Frank Cachia’s reign at Canberra Olympic has begun on a positive note, overseeing the league champion’s first trophy of 2024 with a Charity Shield victory at Deakin Stadium.

Taking on his first role in women’s football, the former Olympic men’s coach did not relay any burdens on his side to claim silverware, rather focusing on the performance.

“Before the game it was like, we can’t say it’s the end of the world if we lose it, and we can’t say it’s season-defining if we win it,” he said. “It’s nice, and it’s great that we’ve got some silverware in the cabinet already.”

Having only worked with the squad for a limited amount of time, Cachia’s presence on the sideline is already showing signs of promise, as his side’s late set-piece unlocked the Belconnen United defence through a pinpoint Alexandra Cook delivery, finding Ella Brown to clinch the victory.

“We do work on set pieces,” he insisted. “Just before Ally [Cook] took it, I said to Ella [Brown], attack this, and she just put it in the most perfect spot for Ella to attack it and she finished it off.

“I’m really pleased for both girls because Ally’s obviously been here for a number of years, and for Ella, this is her first time coming across to play for Olympic competitively…so I’m really pleased for both of them.”

Off the back of a gritty win, Cachia spoke on how his side’s outing indicated signs of another potentially successful season to come.

“I think that’s the main thing,” he said. “We know that we can compete against Belconnen, we know that we can grind out a result if we need to, I think for our own sake I think the most positive thing is that we know we’ve got players still to come in, and the more we play together, the better we’ll get.

“I think it is one of those things where you play a final that sometimes it is scrappy, sometimes it’s about just making sure that you get the result, look can we play better, I’m sure we can…is it exactly how we want to play? No, but it is a nice kick start for the season.”