Melbourne Victory FC Youth

Melbourne Victory Youth
Full nameMelbourne Victory Football Club Youth
NicknamesVictory, Victory NYL
Short nameMVC
Founded2008 (2008)
GroundThe Home of the Matildas
Capacity3,000
ChairmanJohn Dovaston
ManagerBoris Seroshtan
LeagueNPL Victoria
A-League Youth
202512th of 14 (relegated)
Websitehttp://www.melbournevictory.com.au
Active departments of Melbourne Victory FC
Football
(Men's)		 Football
(Men's Youth)		 Football
(Women's)		 Football
(Women's Youth)		 Football
(Women's AWT)

Melbourne Victory Football Club Youth is the youth system of Melbourne Victory based in Melbourne, Victoria. The team plays in the National Premier Leagues (NPL), the second level of the Australian soccer league system.

History

Beginnings of the Youth Team (2008-2014)

The youth team was founded in 2008, as a Melbourne Victory representative team for the inaugural season of the National Youth League competition, along with six other youth squads, and finished a disappointing sixth. The development side has had three managers, Mehmet Durakovic, who was promoted to manager of the senior squad in 2011, and current managers Darren Davies and John Aloisi. Davies led the youth side to its first silverware victory in winning the premiership plate, finishing first on the National Youth League ladder in the 2012-13 season. It would be current club chairman Anthony Di Pietro's first silverware victory as well. On 7 November 2014, it was confirmed that the team would compete in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1 competition for 2015 season onwards.[1]

Victorian League Systems (2015-2019)

Victory managed promotion at their first attempt, placing second in the NPL1 East division, going on to beat Moreland Zebras FC in the qualification playoff and then North Geelong Warriors FC in the promotion playoff. For the club's first season in the top tier of football in Victorian state football, Matt Hennessey and Ryan Lambert were signed from Hume City FC and Richmond SC respectively.[2] unfortunately Victory would finnish last place in their first time in the NPL Victoria.[3] this would lead to its relegation back down to NPL Victoria 2, now in the western division of NPL Victoria division 2. Victory would stay in NPL Victoria 2 for the next two years avoiding relegation before placing ninth place in 2019 relegating them to NPL Victoria 3.[4]

Post COVID Years (2020-Present)

Victory wouldn't get to play NPL Victoria 3 football in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][6] Melbourne Victory would finally compete in NPL Victoria 3 in 2022, where Victory would finnish fourth place and qualifying them a promotional play-off. Victory would play Kingston City on 28 August 2022 where they would fall short after Faisal Sakhizada scored a lone goal for Kingston meaning Victory would compete in the NPL Victoria 3 for another year.[7] In 2023 Victory would place second in NPL Victoria 3 leading to the promotion of the club into the re-branded Victoria Premier League 1.[8] In 2024 Victory would be promoted in back-to-back years as well as becoming Champions of the Victoria Premier League 1.[9] Victory would be promoted into NPL Victoria. the top tier of Victorian Football. This was the first time Victory competed in the top tier of Victorian Football since 2016. Victory would enter the 2025 NPL Victoria season hoping to stay up. Victory would fight strong throughout the season with many instances where Victory would concede goals in the final minutes of the game, leading to Victory losing points throughout the season. One particular example of this was in February in a match against South Melbourne, when Victory had a goal lead in the 90+4th minute with only a minute left. In the 90+5th minute Victory would concede a goal to make the score 3-3 in a match that could've been major importance in Victory's Survival fight.[10] Unfortunately Victory would finish 12th place leading to the club's relegation back down to the Victoria Premier League 1.[11]

Youth/NPL current squad

As of 11 February 2025[12]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  AUS Yonathan Sultan
2 DF  AUS Linus Bourke
3 DF  AUS Joshua Inserra
4 DF  AUS Damien Bozinovski
5 DF  AUS William Mcintosh
6 MF  AUS Kayne Razmovski
7 FW  AUS Austin Ganino
8 MF  AUS Alex Menelaou
9 FW  AUS Tommaso Minutoli
10 MF  AUS Jack Mihailidis
11 FW  AUS Daniel Lazarevski
12 DF  PNG Raymond Diho
13 DF  AUS John Paikopoulos
14 FW  AUS Jordan Hoey
15 DF  AUS Nikolas Cevizovic
16 DF  AUS Stasi Georgakopoulos
18 DF  AUS Lucas Alessi
19 FW  AUS Jing Reec
20 DF  AUS Parker Williams
20 FW  AUS Patrick Wall
23 FW  AUS Jesse Hoey
24 DF  AUS James Lackay
No. Pos. Nation Player
25 DF  AUS Mason O’Neil
26 MF  AUS Luka Kolic
27 FW  AUS Alex Lee
28 MF  AUS Charlie Gorevski
29 DF  AUS Tobenna Obani
30 GK  AUS Daniel Graskoski
31 MF  AUS James Houridis
32 DF  AUS Aaron Bazenski
33 FW  AUS Phin Harbinson
35 DF  AUS Fin Crompton
35 MF  AUS Marcus Peretin
36 DF  AUS John Radimisis
37 FW  AUS Malik Olukhale
38 MF  AUS Alexi Houridis
39 FW  AUS Edon Ajrovski
40 GK  AUS Christian Siciliano
41 GK  AUS Kasper Fonsboel
42 GK  AUS Oskar Von Schrenk
43 FW  AUS Mush Sawiz
44 MF  AUS Noah Tanfara
46 DF  AUS Luka Didulica
47 FW  AUS Kaelan Galea

Current staff

Head Coaches:

Joe Palatsides 1st Grade Head Coach
Rodrigo Vargas U21 Head Coach
Andreas Papanicolaou U18 Head Coach
Joaquín Moreno U16 Head Coach
Matthew Sultana U15 Head Coach
Rob Wielaert U14 Head Coach
Tom Paton Pre Academy Head Coach
Mark Topic Pre Academy Head Coach
Isabella Santilli Pre Academy Head Coach
Matt Fletcher Pre Academy Head Coach
Brad Roberts Pre Academy Head Coach
Reide Mulholland Pre Academy Head Coach

Staff:

Joe Palatsides Head of Academy Coaching
Andrew Kentepozidis Academy Operations Manager
Jayden Anderson Academy Sports Science Lead
Amelia Thomas Academy Medical Lead
Sebastian Bechaud Head of Academy Goalkeeping
Agim Sherifovski Academy Assistant Coach
Piotr Rutkowski Academy Assistant Coach
Mark Spiteri Pre Academy Head Goalkeeping Coach
Ashley Wisneske Pre Academy Goalkeeping Coach
Archie Thompson Academy Development Coach
Fahid Ben Khalfallah Academy Development Coach
Gaby Garton Academy Development Coach
Joey Didulica Academy Development Coach
Sasa Ognenovski Academy Development Coach

Honours

Youth
  • La Ionica Community Cup
Winners (1): 2015

National Premier Leagues Victoria 2/ Victoria Premier Leagues 1 Premiership

National Premier Leagues Victoria 3 Premiership

  • Runners-up (1): 2023
Under-23s
Academy

National Premier Leagues Victoria U-18 Premiership

Stadiums

The team play their home matches at The Home of the Matildas in Melbourne's northern suburb of Bundoora. The stadium has a total capacity of 3,000, with a single grandstand of approximately 800 seats. Past venues used as a home ground by the club have been South Melbourne FC home ground Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park, Bentleigh Greens' Kingston Heath in Cheltenham, Northcote City's John Cain Memorial Park in Thornbury and Whittlesea Ranges' Epping Stadium in Epping. The team has also played competitive matches at Victory's senior team home venues, AAMI Park and Etihad Stadium.

Former players

This is a list of former Melbourne Victory Youth players, who have played at least 20 A-League competitive matches for the first team.

As of 3 June 2025
Name Nationality Position Melbourne career Appearances Goals
Nick Ansell  Australia Defender 2011–17, 2018–19, 2020–21 92 1
Thomas Deng  Australia Defender 2015–2020 71 2
Mate Dugandzic  Australia Forward 2009–11 36 7
Diogo Ferreira  Australia Midfielder 2010–13 52 2
Matthew Foschini  Australia Defender 2009–13 53 0
Petar Franjic  Australia Defender 2010–13 31 0
Scott Galloway  Australia Defender 2013–16 54 1
Jason Geria  Australia Defender 2012–18, 2021–2025 189 4
James Jeggo  Australia Midfielder 2011–14 30 2
Mitchell Langerak  Australia Goalkeeper 2007–10 21 0
Dylan Murnane  Australia Defender 2013–16 24 0
Andrew Nabbout  Australia Forward 2012–15 37 5
Sebastian Ryall  Australia Defender 2007–09 24 0
Connor Pain  Australia Forward 2013–16 53 3
Stefan Nigro  Australia Midfielder 2015–18, 2021–2024 69 0
Lleyton Brooks  Australia Midfielder 2020–2023 31 3
Nishan Velupillay  Australia Forward 2021– 106 15
Kasey Bos  Australia Defender 2023– 28 4
  • Bold denotes players still playing in Melbourne Victory
  • Appearances only consist of competitive domestic league appearances

Season by season history

Y League

Season League Tms. conf. size P W D L GF GA GD Pts Pos Finals ref
2008-09 National Youth League 7 N/A 18 6 1 11 20 36 -16 20 6th DNQ [13]
2009-10 National Youth League 9 N/A 24 7 8 9 36 37 -1 29 6th DNQ [14]
2010-11 National Youth League 9 N/A 19 7 0 12 29 42 -13 21 8th N/A[notes 1] [15]
2011-12 National Youth League 10 N/A 18 4 3 11 15 34 -19 15 10th N/A[notes 1] [16]
2012-13 National Youth League 10 N/A 18 12 1 5 57 20 +37 37 1st N/A[notes 1] [17]
2013-14 National Youth League 10 N/A 18 9 4 5 50 36 +14 31 3rd N/A[notes 1] [18]
2014-15 National Youth League 10 N/A 18 8 3 7 34 33 +1 27 5th N/A[notes 1] [19]
2015-16 National Youth League 10 5 8 3 0 5 17 22 -5 9 4th DNQ [20]
2016-17 National Youth League 10 5 8 1 2 5 13 23 -10 5 5th DNQ [21]
2017-18 National Youth League 10 5 8 4 1 3 17 25 -8 13 2nd DNQ [22]
2018-19 Y-League 10 5 8 1 1 6 8 22 -14 4 5th DNQ [23]
2019-20 Y-League 10 5 8 5 1 2 17 16 +1 16 1st Runner up [24]
2020-21 Y-League Tournament cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic[25]
2021-22 A League Youth
2022-23 A League Youth No tournament[26]
2023-24 A League Youth
2024-25 A League Youth
2025-26 A League Youth

National Premier Leagues

Season League Tier Tms. P W D L GF GA GD Pts Pos Pro/Rel NPL Finals ref
2015 NPL VIC 1 East 2 10 28 17 4 7 87 44 +43 55 2nd Pro (play off) DNQ [27]
2016 NPL Victoria 1 14 26 3 1 22 24 68 -44 4[notes 2] 14th relegated DNQ [3]
2017 NPL VIC 2 West 2 10 28 8 5 15 55 56 -1 29 9th n/a DNQ [28]
2018 NPL VIC 2 West 2 10 28 11 4 13 48 54 -6 34[notes 3] 7th n/a DNQ [29]
2019 NPL VIC 2 West 2 10 28 6 7 15 36 48 -12 25 9th relegated DNQ [4]
2020 NPL Victoria 3 3 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[5]
2021 NPL Victoria 3 3 Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.[6]
2022 NPL Victoria 3 3 12 22 11 5 6 38 27 +11 38 4th n/a DNQ [30]
2023 NPL Victoria 3 3 12 22 13 3 6 47 22 +25 42 2nd Promoted[8] DNQ [31]
2024 VPL 1 2 14 26 15 7 4 66 39 +27 52 1st Promoted[9] DNQ [32]
2025 NPL Victoria 1 14 26 5 3 18 36 60 -24 18 12th relegated[11] DNQ [33]

Managerial history

Dates Name Notes Honours
2008 – 12 March 2011 Mehmet Durakovic Inaugural manager
First dual-nationality manager
First manager to be directly promoted to manager of the senior squad
20 March 2011 – 30 May 2016 Darren Davies[34] First official foreign manager
First manager to earn honours 		2012–13 NYL Premiership[35]
30 May 2016 – 22 February 2020[36] Gareth Naven[37]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e No National Youth League Finals
  2. ^ 6 point deduction
  3. ^ 3 point deduction

References

  1. ^ "Four More Clubs Granted NPL Licences". foxsportspulse.com. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. ^ Kounelis, Jordan. "Kokolakis signs for Richmond, Tom Cahill yet to re-sign". MFootball. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  3. ^ a b "Ladder for PS4 NPL VIC Men 2016". GameDay. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Ladder for NPL2 West VIC Men 2019". GameDay. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  5. ^ a b "2021 Start Up | Football Victoria". www.footballvictoria.com.au. 16 October 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Metro Melbourne 2021 season status | Football Victoria". www.footballvictoria.com.au. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  7. ^ "FV NPL Archived Match Centre". GameDay. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  8. ^ a b oscar (29 July 2023). "NPL Report: Victory secure promotion". Melbourne Victory. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  9. ^ a b oscar (30 July 2024). "VPL Report: Spoils shared in ten-goal thriller". Melbourne Victory. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  10. ^ kyogasingham (24 February 2025). "NPL Match Report | Victory secure second point in thrilling six-goal draw against South Melbourne". Melbourne Victory. Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  11. ^ a b jholub (23 August 2025). "NPL Match Report | Victory defeated by Dandy City". Melbourne Victory. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ "2008-2009 Season National Youth League Table". ozfootball.net. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  14. ^ "2009-2010 Season National Youth League Table". www.ozfootball.net. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  15. ^ "Y-League Ladder 2010/11 - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  16. ^ "Y-League Ladder 2011/12 - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  17. ^ "Y-League Ladder 2012/13 - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  18. ^ "Summary - 2013/14 A-League Youth - Australia - Soccerway". int.soccerway.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  19. ^ "Summary 2014/15 - A-League Youth - Australia - Soccerway". int.soccerway.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  20. ^ "2015-16 Y-League Ladder - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  21. ^ "2016-17 Y-League Ladder - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  22. ^ "2017-18 Y-League Ladder - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  23. ^ "2018-19 Y-League Ladder - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  24. ^ "2019-20 Y-League Ladder - Football/Australia". www.flashscore.com.au. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  25. ^ Lynch, Joey (24 January 2021). "Y-League cancelled for 2021 as APL flags reform for Australia's talent pipeline". ESPN.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  26. ^ Lynch, Joey (31 August 2022). "A-League ices youth comp amid NSD discussion". ESPN.com. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  27. ^ "Ladder for PS4 NPL1 East VIC 2015". GameDay. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  28. ^ "Ladder for PS4 NPL2 West VIC Men 2017". GameDay. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  29. ^ "Ladder for NPL2 West VIC 2018". GameDay. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  30. ^ "Ladder for NPL 3 VIC Men 2022". GameDay. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  31. ^ "Ladder for NPL 3 VIC Men 2023". GameDay. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  32. ^ "Ladder for VPL 1 Men". GameDay. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  33. ^ "Ladder for NPL VIC Men". GameDay. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  34. ^ "Home Page | Football Victoria". 3 October 2018.
  35. ^ "Darren Davies Delighted With NYL Championship Especially For His Boys That Have Been Through The Ups And Downs". Breathing Football.com. 5 March 2013. Archived from the original on 10 April 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  36. ^ "Gareth Naven returns to Perth". Melbourne Victory FC. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  37. ^ "Victory appoints Gareth Naven as NPL/NYL Head Coach". Melbourne Victory. 30 May 2016.
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