With A-League clubs now a few years down the road in setting up their youth academy systems from ages 12 to 18, many new signings have been promoted from within.

Bentleigh Greens coach John Anastasiadis acknowledged the changing landscape which has seen NPL clubs looking at emerging talent in a different way.

“We’re not a developing club but we always want to develop our own youngsters,” Anastasiadis said.

“Eventually every club is going to have to do this, we can’t just keep grabbing players from around everywhere.

“We now know that Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory won’t be touching our players as they have their own academies going.”

John Anastasiadis' Bentleigh Greens

Perth Glory CEO Peter Filopoulos admitted that his side are looking in-house when it comes to promoting young talent and the A-League’s structure could be why lower tier talent isn’t coming through.

“The statistics will tell you that players from the NPL coming into the A-League aren’t that great,” Filopoulos said.

“However, I also wonder if it’s the system because at the moment there is a salary cap in place and there is also a cap of players you can add.

“So as coaches and as heads of football you need to balance the books. You have a salary cap to play with.

“Sometimes those last spots which could go to the NPL players aren’t going to NPL players because you have to find extra money for a higher profile player to fit in under the cap.

“It’s a balancing act. Over the journey we’ve had players come out of the NPL trialling with our club and we haven’t had too much success identifying anyone as yet.

“But we’ve also got our own academy. We’ve got kids from Under-12 right up and this year Joe Knowles earnt a professional contract with the club and he’s from our system.”

Heidelberg United coach George Katsakis disagrees that it’s a structural issue and is dumbfounded as to why his gun striker Kenny Athiu, whose goal knocked Perth out of the FFA Cup, is being ignored.

“I’m not sure how coaches are thinking in the A-League,” Katsakis said. 

“Sometimes you need to give people opportunities and I’m not sure if that comes with the A-League.

“I would have thought having a bigger squad you’d be able to do that and take the punt and gamble sometimes.

“But at this point in time there’s obviously nothing there. Who’s to know, but we have our own plan for Kenny.”

After scoring 37 goals in two seasons for Heidelberg in the Victorian NPL, Athiu is still focused on what he must do to earn that A-League chance.

“I would love to be a professional player. That is my main goal,” Athiu said.

Heidelberg's Kenny Athiu

“I’ve been very happy with my performances this year. As a striker I want to score goals and I have scored quite a few.

“I feel like I’ve worked quite hard this year to be where I am in this moment. That’s all I can do, right? I just have to work hard and see what happens from there.”

South Melbourne’s Marcus Schroen is another NPL player who has been knocking on the door of the A-League and like Athiu will keep playing until an opportunity arises.

“I put myself in the shop window but unfortunately for whatever reason it hasn’t happened,” said the 23-year-old.

“It’s not an easy thing to achieve because there’s limited spots available and the competition is quite high for places.

“There’s a lot of quality around, not only in the NPL Victoria, but throughout the whole country. So competition for spots is tough but you keep plugging away and you never know what’s around the corner.”