While the Northern Championship and under-21 sides shone in the Windsor Park sun, the NPL outfit were totally eclipsed as reigning champions Devonport won 8-0.

Silva, whose previous employees range from English Premier League side Crystal Palace to the Chinese Super League, was looking at the bigger picture.

"The club is restructuring itself massively," he said. "We're not preparing for this year but the following year.

"But my first impressions are that Riverside have a massive potential to become one of the best clubs in Tasmania."

Devonport's dynamic winger Lachlan Van Neutegem dominated the contest, bundling in an early opener, expertly poking in a second with the outside of his right foot and completing his hat-trick early in the second half.

Roberto Garrido took up the baton with a 12-minute hat-trick of his own with Kieran Mulraney and Ali Dulleh completing the rout.

The scoreline could have been much worse but for the resilience of home keeper Ari Johnson whose reward was to watch two chips over his head in as many second-half minutes both bounce off the crossbar.

Riverside fought hard and did not lack in either commitment or fitness but were ultimately no match for the state's benchmark side and were given few sights of goal by an experienced defence.

Olympic came from two goals down to win an entertaining Northern Championship friendly with Launceston City 4-2.

Goals from Ezon Tsegab and Dan Luck gave the visitors a first-half lead but Riverside hit back through a brave Bimal Biswa header before half-time, equalised with a composed Isaac Klug finish and stole victory courtesy of a late Dan Shaw double, the first from the penalty spot and the second a classy sealer with the last kick of the game.

Olympic coach Jared Colgrave was proud of his team's resilience after seeing Jean Dias stretchered off with a knee injury.

"We pulled together all available players and to come from behind and control the second half was a pretty good win for the boys and sets us up going forward," he said.

Olympic welcomed NPL appearance record-holder Aaron Campbell back from City while Tim Roberts adjusted well to the unfamiliar role of centre-back.

"The whole team was pretty good and it took them all to get the win," Colgrave added. "That includes the couple of under-16s we had in there as well."

City coach Dan Smith highlighted the performances of Tsegab and Will Compagne.

"We played a good first half," he said. "We made a lot of changes for the second half but also made a lot of mistakes, did some bad things and that cost us the game. And they improved massively. But it was a good hitout because we have struggled with numbers a bit."

Olympic needed a penalty shoot-out to defeat Devonport in the under-21 fixture.

Campbell Young's early goal was wiped out late on forcing the contest to penalties and eventually sudden death. Tom O'Byrne, Henry Routley, Sanjok Mc and Broc Gabbedy all converted meaning new recruit Sushil Yangdemba's pivotal save earned the hosts a 4-3 win.

"The boys worked hard after a slow start," said coach Lynden Prince. "It had to go to penalties but our keeper is pretty sharp. We call him 'The cat' because he's everywhere and we had good faith in him to win it for us."

Launceston United took on Launceston City in the day's other fixtures, City running out comfortable 6-1 winners in the under-21 clash.

The NPL encounter was much closer as United looked to make the step up to the statewide competition this season under coach Fernando Munoz and scored through reliable goal source Aidan Rigby.

However, it was to prove a successful return to the home of their previous club for both Toby Simeoni and Will Humphrey, the former Olympic teammates getting on the scoresheet either side of half-time before Joel Stone wrapped up a 3-1 win.

The upcoming season also represents a new era for City under the stewardship of Daniel Syson who said he is delighted with a new-look squad also including Ulverstone's Toby Anderson and US imports Alex Jacobs and Mason Smith.