Against the background of a third-consecutive Premiership win and humiliating Grand Final defeat for the senior side in the past month, it may have been forgotten by many City fans that the club is now well and truly into a post-promotion campaign in Victoria's NPL 2 competition.
With all eyes now falling on the young team as they navigate their final 10 games of the 2023 campaign, here's a guide to our senior Academy side and how it has fared so far this year:
Story of the season
Finishing second in the NPL 3 in 2022, the young City boys have made a promising enough start to life in the higher division after 16 rounds, currently occupying 9th place in the 14-team competition.
The team's generally win-or-bust record of seven wins, one draw and eight losses is indicative of the highly-entertaining games that fans have witnessed this season;
City is the second-highest scoring but also the second-highest conceding team in the division, and this has been a problem for new Head Coach Crisdion Krstevski.
The opening weeks of the new campaign were marked by a win, loss, win, loss pattern, and some whiplash-inducing scorelines like our 3-0 loss to Bulleen Lions followed by a blockbuster 6-3 triumph over Eastern Lions.
The cracks couldn't be papered over for long though, and that leaky defence eventually caught up to the team as it claimed just a single point between Rounds 4-10. This was a particularly low point in the season; a 4-0 defeat to A-League rivals Western United alarmed even fans unattached to the Youth team, with the result also falling in the middle of a run of four losses in which we would concede 14 goals.
However, the story of our season would all change with a single emphatic win.
Following four-consecutive weeks of three or more goals conceded, the City boys travelled to Langwarrin SC and allowed just one consolation goal on their way to scoring five themselves. This began a run of five wins in six games and was the first improved display from a reinvigorated backline that would concede just six goals in that time and, importantly, claim a first clean sheet of the season.
Such a turnaround has seen City climb back up into a tightly-contested mid-table, with just four points separating 6th from 13th. The team is also still a chance to contest for promotion, just eight points off second place with a game in hand.
Style and personnel
The brand of football played by our senior Academy side - all of them, in fact - is consistent with the patient, possession-based philosophy and 4-3-3 formation embedded within our A-League sides. It's this consistent identity that has helped the team to navigate their third coaching change in as many seasons, with Krstevski following in the footsteps of current senior Assistants John Maisano in 2022 and Petr Kratky in 2021.
The topic of key players, by contrast, is a more interesting and difficult one, particularly in light of recent news.
Our NPL 2 squad has just lost arguably its biggest name in Raphael Borges Rodrigues, who had scored seven goals in five games prior to a red card and senior squad involvement that had kept him out for the last month. Similarly, Kerrin Stokes will also depart following the expiration of his senior contract.
Meanwhile, Arion Sulemani, our breakout Academy product from the 2022 NPL 3 season, has been unable to build on the momentum of last season due to an ACL injury he suffered in February this year which ruled him out of the entire season.
With the departures of Borges Rodrigues, Stokes and Jordi Valadon (who joined Victory at the start of the 2022/23 ALM season), City has just two players in its NPL squad with senior City appearances, those being Max Caputo and Luke Oresti.
In combination with those youthful departures and the gaping holes in the senior squad, the most interesting narratives within the NPL 2 squad aren't the known names, but the 'unknowns' (with respect) who best place themselves to crack the senior team.
NPL 2 skipper Harry Politidis is a versatile left-back with both offensive and defensive prowess. At 21 years of age and with several years of NPL experience and fringe involvement with the ALM squad under his belt, he could be ready to step up and contest for playing time at left-back in the absence of Jordan Bos and Scott Jamieson.
Most likely to challenge for the midfield minutes vacated by Aiden O'Neill and Valon Berisha would be Emin Durakovic, Emile Peios or the aforementioned Oresti. Durakovic was one of City's strongest performers in the 2022 NPL 3 season, while Peios returns to the club following a stint in the Academy sides of Belgian first-tier outfit Sint-Truidense. Oresti is the most experienced candidate to step into Berisha's role, having spent several seasons in City's senior NPL setup, making two 2022 Australia Cup appearances and scoring the winner against Newcastle Olympic.
James Nieuwenhuizen is a name that many City fans have heard about in recent times, with the 19-year-old tipped to break into the senior squad as our backup keeper as soon as next season, with a view to inheriting the gloves from whoever is signed as the stopgap until his maturation. He has made just three NPL appearances in 2023, likely due to his involvement with senior matchday squads, but could be reintroduced into Krstevski's squad in an effort to build towards increased senior involvement in the 2023/24 ALM campaign.
The run home
Looking ahead, our senior Academy side has 10 games to push for a higher table finish, but will gain no advantage in an easy run home; there remains a perfect 5-5 split of fixtures against current top-half vs bottom-half teams.
That run begins tomorrow with our Round 17 fixture at home to Brunswick City. Our opposition are currently two places (and two points) below us on the table, but that will provide little comfort to Krstevski's side, who lost 2-1 to their upcoming opponents back in Round 4.
The match will kick-off at 3pm at our current home of Parade College in Bundoora.
With no more senior City football left in 2022/23, and an enormous ALM rebuild on the cards for Michael Petrillo and Rado Vidosic, attention should now rightly fall on Krstevski's side as they fight to survive, and perhaps thrive in, their first season at NPL 2 level.
With a long off-season of content ahead for Talking City, we hope to provide further insights into the Academy and get down to more games now that the club's footballing calendar has quietened down - and we hope that you do too.
The next Connor Metcalfe, Nathaniel Atkinson, or Jordan Bos could be coming through the ranks right now.
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