed the club. I like the atmosphere here, I like the people and I think there’s a lot of potential.
“The planning begins straight away to map out the next 12 months. I’ll catch up with Tony (Dooley, pictured above) and Steve (Glockner).
“We’ll see what we can set in place now and coming weeks, then come October-November get players down and take it from there.
“There’s a lot of players I want to speak to and make sure we retain them at this club.
“We definitely have the potential to be competitive next year, so we’ll be setting benchmarks, speaking to the playing group, getting their thoughts and opinions.
“I want players to be able to think and play at the same time. I don’t want to coach robots, that’s not my job. I want them to shine and show their true potential.
“I want to play attacking football, entertain people, get the best results we can with good performances and be playing finals football in September.”
Paul said the club “performed well” last season on its debut in FQPL1 and showed it can “mix it” with the best in the league.
“We proved we’ve got some really good young players in both teams,” he said, “the 23s drew nine games … if half went our way we were top two or top three.
“In saying that, we had young players who needed to learn and develop – and I think they did. They took a lot away from it.”
With work continuing on a proposed merger between ACE and Moreton Bay United, Paul said: “I only see positives.
“There’s no other club in Queensland where you have the potential to play FQPL into the NPL. It’s a positive all around the club.
“From the ACE side of things, you’ll have better coaches, better systems, better resources … I cannot see a negative.”
