Welcome to Wonderkid Watch: A weekly piece that keeps you up to date with the players and stories emerging from A-Leagues clubs playing at NPL level in Australia.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
Featured image: Anita Milas Photography/Melbourne Victory
18-year-old’s unforgettable debut written in the stars
Debuts do not come more special or emotional than this.
On Friday night, Melbourne Victory celebrated their first win of the NPLM VIC season by defeating Port Melbourne 3-0, but beneath the scoreline was deeply moving story – one that was written in the stars.
Enter, debutant Patrick Wall. The teenager was on the scoresheet along with Daniel Lazarevski.
After celebrating his 18th birthday earlier in the week, Wall received his first call-up to Victory’s senior NPL team and played the entire match away to Port Melbourne.
R23 TALKING POINTS: Every word of Jets coach’s box office press conference
The call-up was a surprise for the teenager, who had scored 70 goals in 89 games for Victory across the U16, U18 and U23 competitions, which included winning the 2023 U16s Junior NPL Golden Boot.
But Wall repaid the faith under the Fright night lights with a debut goal in the 22nd minute.
WONDERKID WATCH: Goalscoring great’s son goes berserk in outrageous 17-1 rout
Why is that time so significant? Well, the youngster wears the number 22 in honour of his late father David Wall – who wore the same number during a distinguished football career in the Geelong and District Football League – and sadly passed away last December.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
David Wall was also club member, supporter and coach at North Geelong Warriors, where his son Patrick scored 19 goals in 21 games in 2022 before joining Victory ahead of the 2023 Junior NPL season.
This is an emerging talent who grew up supporting Victory and while watching them on TV as a six-year-old, turned to his mum and told her that he was going to play for them one day.
The other goalscorer, aside from an own goal on Friday night, was teammate Lazarevski.
That name is familiar within Victorian football circles thanks Daniel’s father Nick – who made almost 250 appearances in Victoria’s top flight, scoring 86 goals and winning two Championships with Heidelberg United (2002) and Preston Lions (2007) respectively.
Daniel Lazarevski joined Victory ahead of the 2022 Junior NPL season from Pascoe Vale and has won multiple Golden Boots across multiple junior levels.
His total goal output across U23, U18 and U16 levels for Victory has seen Lazarevski – who attended a training camp with North Macedonia’s Under-20 national team in February 2024 – score 117 goals in 115 games, while he made his senior academy debut in the final round of the 2023 VPL2 campaign.
After seeing off Port Melbourne, Victory are now 12th in the 14-team NPLM VIC competition with five points from six games.
As for Victory’s U23 outfit, they edged Port Melbourne 1-0 last week.
Phil Harbinson was the goalscorer for Victory, who are third in the standings and two points behind leaders Preston Lions.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
Over in VPL1, rivals Western United and Melbourne City both won in Victoria’s second tier.
Mark Leonard, Nicolas Koek and Tobias Servin were on target as Western handed Northcote City their first defeat of the season – a 3-0 loss in Tarneit.
Western are third in the standings – two points behind league-leading Bentleigh Greens and a point adrift of unbeaten Melbourne City.
Alessandro Diamanti’s City were too good for lowly Eastern Lions courtesy of a Medin Memeti brace and a Emin Durakovic goal. Both players are involved in the Isuzu UTE A-League team.
At U23 level in VPL1, City continue to lead the way ahead of fellow unbeaten outfit Western.
City ran out 7-0 victors over Eastern Lions via doubles from Luke Becvinovski, Aaron Cartwright and Daniel Matina, while Julian Rechia also scored.
Western, meanwhile, came from 2-0 down to beat Northcote 3-2. Alex Marmura scored twice, while Oscar Tanic scored the other goal.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
Wanderers create more history in NPLW NSW
Talk about unforgettable. That was exactly the case for Western Sydney Wanderers over the weekend.
A week after their inaugural match in NPLW NSW, the Wanderers celebrated their first ever win in the competition.
Two weeks ago was a “proud milestone in the club’s growing commitment to women’s football” and on Sunday night, Western Sydney added to that with a 3-1 triumph over Sydney Olympic.
BUY TICKETS TO THE NINJA A-LEAGUE!
Goals from Miriam Zumaya, Anika Stajcic and Gemma Ferris guided the Wanderers to their landmark win.
Ferris is part of Western Sydney’s Ninja A-League team and she was on target against Olympic, while fellow A-Leagues players Talia Younis, Aimee Hall, Talia Kapetanellis and Maya Lobo were also involved.
Elsewhere in Round 2 of NPLW NSW, Bulls FC Academy drew 1-1 away to UNSW FC thanks to Isabella Coco-Di Sipio‘s equaliser.
BUY TICKETS TO THE NINJA A-LEAGUE!
In NPLM NSW, Central Coast Mariners played out a 1-1 draw with Mt Druitt Town Rangers.
Western Sydney Wanderers were swept aside 4-0 by Wollongong Wolves and Sydney FC lost 1-0 to Marconi Stallions.
At U20 level, Sydney FC drew 0-0 with Marconi as Western Sydney (2-0 against Wollongong) and Central Coast (1-0 versus Mt Druitt) both lost.
In League One, Bulls FC Academy drew 2-2 away to Blacktown Spartans.
Bulls’ in-form duo Zane Helweh and Atiya Waraga were on the scoresheet for the seventh-placed club, who are now four games unbeaten.
As for Newcastle Jets, they lost 2-0 to Northern Tigers in the second tier.
In the U20s, unbeaten Newcastle soared to a 4-1 win over Northern Tigers thanks to a Max Wettig brace and goals via Williams Eick and Amos Okumu.
The second-placed Bulls, meanwhile, crushed Blacktown 5-0 courtesy of Stephen Varvaritis, Julian Rodriguez, Jack Wheat, Henrique Oliveira and Leandro Carle.
Five-star Perth Glory make winning start in WA
Perth Glory have lift off in NPLM WA after the 2025 season kicked off over the weekend.
Glory eased past Fremantle City 5-0 at the Sam Kerr Football Centre in the opening round to give new head coach Joe Heath a winning start to life in the role.
Perth were coming off a semi-final appearance in the NPLM WA Night Series as Heath looked to build on that showing.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
“We’ve got a big group this year and we wanted to get as many minutes into players as possible,” he said prior to the match via Perth Glory.
“Looking at the performances from last year, in possession, there was never a problem.
“But out of possession, I felt like that needed improving, so we concentrated a lot on pressing from the front and being compact throughout our pre-season games and the Night Series. I wanted us playing more as a team than as individuals.”
This season, the whole of Glory’s U20s have moved up to the first team, though a lot of them are still only 16 or 17.
On Saturday, Adam Bugarija and Khoa Ngo – both part of the Isuzu UTE A-League team – scored twice, while Adrian Pini also struck.
“So if we can get the team to be more competitive throughout the season this year, that would be a step in the right direction for me,” Heath said pre-game.
“If we can accomplish that this year, a lot of the players will have another year or two at that level still to come, so it’ll stand the group in good stead for next year in terms of their development.
“In a winning culture, everyone is together and vying for the same vision and development just happens within that environment.
“The main goal is to feed our A-League team. Just look at the players that have stepped up and done well – we need to continue that and potentially, the older lads in that NPL group now are ready to do that towards the end of the season.”
Over in NPLM SA, Adelaide United saw off FK Beograd 2-1 in South Australia.
The Reds came from behind thanks to Joey Garuccio and Brody Burkitt.
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE
At reserve level, Adelaide United romped to a 7-0 victory over the same opposition for their first win of the campaign after back-to-back draws.
Sidiki Dukuly and Liam Stam scored twice, while Chris Irakoze, Ali Mohtashami and Sebastian Tarasenko also found the back of the net.
