Melbourne City have enjoyed success throughout the club – from academy level to their Ninja A-League and Isuzu UTE A-League teams. CEO Brad Rowse speaks to aleagues.com.au about their youth pathway and transfer strategy.
Let’s rewind five months. Melbourne City had just hoisted their second Isuzu UTE A-League Championship aloft on May 31 and looking back on that triumphant Grand Final appearance, it is still clear to see the fingerprints of the club’s academy on that historic night.
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That universal approach at City – where the club’s first team and academy programs are closely aligned to not only produce players and a pathway to professional football but deliver success – is once again the driving force going into 2025-26, across the Isuzu UTE A-League and Ninja A-League competitions.
“There’s no hard science, but we are very considered, we have a strategic plan that we look at the next five years and what we need to do. All these things are very deliberate,” City CEO Brad Rowse told aleagues.com.au ahead of Saturday night’s Round 1 showdown against Western Sydney Wanderers.
“Youth development is very important. We want to be developing, but you also want to be lifting trophies as well, and that’s often a bit of a dichotomy and a challenge to one another.
“That’s why it was especially rewarding last season for the men’s when we actually got to lift a trophy, and predominantly with a very young team at the same time. It’s a bit of a proof of life, but it’s tough. Everyone wants to win.”
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FULL FIXTURES: Every match of the Isuzu UTE A-League 25-26 season here
DERBY DATES: The matches to circle in your calendar now
FIRST 5 FIXTURES: Your Isuzu UTE A-League team’s start to the 2025-26 season
FINALS SERIES: 2025-26 structure and dates
TRANSFER CENTRE: Your club’s ins/outs ahead of the upcoming season
Just look at City’s squad for their Isuzu UTE A-League title defence. Beckham Baker, 15-year-old prodigy Akeem Gerald, Mathew Baker and Ryan Kalms have all been promoted from the academy program, while CommBank Joeys defender and academy graduate Besian Kutleshi has returned to the club.
Mathew Baker is the fifth player to have progressed through City’s entire player development pathway to sign a senior Isuzu UTE A-League contract starting in the City Football School, along with Peter Antoniou, Jayden Necovski, Lachie Charles and Lawrence Wong.
The City Football School’s program has provided an end-to-end program at Casey Fields. It is not only unearthing talent but creating fans and a community in Melbourne’s east.
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“We managed to build a facility, which is arguably the best in Australia for football development,” Rowse said.
“That’s a really critical part, having the right infrastructure. We started this City Football Schools program to sit alongside existing clubs, not to compete against them. They still play their games with the local clubs, and still train two days a week with them.
“We had no idea that the program would have these other unintended benefits as well. Because we end up finding out we’re unearthing quite a lot of hidden talent coming through that age cohort and we’re talking about talent like Jayden Necovski, Lawrence Wong, Peter Antoniou, Lachie Charles and Mathew Baker.
“Those kids all came through the City Football Schools program, and we created a pathway that could go straight into our academy. That end-to-end pathway has been a critical part of it.
“The other part with the City Football Schools program was: yes it unearths talent, but with every kid that participates, every kid gets a Melbourne City kit. So if they were agnostic, didn’t have an A-League team, by giving them a kit, those kids end up becoming supporters of us. They tend to wear it proudly to school.
“Then we find other kids are asking about the program as well. So it helps evangelise our brand. The other benefit from that program is we’re creating a community and all those kids and their parents and their siblings start coming to matchdays as well.
“We’ve even introduced a new membership category at AAMI Park to cater to this group, the EA Sports FC Family Lounge. We introduced it a year ago to cater for 350 people, we had to extend that, then we’ve doubled it this year and it’s nearly already sold out. It’s just flying.”
It all goes back to City’s state-of-the-art facilities at Casey Fields. It has helped realise a vision and unearth talent as the likes of Connor Metcalfe, Jordan Bos and Marco Tilio have come through the setup and gone to play for the CommBank Socceroos.
“The facility has enabled us to have a proper European-quality type Academy,” Rowse added. “Every kid in the academy, not only do they go into technical training, but we have that whole network of sports science and physio and psychologists. That is so important to help young kids on that journey.
“Every kid, once a month, will have an individual feedback session with a coach and their parents.
“So that was a game changer for us. Having infrastructure (like that) has really enabled us to realise that vision of a few years ago. This is something we want to future proof ourselves for the next 30 years, and we can keep growing.”
Then there is the launch of City women’s team, in both the senior and Under-20 NPLW Victoria competitions, from 2026 following an internal review of the Football Victoria (FV) Academy Girls’ program. They will be joined by rivals Melbourne Victory in the revolutionary NPL change which only enhances the academy pathway.
This on the back of another memorable season for City in the Ninja A-League.
Led by Michael Matricciani, City enjoyed an invincible campaign in the regular season as they went unbeaten before falling short in the Semi-Finals. They were also runners-up in the inaugural AFC Women’s Champions League – a competition City have qualified for again.
City’s women’s program has produced four Premierships and as many Championships, to go with a couple of invincible seasons and continental football.
2025-26 NINJA A-LEAGUE FIXTURE RELEASE
FULL FIXTURES: Every match of the Ninja A-League 25-26 season here
DERBY DATES: The matches to circle in your calendar now
FIRST 5 FIXTURES: Your Ninja A-League team’s start to the 2025-26 season
FINALS SERIES: 2025-26 structure and dates
TRANSFER CENTRE: Your club’s ins/outs ahead of the upcoming season
“We have always said with our women’s program that we didn’t start it for the first two-three years at Melbourne Heart,” said Rowse. “We wanted to make sure, when we did do it, that we could do it properly and have equal facilities, equal opportunities in every level. At the time we couldn’t.
“We needed to make sure we had those facilities and it wasn’t until we built them and could guarantee them that we started the women’s team. It’s been equal for us in terms of commitment and effort, opportunities, quality of everything they get.
“I think that promise and commitment to doing it that way is really is paying dividends.”
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Aurelio Vidmar’s men head into Round 1 having recruited Japanese star Takeshi Kanamori and Kosovo international Elbasan Rashani as well as Aussie young gun Liam Bonetig, to go with the club’s academy graduates.
City also farewelled Steven Ugarkovic, Harry Politidis, Arion Sulemani, Callum Talbot, James Jeggo (retired), Marco Tilio (end of loan) and Yonatan Cohen in the off-season.
City’s transfer incomings highlight their strategy and long-term vision.
“It’s always a tricky one. You’d love to have the big, big name. It certainly helps in marketing,” Rowse said.
“It’s really interesting because how it often works is the team who has the investment on a big marquee name foots the bill, but every other other club tends to benefit.
“It’s very hard, I think, still with a population this size to get a return on investment on a $20million-a-year type player. That’s the money you need to spend these days to get a household name who’s really going to affect the turnstile.
“It has changed a lot the last few years. The money is so big now in global football. I think it was only probably 10 years ago, we were sitting around debating, and it was kind of potentially a $5m-type spend. Now it’s just off the charts, and it’s just become very, very difficult to recoup that.
“I think the way the league or a club is to get those sorts of players that are household names now, it would need to be a combination between broadcasters, sponsors, all the clubs, almost all chipping in because everyone benefits. And the league itself doing it that way because it’s almost too hard for a single club to do the heavy lifting to make it pay off.
“When clubs have done it with the big names in the past, you do get the sugar hit, but the key question is to see whether it can make it ongoing and lasting. We’re not adverse to that when you are at a point where, if you’re making a surplus in the game, you’d reinvest it straight back into your list.
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“Having a proper facility here now, with the academy, having a real tier-one quality program. I think we’re on the right pathway. We’re producing the sort of talent that makes a lot of sense to give those kids the opportunity.
“That’s something I have to admire in someone like Vidmar as coach. It’s always tough when coaches have got their jobs on the line, feeling they have to win every game, and it’s far easier to go and play the seasoned professional that’s been a Socceroo. It is far riskier to play kids who invariably make some mistakes, but getting those minutes into them at that level is so crucial.
“Since we’ve been courageous enough to do that more often, it’s really starting to pay dividends. It’s an important part of the mix that we think is really important to get right.
“With that whole pathway, if we’re taking kids from football school through to the academy, it can’t be a dead end. You need to give them those opportunities, and you need to facilitate those kids with the minutes so they’ve got a chance for their careers to flourish. Whether that is staying with us, or if they’re good enough to catapult them overseas and springboard their careers overseas.
“When you’ve got players out there who were at the high levels and are being transferred at the high levels, you actually see some revenue come back over the years.
“If you have 10 or 12 high-level players, like the Bos’ out there… if A-League clubs can have that, it really helps a lot of the revenue challenges you have running a domestic competition.”
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