Darren Davies is the man pitted with fostering Melbourne Victory’s future, bringing up the youth team to be the next generation of A-League players.
With the A-League commencing on Friday, the National Youth League follows suit a week later, with Victory playing away to Newcastle on October 18.
In the meantime, the navy blues have played a number of friendlies in preparation for the season, including a win over Bulleen Lions, a loss to the Tasmanian XI, and a draw with Box Hill United.
While Davies said the team hadn’t gotten all they wanted out of the Tasmania game, he believed their performance against Box Hill would hold them in good stead for the upcoming season.
“Tasmania was a good exercise, but we didn’t really get what we wanted out of the game– it was the conditions, the travel, the squad and we didn’t really progress as we wanted to,” Davies said.
“However it was a good learning moment and I thought the boys came [out to play] today [against Box Hill] and it was another step forward.
Davies revealed that the playing roster was almost finalised and that most players were contracted for the season, but with some vacancies still available, a number of train on players are staking their claim for a starting berth.
“We’re really happy with the boys we’ve got and we firmly believe that each and every one of them can go onto become a first team player,” he said.
“I think we’re just progressing as a squad. We’ve been together for two weeks now and the attitude and the effort that the boys have put in has been phenomenal really.
“I will single out the new [players]. It’s difficult coming into a new program and the standards we expect are obviously exceptionally high. They’ve taken that on board and they’ve gotten off to a great start.
“The boys who’ve been with me for a year or two now, they’ve stepped up and become the leaders of the group now so they need to take some credit for driving the program and the culture of the squad.”
A particular focus for the Welshman this season is to continue the integration of youth players into the senior system, playing the same formation as style as the first team, a policy implemented by former coach Ange Postecoglou.
“I think it started 2-3 years ago with Ange and the philosophy that was coming through the club, the style of play and the DNA of our playing style,” he said.
“Under Ange, we had a big influence of youth team players playing in the first team and that’s continued with Kevin [Muscat].
“We’ve worked closely with the boss, I’m in every day with him and he’s across with each and every one of these boys – Kevin is across everything and he’s continued the philosophy with wanting to put these youth team players into the first team.”
While Davies was unhappy with the National Youth League calendar lasting only 18 rounds, he was complimentary towards the new NPL Victoria setup in helping players continue their development, which has propelled the likes of Bulleen’s Joseph Katebian, Box Hill’s George Howard, Port Melbourne’s Stefan Nigro and Melbourne Knights’s Jordan O’Doherty to greater heights.
“I don’t think the NYL is long enough – at the end of those 18 games, I’d like to have another competition to go in to – I only get the boys for six months,” Davies said.
“We’ve had two weeks now, and then I get them for six months before they have to go back to their NPL clubs. Moving forward, would we like to keep a hold of our boys and keep them in our environment.
“I think the NPL has been good. There’s a lot of clubs that are forced to play with younger players which is obviously good from our point of view. There’s a few teams out there who are really looking to try and play good football.”
Melbourne Victory Youth have one more friendly against Bentleigh Greens this weekend, before jetting off to Newcastle to open their National Youth League account on October 18.
Image credit: Skip Fulton via NPL Vic Football