Jesse Baker

Left Midfielder - Melbourne Victory U18
19 Dec 2027
Sunday
Process
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Marked for Jesse Baker

61 Edition

The Melbourne Victory Post

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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

Back issues
60 Edition

The Melbourne Victory Post

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad20 Sep 2027

A knee injury of the worst kind for Jesse Baker

21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Melbourne Victory lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad20 Sep 2027

Tempers go at Melbourne Victory

Paul Okon-Engstler was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Transfer targets20 Sep 2027

Burton Albion tell Melbourne Victory: Millar Matthews-Lewis is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad20 Sep 2027

No place for Liam Gillion in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Melbourne Victory are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

Market20 Sep 2027

Still no ink between Melbourne Victory and Matthew Grimaldi

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Melbourne Victory, another week without a signature from Matthew Grimaldi.

The dugout20 Sep 2027

When it matters, Santos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market20 Sep 2027

The shop window has Denis Genreau in it

Melbourne Victory have let the market know Denis Genreau can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

Squad20 Sep 2027

Oliver Dragićević: “I am not a substitute”

“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Melbourne Victory will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.

The dugout20 Sep 2027

Xavier Stella knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Xavier Stella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

59 Edition

The Melbourne Victory Post

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad13 Sep 2027

Jesse Baker damages knee ligaments — 28 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad13 Sep 2027

Xavier Stella is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Transfer targets13 Sep 2027

Melbourne Victory rebuffed over David Abimbola

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bolton Wanderers have kept their man, and Melbourne Victory go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad13 Sep 2027

Tempers go at Melbourne Victory

Jordi Valadon was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad13 Sep 2027

Words at Melbourne Victory training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liam Gillion is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout13 Sep 2027

A promise honoured at Melbourne Victory

Something was said to Matthew Grimaldi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

The dugout13 Sep 2027

Charles Nduka gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Charles Nduka is on it.

The dugout13 Sep 2027

The manager makes an example of Joe Wallis

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Market13 Sep 2027

Melbourne Victory shop where it costs nothing

Liam Gillion signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.

In brief