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.