The Melbourne Victory Post
Squad27 Sep 2027
The knee: Jesse Baker out for 14 days
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Melbourne Victory lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Jordi Valadon falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Israel Boatwright wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Melbourne Victory can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Bonga Mkhize signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bonga Mkhize commits to Melbourne Victory for another 3 years.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Joshua Rawlins has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melbourne Victory will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
No hiding place for Xavier Stella
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Xavier Stella, and the manager let it.
In brief
- Market Joshua Rawlins placed on the list
- The dugout Joe Wallis asks for a word with the manager
- Market The Joe Wallis question follows Melbourne Victory around
- The dugout The manager comes out for Denis Genreau