Months in the making, United's squad of youngsters has been hand-picked by Mulvey after a strenuous selection process that left no stone unturned in pursuit of the very best young talent.

"We only finalised the squad recently and for the last eight weeks we've been training with the squad we had in place and adding players as they were signed," Mulvey said. "We had an eye on certain players within Queensland who we were interested in and we took literally hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls from players all over the country who wanted to come and trial with us.

"We responded to every single one of those enquiries and invited players in from the Gold Coast and Northern NSW to attend a series of trials.

"There were people scouting and watching players constantly, as well as taking recommendations from our network of contacts throughout the coaching fraternity. We were specific on the type of players we were looking for and from there we just kept narrowing it down until we had the numbers we needed.

"At this point we now have our final squad of sixteen players, along with four others who will train with us for the year with a view to bringing them forward with us next season.

"Also, we will of course have the benefit of having senior players from the Hyundai A-League squad who are returning from injury or keeping up their match sharpness."

Mulvey will groom and shape his players for life in professional football and says one of his main targets for the year is to see his young charges step up into the senior team and perform alongside the likes of Jason Culina and Shane Smeltz.

"One of my primary goals is to prepare our Youth Team players for first team action and have at least one or two step up into the senior side this season.

"There will be some different philosophies throughout the National Youth League. The major challenge is that it's an age group between 16 and 21, so you can have a team full of 20 or 21-year-olds, or you can plan for the future and have younger players coming through the ranks who could be earmarked to break into the senior team in three or four years time.

"What I've gone for is a mix of a few players who have the ability and potential to break into the senior side straightaway and others who will be capable of playing first team football in a year or two.

"If they are performing well week in, week out, then they will catch Miron's eye and their opportunity will come," he said.

National Youth League Round 1

Sunday 13 September, Kick off 12.15pm (local), 2.15pm (aest)

PERTH GLORY YOUTH v GOLD COAST UNITED YOUTH

At Members Equity Stadium, Perth