As the NPL Victoria season commences this weekend Melbourne Victory Youth captain Joey Katebian believes his side has the quality to match it with the best that state league football has to offer.
Coming off a shortened National Youth League campaign and a fantastic NPL1 runn last year, Katebian was enthusiastic that despite possessing a youthful setup, Melbourne Victory has the quality to potentially play finals football.
‘’We have added a few good young players from the NPL, but the core of experience is still there from the youth league and we believe we are good enough but we just need to put it into the games.’’
Katebian went on to claim that simply staying in the league is only the minimum objective for the upcoming campaign.
‘’I know it’s out first season but I think we have the players and I think we should be striving for at least a finals spot.’’
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Along with the Victory skipper, representing Melbourne City’s NPL side was also Wade Dekker, while members from fellow championship winning sides of last year’s NPL and NPL1 competitions Bentleigh Greens, South Melbourne, Bulleen Lions and Richmond were also in attendance at the launch.
Despite not getting promoted to the top-flight, Dekker believes that it will still be a great experience for the City youth side as they seek to push in what will be a very competitive NPL2 West competition next season.
‘’The NPL is a great platform for all of us young players, as there are always coaches watching the matches and as we have seen this season JVS [John van’t Schip] has shown trust in a number of young boys ]Stefan Zinni, Hernan Espindola and Dekker] in giving them chances in the first team, so the NPL is the perfect platform to play and show you are ready.’’
The Melbourne Victory NPL side kick-off on Saturday at 3pm against Northcote at Epping stadium, while Melbourne City’s youth will travel out to Bendigo on Saturday night, with kick-off at 7pm at Epsom Huntly Reserve.
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