As the long-term technical director at Olympic, Tagaroulias helped develop the likes of Luke Vallone, Luke Rutledge, Drew Grierson, Louis Townsend, Alex Graham and keeper Daniel Eisenhauer. Those and others have gone from lower-grade sides at rival clubs to Adamstown in pursuit of first-team opportunities in recent years.

Under coach Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, Adamstown had the better of Olympic last season - winning 2-1 and drawing 2-2 - despite finishing with the wooden spoon.

This year, Adamstown sit on four points - a point below Olympic - after four games, thanks to a win over Azzurri and draw with Weston.

Tagaroulias was ready for another tough night at Adamstown for the round-six game, which was moved from last Sunday because of players from both clubs forced into precautionary 14-day COVID-19 isolation.

"I know what some of their players can do," Tagaroulias said. "Luke Vallone is extremely dangerous and Drew Grierson, whether he's playing left or fight fullback, he's just an athlete and he can play as well.

"Louis Townsend and Alex Graham in the midfield, again I've known them since they were 14 or 15 years old, and you get really good work-rate there.

"Those guys will probably be responsible for looking after Rhys Cooper and Anthony Marenghi, and I know they will work really hard, and when people are willing to do that, anything can happen for them.

"We just can't underestimate them, and it doesn't look like you can underestimate anyone in the league.

"They'll work hard and they've got enough young guys like Vallone, [Callum] Gabriel and [Harrison] Frendo, who can do some damage."

Olympic will be without captain Kyle Hodges, who will serve the final game of his three-match ban for match official abuse. Goalscorers Blake Green and Kent Harrison are also out with leg muscle strains but striker Jed Hornery is expected to return from injury.

"He's getting stronger and stronger and I'll have him at least on the bench tomorrow night, so that's fantastic," he said.

Meanwhile, the game will be Olympic's first since the announcement former Socceroo and Jets great Joel Griffiths will coach the club next year.

Tagaroulias, who is filling in for 2020 after the exit of Peter McGuinness on season's eve, said the club was "buzzing" about the news and Griffiths had "already hit the ground running".

"Joel is great and we know him anyway because he's playing over 35s with Olympic and some of our ex-players," he said.

"His willingness to do this is great and he's been fantastic to deal with. It was refreshing to us how much he knew about the players and the competition.

"He's a local now as well, he lives close by, so I think it's just a massive coup."

He said it was a relief to have a coach for next year in place.

"We needed to find someone as quickly as possible, from my point of view, just so people would know what direction we're heading in," he said.

"With player retention and recruitment, they are all important, and the first thing people ask you is 'who's coaching?'"

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