Van Egmond quit Newcastle Jets in July shortly after the club's Asian Champions League exit to take up a role as assistant coach of the national U/17s and AIS. However the exit was a messy and controversial one with Jets owner Con Constantine asserting that his coach had been poached.

With talk of legal threats from Constantine, the FFA withdrew their job offer. Instead, the AIS offered the Jets grand final winning coach a position till 2012.

The AIS had its first outing of the new national youth league (NYL) season on Saturday in the curtain-raiser to Sydney FC's clash with North Queensland at the SFS.

A more experienced Sydney FC youth team featuring Seb Ryall, Stuart Musialik, Adam Casey and Ivan Necevski prevailed in a hard fought 1-0 victory.

Van Egmond said while results were less important, he still wanted to help instil a winning mentality with his charges.

"For me, it's all about the coaching. Here, you've got 15, 16 17-year-old boys they hang on every word you say, every day. They work hard, they've all got stars in their eyes and want to be the best player," he told au.fourfourtwo.com. "So it's a very important role as far as I'm concerned.

"And Jan [Versleijen, Young Socceroo coach] is also here in regard to the development of these players, not only on an individual basis but collectively for the good of Australian football in the future.
"And you need to develop a winning mentality. It's been an eye-opener for me but one I'm really enjoying."

The AIS showed plenty of promise despite the slender loss. The side recovered from a first half dominated by Sydney to push the home side right to the end.

Fifteen year-old central midfielder Terry Antonis displayed some classy touches up against the more experienced Musialik. Right winger Kamal Ibrahim and second half substitutes Jared Lum and David Talevski also impressed in front of the watching on former AIS starlet Kofi Danning.

Van Egmond said ultimately it's not about the results with squad rotations in order for the remainder of the season.

He added:  "It's a little bit of a balance. Obviously we don't want to finish last [in the NYL] but we also need to ensure there is a rotation with the players as well for the duration of the season.

"And that will happen fairly naturally with some of them needing a rest at times and with the number of younger ones who get called up for international duty.

"It'll be balanced out in regard to game time but they also have to understand we're preparing them for A-League and beyond, and they need to know there's competition for places."

The AIS next plays in round threeof the NYL at home to Adelaide United.