It appeared that attack was the top priority as South Coast fans were given plenty of reasons to cheers in the weekend's opening round.

The highest scoring contest saw Coniston come from two goals down to secure a 4-3 victory over South Coast United, while Bellambi thrashed Port Kembla by 5-1.

So has the delayed start to the season affected teams' defensive structure? Or is this a new, revamped Premier League competition?

Wollongong United coach Oli Vrtkovski believes it comes down to a "lack of cohesion" between players.

"I put it down to the lack of cohesion in that quick restart of play from COVID," he said.

"Our cohesion pre-COVID was great, we gelled really well and we didn't even reach double figures [in pre-season goals conceded] when it came to our defence. But we were riding some luck as well with our defence."

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United fell 3-1 to rivals Olympic on Saturday, who came out firing with a three-goal burst in the first half.

Johnny Martinoski, Matthew Floro and Yu Hasegawa all found the back of the net for Olympic, while United's Danny Lazarevski mustered a reply in the 68^th minute.

Vrtkovski said Olympic deserved credit for the win but he criticised their game style at Macedonia Park.

"Credit to our opposition, they came out with a game plan and exposed our defence. With their long ball attack, they truly exposed us," Vrtkovski said.

"The opposition went in with a game plan that really worked. They slowed the game down as much as possible and it didn't play in our favour. I've looked back on the goals and the first two came from our poor transition. But credit to them, they're counter attack worked.

"We tried to play football and they parked the bus on us. They left their two strikers on halfway with Johnny Martinoski floating wherever he wanted to. Everyone else was behind the ball and clearing the ball at whatever moment they could.

"In the second half, they didn't even come into our 18-yard box and we couldn't put away our chances. Mason Versi had two whistle past the cross bar and post. Jeremy Flanagan up front missed from six yards. Billy Vsovolos unfortunately couldn't get a foot on a square ball to tap in. And there you go, it could have been 4-3 or 5-3."

However, United will have to quickly to shake off the disappointment of their opening round loss.

They will travel to Ian McLennan Park on Wednesday to face Coniston in a Bert Bampton Cup quarter final. It will be a rematch of July 20's Fraternity Cup final, which United won by 2-0.

Wednesday's winner will join Cringila, Bulli and Bellambi in this year's Bert Bampton Cup semi finals.