The A-League's newest club enter the competition with plenty of expectation in a sports-mad town.

The Melbourne Heart have put together a very solid playing list and have enjoyed a successful first pre-season, luring English Premier League club Everton for a friendly before even playing a match for premiership points and getting game time into their key players to prepare for the club's first foray into competitive action.

Noted A-League stars Simon Colosimo, Matt Thompson, Dean Heffernan, John Aloisi and Clint Bolton have been joined by returning overseas players Josip Skoko and Michael Beauchamp and throw into that some foreigners such as Gerald Sibon, Rutger Worm and Alex Terra and a long list of quality youngsters and things look good for the Heart.

Obviously things will take time to gel and there will be slight ups and downs throughout the season but the quality of the list which is overseen by an ambitious young coach in John van 't Schip should be good enough to play finals in their primary outing.

Last season: n/a tribalfootball's Prediction: 6th

Biggest signings: Josip Skoko, Simon Colosimo, John Aloisi, Gerald Sibon, Clint Bolton, Michael Beauchamp, Dean Heffernan, Matt Thompson

Team list

Goalkeepers

Clint Bolton

Defenders

Michael Beauchamp Simon Colosimo Brendan Hamill Dean Heffernan Michael Marrone

Midfielders

Jason Hoffman Nick Kalmar Kristian Sarkies Josip Skoko Wayne Srhoj Kliment Taseski Matt Thompson Rutger Worm

Forwards

John Aloisi Eli Babalj Kamal Ibrahim Gerald Sibon Alex Terra

Coach

John van 't Schip