Though wrangling will no doubt continue – the council has indicated that they want to work with Victory to find a new location and Victory could pursue legal action to recoup some costs – the inability of Australia’s biggest club to construct an elite facility for its women and youth leaves said programs in a state of flux.

While the resourcing gap that was opened between Melbourne City and Victory in the W-League when the former entered the league has been well-publicised, the rejection of the academy also threatens to further widen the space that exists between the two Melbourne rivals’ academies.

Like its men’s and women’s sides, City’s Y-League side is based out of the club’s elite facilities on the campus of La Trobe University – with access to the same amenities of their senior equivalents.

Advocated for by former academy boss and now Singapore Technical Director Joe Palatsides, the move was made in order to make the youth players truly feel like part of the City setup and create a sense of belonging.

It also represents a powerful tool that City staff can use when they are out recruiting the next generation of academy talent – especially when contrasted with Victory’s dearth of similar resources for their elite youth.

It means that when it comes time to pitch to the best and brightest of Victoria’s talent, Victory’s academy staff are forced to compete with City recruiters that can offer an setup with better facilities, more junior Australian internationals, more A-League minutes for youngsters and the prospect of the club’s CFG connections greasing a path to Europe.

Some of those carrots are simply unmatchable by Victory’s staff – they can’t manufacture a global, oil-money backed conglomerate of their own to back the club nor can they control the minutes that Marco Kurz gives young players.

However, the proposed Footscray Park facility would have given them a valuable chip of their own when it came to winning the battle for talented teen’s hearts and minds by providing them with elite facilities of their own to pitch.

Unmistakably, there are clear signs of progress under new youth boss Drew Sherman at Victory.

The decision the club has made to abolish fees for players in their academy is a welcome move that will remove financial barriers for players and serve as a potent tool in their recruiting arsenal.

Players such as Josh Hope, Anthony Lesiotis, Matt Sutton, Ben Carrigan, Jay Barnett and Birkan Kirdar all possess the talent to earn senior minutes and provide an example of an academy to senior pathway that can be pointed to.

The club also remains the biggest and most successful player in town and, when combined with longevity, the majority of the current crop of Victorian youngsters being recruited should possess a greater affection for the Victory badge than City’s.

Nonetheless, as the PFA’s Golden Generation report demonstrated, young players in the modern age are increasingly looking at their footballing journeys with their heads, not their hearts.

With their plans in Footscray Park now blocked and Western United set to begin attempting to carve out their own youth recruiting turf in the west, Victory will have to move quickly to ensure they don’t fall further behind the eight-ball in the Melbourne academy scene.

Melbourne Victory 2-1 Perth Glory

In the first of two Victory v Glory encounters at AAMI Park on Friday night, the home side’s youth set the tone for the evening when they came from a goal back to record their second win on the bounce.

Seeking to continue their goalscoring momentum after putting six past City the previous week, Glory’s Gabriel Popovic made it 1-0 from the penalty spot in the 19th minute of play to give them a promising beginning but, unfortunately for Head Coach Richard Garcia’s side, that’s where the goals ended.

After almost scoring a world-class pearler from long-range minutes before, Australian U17 World Cup representative Kirdar restored the game to parity in the game’s 32nd minute.

Central midfielder Wil Wilson then drove home a cutback in the 62nd minute to make it 2-1, secure his side the win and send them top of Conference A after three rounds.

Melbourne City 0-0 Brisbane Roar

The result between a Roar side that put seven past Melbourne Victory in their one game of the season and a City squad that had scored six times in a 6-6 draw with Perth in their one fixture was just as we all predicted: a 0-0 draw.

Both sides fielded a number of A-League contracted players among their ranks for the contest: Florin Berenguer, Tom Glover, Nathaniel Atkinson and Ramy Najjarine all playing for City and George Mells, Jack Hingert and Conner O’Toole all suiting up for Roar.

Getting out of the blocks early, City’s Najjarine and Moudi Najjar both had chances to open the scoring for the hosts – the game played up in Shepparton as a curtain-raiser to the City v Adelaide W-League match – but couldn’t beat Roar keeper Macklin Freke.

Mirza Muratovic then forced Glover into a reaction save in the 37th minute to create the Roar’s best chance of what was a lean opening half.

Both sides would have opportunities to break the deadlock as the second half wound down but neither was able to do so; the contest going down as the first scoreless draw of the 2018/19 Y-League season.

Western Sydney Wanderers 0-5 Central Coast Mariners

In the result of the Y-League’s third round, Head Coach Nick Montgomery’s Mariners marched into Marconi Stadium and put five past a highly rated Wanderers set up and flipped Conference B’s prognosis on its head.

It was former Goulburn Valley Suns flyer Alou Kuol who set the tone for the visitors, the youngster continuing his rapid adjustment to life in an A-League setup as he netted twice in the first half to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead heading into the dressing rooms.

The Golden Boot winner in Victoria’s NPL2 in 2019, the raw talent that Kuol possessed was never in question heading into 2019/20 – the only question mark whether he could adjust to life away from Victoria and the tactical demands of playing an A-League setup.  

Early signs, though, seem to indicate that the Mariners have got themselves a gem.

Young Socceroo Dylan Ruiz-Diaz added a third goal for the Mariners in the 57th minute of the contest, before Harry McCarthy made it 4-0 in the 74th and Michael Katsoulis added a cherry on the sundae in the 93rd minute.

Though times may have been tough in Gosford in recent seasons, history demonstrates that the Mariners do have an ability to pump out junior talent with the best of them and, having finished the 2018/19 Y-League season with a wet sail, the current crop assembled under Montgomery are quickly proving themselves as a group to watch.

Newcastle Jets 6-1 Canberra United

Newcastle recorded their first win of the season in thumping fashion in Sunday’s other contest, pantsing Canberra United 6-1 at the No.2 Sportsground.

Played through by Pat Langlois, Blake Archbold ensured his side got off to a perfect start when he fired home in just the fourth minute of play before Sam Donnellan made it 2-0 from the spot just four minutes later.  

Kosta Petratos turned in a Cole Mutton cross in the 23rd minute to make it 3-0 to the hosts but Nikola Ujdur fired back for Canberra in the 27th minute to reduce the deficit back to two.

But a second Jets penalty – this time converted by Petratos – restored the three-goal lead in the 37th minute.

Langlois made it 5-1 in the 53rd minute before Jack Simmons added an exclamation point to the victory when he fired home in the 92nd minute to make it a half-dozen for the side from the Hunter.