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.
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Brother of A-Leagues gun fuels Western United’s perfect start with hat-trick
While Dylan Leonard continues to light up the Isuzu UTE A-League with Western United, his brother is also starring for the club’s youth team.
Mark Leonard scored a hat-trick to lead the Green and Black past Kingston City 4-0 in VPL1 over the weekend as the promotion hopefuls made it two wins from two games to start 2025.
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An 18-year-old striker, while his brother is one year younger and a defender, Mark Leonard scored twice in 13 first-half minutes before completing his treble 18 minutes from the end in Tarneit on Saturday afternoon, while Jake Najdovski was also on target in the rout – taking his tally to three for the season.
It was another standout performance from Leonard, who tops the goalscoring charts with four goals in two matches to start the season in Victoria’s second tier, where Western top the standings alongside Northcote City.
Like his brother Dylan, Mark Leonard joined Western United from NPLM VIC outfit Port Melbourne at the start of 2023-24 and made his pro debut in last year’s Australia Cup play-off against Newcastle Jets, while he was involved with John Aloisi’s first team throughout pre-season.
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“Like his brother Dylan, Mark has shown from early on in his time at the club, a great level of maturity and game understanding,” Western United’s academy director Anthony Frost told aleagues.com.au.
“Mark’s unrelenting work ethic sets a great example to others and gives him the foundation to get himself in fantastic positions to either score, assist and break up play defensively.
“Mark is adaptable by playing both in wide areas as well as central, managing to be a threat playing inside in tighter areas finding combinations or by stretching the pitch in beyond.
“Mark has developed his technical execution and sharpness that will only get better in our environment and we are excited to see how he continues to progress this season.”
At Under-23 level, Alex Marmura scored a hat-trick in Western’s 9-0 rout of Kingston, with Hasanl Lumu, Lachlan Grundy, Lenny Van Heer, Shifa Ahmed, Anderson Back and Victor Muhindo also on target.
In NPLM VIC, rivals Melbourne Victory suffered a 1-0 loss away to Heidelberg United.
Victory succumbed to a goal from former Western United youngster Max Bisetto as the 2024 VPL1 champions eye their first win of the campaign.
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At U23 level, Victory ran out 6-1 winners.
Daniel Lazarevski was at the double, while Lucas Alessi, Patrick Wall, Edon Ajrovski and Alex Lee were also on target.
Former Spurs youngster makes history
Remember the name Akeem Gerald.
Gerald, who only celebrated his 15th birthday in February, scored the only goal of the game as Melbourne City edged Bentleigh Greens 1-0 in VPL1 on Sunday, a week after making his debut.
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It was a memorable goal for the 15-year-old, who became the youngest player to ever score for City’s youth team.
Gerald spent some time at Tottenham as a kid when his family lived in England.
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He joined City aged 12 in late 2022. In 2023, he spent time with the Under-14 team before making the jump to the U16s in 2024, while now he is a member of the 2025 youth outfit.
In the last 12 months, Gerald has scored in every age group of City’s academy, except their development squad (VPL1 U23).
Alessandro Diamanti’s City are unbeaten through two rounds in VPL1, two points behind Western United.
City’s U23 side, meanwhile, defeated Bentleigh 2-0 thanks to a Luke Becvinovski brace.
A pair of 15-year-olds debut in Wanderers win as Sky Blues soar
Western Sydney Wanderers claimed their first big scalp of season 2025 after upstaging Sydney Olympic 1-0 in NPLM NSW.
Awan Lual was the hero for the Wanderers, with his 75th-minute strike settling Saturday’s contest at Belmore Sports Ground.
Lual entered the pitch in the 63rd minute and scored 12 minutes later as Western Sydney stayed unbeaten through the opening two rounds.
The match also saw a pair of 15-year-olds debut for the Wanderers – Akol Akon and Johnny Pavlovic.
“There were moments in the game today where we controlled possession and were comfortable, but with we also need to learn to stay switched on in those moments where you are under the pump a bit,” Western Sydney head coach Richie Cardozo said via NPL NSW.
“Last week our average age was 17-18 and it was even younger this week as we saw that with two 15-year-old boys who came on for their debut.
“Awan Lual, who scored our goal, has just come back from injury and we would love to have him a bit more, so we need to protect him with limited game time.
“This week I am very happy that we got the three points, and I think we deserved the three points also last week but we missed some chances and settled for a draw. Today the players showed a lot of maturity, and it was a great effort from them all.”
Tristan Arrarte scored the match-winning goal as Western Sydney’s U20s prevailed 1-0 against Olympic.
Rivals Sydney FC, meanwhile, trumped Sydney United 3-1 on Sunday.
Goals from Joe Lacey, Joseph Calusic and Mathias Macallister inspired the Sky Blues, who won for the first time in 2025.
Nickolas Alfaro scored a 32nd-minute equaliser at U20 level as Sydney drew 1-1 with Sydney United.
As for Central Coast Mariners, they were beaten 6-2 by APIA Leichhardt.
Zayd Kassaby and Lawrence Taylor struck for the Mariners at Pluim Park on Sunday.
The U20s lost 3-2 despite goals via Shumba Mutokoyi and Isaac Kwon.
30 and counting for high-flying Jets
Newcastle Jets have continued where they left off in 2025 after defeating Blacktown Spartans 3-1 in Football NSW League One.
The Jets are in the second tier following an historic 2024 campaign which saw Newcastle go through the entire season unbeaten, winning the Premiership and Championship en route to promotion.
Newcastle have won back-to-back games to start life in League One after taking down Blacktown over the weekend to extend their undefeated run to 30 matches.
Ethan Debono, Xavier Bertoncello and substitute Lucas Johnson ignited the Jets on the road.
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Newcastle’s U20s also triumphed 2-1 thanks to a pair of own goals.
Also in League One, Bulls FC Academy went down 2-1 at home to Canterbury Bankstown.
Nicolai Muller’s Bulls remain winless in 2025, despite a consolation goal via Atiya Waraga who has now scored twice in as many games.
Their U20 outfit, however, cruised to a 5-0 victory. Atem Achuoth was at the double, while Julian Rodriguez and Henrique Oliveira were also on the scoresheet.
In Western Australia, Perth Glory remain in the mix to clinch a 2025 WA Night Series semi-final berth after rallying to a 2-2 draw with Olympic Kingsway on Friday.
Max Naylor’s strike and an own goal clinched a draw for NPLM WA outfit the Glory, who have set up a winner-takes-all final group-stage game against Armadale SC.
