Eagano Singehebhuge, left, and Vaughn Steward, right, are two of St Albans’ talented up-and-coming futsal hopefuls. 88753_01 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE St Albans Strikers have again delivered on the big stage in the Victorian futsal scene.
Along with three out of five championship winning teams this season, the Strikers’ successful junior program has seen several of its young stars get the call up to play for Victoria in January’s national championships in Canberra.
Club coach Robert Lakovski says his juniors teams had an outstanding year.
“We’ve been playing in club championships for the last four years now, and there’s no clubs that usually win two or three titles,” Lakovski said.
“It’s very difficult to win because you’re coming up against the best futsal clubs in the state, so to win three, for us is a great achievement and it caps off a good year.”
St Albans’ under-14s team has been particularly exceptional, going through their Melbourne Futsal League campaign undefeated to eventually win the club championship.
Lakovski says most of that squad will represent Victoria early next year.
“(That) group of boys in the under-14s have been together for a while now, and they have actually represented the state three years in a row,” he said.
“That’s just been a phenomenal age group for our club.
“They’ve been successful since they started playing futsal four or five years ago, so it’s just reward for their ability.”
Although the Strikers’ senior men’s team finished runners up in the MFL, their sixth-place finish in their interstate F-League campaign was “a little bit disappointing” according to Lakovski.
However, off the back of the juniors’ success, he said the club is expecting to make significant changes to its senior structure from next year.
“I think the one thing would be to try and promote youth through our top team,” Lakovski said.
“For next year a lot of these (junior) players will be going into our reserve team and some of them will be going into the seniors to try to fast-track a lot of these kids and give them opportunities at the top level.”
