Barbarouses savouring central role after evening of Hyundai A-League milestones

Kosta Barbarouses admits he is thriving in a more central role for Melbourne Victory after an evening of personal milestones against Brisbane Roar on Tuesday night.

Barbarouses notched his first Hyundai A-League hat-trick and became the eighth player to reach the 50-goal landmark after tucking away a penalty early in the second half.

The 28-year-old added a further two goals to that tally as Kevin Muscat’s side emerged from Suncorp Stadium 5-0 winners over the lowly Roar.

Muscat has predominantly deployed the Kiwi flyer as a striker this season, a positional shift which has resulted in seven goals in 14 matches.

“It’s a pretty big milestone for myself,” said Barbarouses.

“I haven’t always been a striker, most of my career I’ve been a winger in the A-League.

“[It’s] probably taken a few years but everyone can see that I’m very happy in the new position as well and that comes with more opportunities to score.

“I think I’m doing pretty well to take them now.

“The boys contribute to a lot of that and I just want to make sure their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed in this achievement too.”

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Barbarouses is fast approaching a decade of football in the Hyundai A-League and now sits sixth on the Hyundai A-League’s goal-scoring charts following Tuesday night’s treble.

He has now scored five goals in his last two meetings with Brisbane, for whom he won the Premiership and Championship in 2010/2011.

“It’s something that you don’t really think about going into the game and then after I got my second goal there was still a bit of time left,” he said.

“I thought I had scored two goals against Brisbane a few weeks ago and I might get it there. 

“Luckily a ball popped up to me in the penalty box to get my hat trick and it feels good.

“I want to try and do it more often!”

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