With a government-backed stadium next to Dandenong train station at its heart, Team 11 had appeared odds-on favourite for one of the two expansion A-League licences handed out by the FFA in December 2018.

Instead though, Western Melbourne Group – which birthed Western United – and Macarthur South West Sydney – which gave rise to Macarthur FC – won the day.

But with FFA Chairman Chris Nikou indicating the A-League will grow beyond 12 teams, those behind the bid have remained active. The Team 11 website defiantly insists: “We are not giving up.”

And with new reports that a long-anticipated National Second Division (NSD) is edging closer to reality, a possible new direction for Team 11 - who have maintained their branding in spite of missing out on the 11th A-League license - has emerged.

The news of progress towards a NSD has already been welcomed by the Association of Australian Football Clubs and NPL clubs around the country, who have long agitated for opportunities beyond the hard ceiling that currently exists for state-based clubs.

But with the make-up and other details of a new second tier still unclear, the league could yet be made up of a combination of existing NPL clubs, A-League academy sides and new entities placed into targeted markets such as Canberra, Tasmania or south-east Melbourne.

“It’s pretty much as you would expect, we want a professional men and women’s football club in the south-east of Melbourne,” Team 11 Project Officer Matt Windley told FTBL.

“Because we know that it would go gangbusters with the massive populations that’s there, the massive football community that’s there, with the massive multicultural population that’s there.

“And we want to be a part of any conversation that may further that cause.

“Now, whether that’s a fresh A-League expansion bid or a possible second division bid or anything else, we just, fundamentally, want a club in the south-east because we know that it will work. If this is something to explore then clearly, we’ll explore it.

“We haven’t been sent any more detail. Until any sort of formal expressions of interest gets released, we’re just waiting for more information like everyone else.”

Nonetheless, Windley is confident that, despite the lack of clarity around the details, the south-east Melbourne entity was agile enough to adjust itself to meet the requirements of either.

“We said that on the day that we missed out that we’d be willing to explore anything that delivered an A-League and a W-League team to the region,” Windley said.

“Everyone sort of knows that we were a different bid. It was really grassroots focused, community focused, about delivering outcomes for the community at large.

“We’ve got an end goal in mind, clearly the journey might end up being different to what we anticipated when we set out on the road three or so years ago, but it doesn’t change the determination to bring out a team.

“Around us in terms of where you play, the fact that the first stage of Casey Fields [development] is going to be finished hopefully later this month or early April gives a team a place to be based.

“And I think that facility is agile enough or can be delivered quickly enough to incorporate a venue more than capable of hosting NSD matches for sure.”

Casey Fields – earmarked by Team 11 during its A-League bid as a temporary home until their proposed stadium was complete – recently hosted 6120 fans in rectangular mode to see NRL side Melbourne Storm take on North Queensland Cowboys for a pre-season match last month.

Windley added: “Clearly the discussion around Dandenong [stadium] comes more into the fray when we’re talking more specifically about an A-League licence."