As Ivan Franjic edges close to a return to full fitness and a spot at right-back in the Melbourne City starting line-up, one must feel that another opportunity for a senior call-up for Philip Petreski has gone begging.
The 20-year-old fullback – equally adept in the middle of the park – has been at City since 2011 and captains the club’s NYL/NPL side, but is yet to make a competitive appearance for the first team.
His absence from the senior side is somewhat a mystery for a player once touted as one of the nation’s brightest young prospects.
A youth prodigy who rose through South Melbourne’s junior ranks, Petreski was then selected into the Victorian state set-up.
In addition to state representative honours, he trialled overseas with Chelsea and Stoke City, with the latter keen to take him on board.
However, he was prevented from doing so due to a failure to obtain an EU passport, given his parents’ homeland of Macedonia is not part of the Union.
Petreski continued his development back home and was duly rewarded with selection in Melbourne Heart’s inaugural youth team in 2011/12 under the stewardship of John Aloisi and Arthur Papas.
A promising debut season in the NYL was followed by a loan stint at South Melbourne in 2012, where Petreski made his senior debut under Peter Tsolakis.
10 appearances split over the space of two seasons in the turbulent Tsolakis era at Lakeside saw the teenager gain experience in the cutthroat environment of senior football, returning to Heart in 2013 to embark on his third successive NYL campaign.
While then first team manager John Aloisi elevated full-backs Jeremy Walker and Sam Mitchinson into the 2012/13 squad, Petreski may have fancied his chances of senior game time in 2013/14 after playing a full 90 minutes in one of the club’s last A-League pre-season hit-outs.
Despite his good NYL form, Jason Hoffman and Iain Ramsay – both former forwards playing in unfamiliar positions – were preferred at full-back as Heart went winless in their first 15 games of the season, ultimately costing Aloisi his job.
A move back to the to the revamped NPL at the conclusion of the 2013/14 NYL season saw Petreski impress for Northcote City, making 21 league appearances – alongside current Melbourne City teammate Wade Dekker – under Goran Lozanovski.
Opportunities were further limited during John van ’t Schip’s tenure as the City Football Group took charge of the club.
The 2014/15 season saw more of the same as Ross Archibald, Ben Garuccio, Paulo Retre and Safuwan Baharudin all earned game time at right and left back despite not being natural fullbacks.
Following on from City’s successful 2014/15 NYL campaign, in which Petreski captained the side to the title, the youngster rejected offers from several NPL clubs in favour of dropping down a division and leading Melbourne City during their inaugural NPL campaign.
The former Noble Park and Springvale City junior appeared 18 times for the club as Joe Montemurro’s men finished on the periphery of the promotion race in the NPL1 West standings.
Petreski, a member of Melbourne Heart’s 2012 Hawaiian Islands Invitational tournament, was granted another high-profile first-team appearance when featuring for City against their cousins from Manchester on the Gold Coast in July.
Internationally, his career has followed an alternative path to his peers, representing Macedonia after being overlooked for Young Socceroos selection.
Ironically, he featured for the Macedonian U21 team that defeated an Australian U23 side 3-1 in September.
Petreski’s presence in the starting line-up of a country that defeated a predominantly A-League-based Olyroos outfit raises the question of why such a player is not being considered for a starting berth at City.
Upon his return from Europe ahead of the current A-League season, Petreski could have been forgiven for thinking that a competitive senior team debut was on the cards after a four year apprenticeship in the youth team.
And with injuries to newly acquired full-backs Ivan Franjic and Michael Zullo, along with the absence of Aaron Hughes to international duty, the time seemed right for Petreski to stake his claim in one of the problem positions for the club.
However, van ’t Schip opted to play central-midfielder Paulo Retre and left-winger Ben Garuccio in the respective full-back slots, centre-back Jack Clisby occasionally deputised at left-back, while Matthew Millar was also promoted from the youth ranks to fill in when required.
The combinations continued to produce mixed results, with City suffering the second worst defensive record in the A-League so far.
Despite these vulnerabilities, van ’t Schip has continued to keep faith with Retre and Garuccio at the expense of Petreski, who will most likely once more spend his summer playing in the NYL, away from the cut-throat environment of the A-League.
The Macedonian youth international will be 21 in March, ineligible for another youth team contract come next season.
His NYL winning-teammates Luka Prelevic and Nick Symeoy have already been released by the club, having recently turned 21.
The former won the 2015 NPL1 Rising Star Award and the latter made a couple of senior appearances at the back end of the last A-League season, but neither was offered a first-team contract.
While City have lately been lauded for the emergence of several youth graduates in Wade Dekker, Stefan Zinni, Matt Millar and Hernan Espindola, the case of Phil Petreski is close but no cigar.
Despite being the longest serving member of City’s squad across all competitions, he has not been offered the same first-team opportunities as some of his teammates over the years, and questions have emerged about the benefits for either party to retain a player for five years without providing a senior A-League chance.