Kevin Muscat and Michael Theoklitos were joint runners-up, with Carlos Hernández trailing a point behind.

Both Thompson and Vargas picked up other awards as well, with Thompson receiving the SEN Player of the Year award and Vargas voted Players’ Player of the Year. Leigh Broxham also won multiple awards, scoring both the Clubman of the Year and the Age Young Player of the Year awards.

None of the results particularly surprise me, even though they are quite different from the Fans’ Choice Melbourne Victory Awards we hosted on MVFC Blog a month ago. Fans picked Michael Theoklitos for Best Player and Sebastian Ryall for Best Young Player (Leigh Broxham was a very distant third in that contest).

What do you think of the results of the Victory Awards?

Only A-League players were picked for the training camp, though Verbeek insists there’s no guarantee that he’ll pick exclusively A-League players for the opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar on February 6.

On his perception of the A-League, Verbeek said:

“I enjoyed every game I’ve seen, the stadiums are fantastic, the crowds are unbelievable.”

“I saw great goals, but I saw also unbelievable mistakes.”

“It’s up to me to find out if the players make that same mistake too many times because then I cannot use them.” (The World Game)

While Archie’s inclusion in the line-up is predictable, Muscat and Vargas are surprising additions. Not that they’re undeserving – quite the contrary. Muscat is the rock-solid heart of the Victory; and Vargas has been one of the few constants in an ever-changing defensive line-up.

That Michael Theoklitos didn’t make it is disappointing. Clint Bolton and Ante Covic are the senior goalkeepers to have been picked for the camp. But Graham Arnold has selected Danny Vukovic, along with fourteen other Olyroos, to train alongside the senior Socceroos. Unsurprisingly, Leigh Broxham and Nick Ward have both been picked as well.

It will be interesting to see how many A-League players will feature in the Qatar match. If he wants any of the European-based Aussies, Verbeek knows he can get them. But since they’ll only be arriving about 48 hours before the game kicks off, a squad made up entirely of the European-based players seems risky – perhaps even more risky than a squad predominantly made up of local talent.

For an 18 year old, that’s a pretty decent way to start your contract with an A-League club.

In actual fact, Broxham has been a rising star for some time now. He became a pupil with the Victorian Institute of Sport in 2003 and the following year he captained the Victorian Under 17s, having been named the Victorian under-16 player of the year.

Then came national glory, as he joined the Australian Under 17s for the World Cup in Peru. The Melbourne Victory snatched him up early in 2006 and had him on hand as a Football Team Assistant – meaning he trained with the squad but was not an official player.

He’s a quick player with great movement. At 169 cm, he looks rather diminutive, but he’s a tenacious, wily midfielder. And according to Ernie Merrick, Kevin Muscat’s taken it upon himself to toughen him up:

“Kevin does kick him around a bit at training but that’s because he likes him and thinks he has a future and wants to show him how tough and hard you have to be to succeed in this game.”

So far, Merrick has Broxham off the bench to inject new life into the team. I expect that we’ll see him grow into a regular first team player over the next three years, but for this season I think we’ll see him used primarily as a 2nd half substitute. The Tim Cahill of the Melbourne Victory, perhaps?

Read more about Leigh Broxham:

• Leigh Broxham on Wikipedia
• Broxham profile on Melbourne Victory website
• Youngster loves a kicking, The Age, January 19, 2007