Gavin Nelson

Right Midfielder - Free Agent
10 Mar 2030
Sunday
Process

Marked for Gavin Nelson

117 Edition

The Melbourne Victory Post

23 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Jack Duncan breaks a bone — 100 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Nishan Velupillay

Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Nobody wins at Melbourne Victory

15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

10 unbeaten for Melbourne Victory

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Melbourne Victory did not have in the autumn.

Boardroom

Melbourne Victory tie Travis Roberts down

A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.

Squad

Tempers go at Melbourne Victory

Denis Genreau 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.

Squad

Joshua van Schoor is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Melbourne Victory

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Squad

A late step up for Liam Gillion

At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

In brief