Melbourne Victory young guns power to history-making VPL1 premiership

Melbourne Victory is no stranger to silverware but Saturday’s VPL1 premiership breaks new ground for the club. These are the young guns behind the historic moment.

Melbourne Victory celebrates its VPL1 premiership.

Melbourne Victory is no stranger to silverware but the club claimed a historic achievement on Saturday.

For the first time since its inception in 2008, Victory’s academy have won a senior men’s trophy, the VPL1 premiership.

A commanding 4-0 win over Kingston City at John Cain Reserve secured the maiden title and back-to-back promotions.

The result sees the club jump from VPL2, the third tier of state football, to the top-flight NPL in the space of 12 months.

Future stars, including captain Alex Menelaou, Adem Duratovic, Kayne Razmovski, Marc Petheriotis, Damien Bozinovski, Jesse Hoey and Tommaso Minutoli, have led the charge for the last three years.

Adem Duratovic in action for Melbourne Victory.

Alex Menelaou in action for Melbourne Victory.

Jordi Valadon, Josh Inserra, Fabian Monge, Christian Siciliano, Daniel Graskoski, Kasey Bos, Luka Kolic and Menelaou all hold A-League contracts.

Menelaou said missing out on promotion two years ago and missing out on a premiership last year had been driving factors.

“Three seasons ago we fell at the last hurdle, against Kingston actually, to get promoted into NPL2 – which is VPL1 now,” Menelaou said.

“Last year we were able to (win promotion) and it’s flowed into this season, the boys have had a tremendous season.

“It started off the pitch, we were able to build such a good sense of camaraderie and togetherness within the group and ultimately that led to good football off the pitch.

“We celebrated a bit in the changerooms (on Saturday) but we’ll save it for next week, that’s when the real celebrations kick in.”

Austin Ganino opened the scoring for Victory in the first half, finishing off a cross from inside the box.

Duratovic’s 14th goal of the campaign doubled the lead early in the second half before a quickfire Minutoli brace sealed victory, promotion and the premiership.

Duratovic sits third on the competition goalscoring charts, while Minutoli is next best with 11.

Victory has the second best attacking record in VPL1 but its dominant season has been built on defence.

The team has conceded 35 goals in 25 matches after starting the season brilliantly, conceding just two goals in the opening nine matches.

“Defensively we were very good at the start of the season, I think we only conceded two goals,” Menelaou said.

“Obviously you’ve got to score goals to win games and that’s a big part of our game, we had multiple boys who could get up the pitch and score goals.

“At the end of the day it was able supplying them as best we could and they finished it off.”

Stepping up from VPL2, Victory signalled its intent with wins over premiership contenders Northcote City and Preston Lions in the opening fortnight.

Results have varied in the past month, drawing with Bulleen Lions 5-5 and Melbourne City 3-3 and losing to Brunswick City 3-2 and Caroline Springs George Cross 4-0.

But, even the loss of academy coach Joe Palatsides to an overseas coaching opportunity, didn’t stop Victory.

“We always knew what our goal was, especially with Pala, he had such a strong sense of belief in us and pushed us to our limits,” Menelaou said.

“We had such a good relationship with Pala as a person and as a coach, when he came in he really changed the foundations of the academy.

“He always had the belief in us so he could set high goals and instilled hard-work into us.”

Victory will finish the VPL1 season against Western United at Port Melbourne’s Murphy Reserve on Saturday before turning attention to NPL football next year.

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Menelaou said the team was looking forward to the challenge of taking on the likes of South Melbourne, Oakleigh, Avondale and Heidelberg United.

“It’s a big step up in quality and now we could get to play finals at the end of the year, that’s an aspiration for us,” he said.

“A lot of good teams and the quality will be a lot better, so it’s exciting, there’s exciting times ahead.”

Preston Lions, Northcote City and Western United remain in the hunt for the second promotion place.

MELBOURNE VICTORY VPL1 SQUAD

Adem Duratovic (24 matches, 14 goals)

Ahmad Taleb (8 matches)

Alex Kapaklis (10 matches)

Alex Menelaou (20 matches, 3 goals)

Austin Ganino (11 matches, 2 goals)

Christian Polyzoudis (1 match)

Christian Siciliano (11 matches)

Damien Bozinovski (23 matches, 1 goal)

Daniel Duvnjak (7 matches)

Daniel Graskoski (10 matches)

Daniel Lazarevski (10 matches)

Dimitri Palatsides (24 matches)

Eli Adams (9 matches, 6 goals)

Fabian Monge (5 matches)

George Karvounis (16 matches)

Jack Mihailidis (21 matches, 3 goals)

Jesse Hoey (21 matches, 8 goals)

Jordan Hoey (11 matches)

Jordi Valadon (4 matches)

Josh Inserra (13 matches)

Kasey Bos (11 matches)

Kasper Fonsboel (1 match)

Kayne Razmovski (22 matches, 1 goal)

Linus Bourke (15 matches)

Luka Kolic (16 matches, 5 goals)

Marc Petheriotis (24 matches, 7 goals)

Matthew Bozinovski (14 matches, 2 goals)

Nik Cevizovic (15 matches)

Oscar Von Schrenk (5 matches)

Riley Foxe (3 matches)

Thomas Pennisi (1 match)

Tommaso Minutoli (17 matches, 9 goals)

Victor Muhindo (10 matches)

William McIntosh (4 matches)

Yonathan Sultan (8 matches)

Zach Puhalovich (6 matches)