MVFC Blog

Leigh Broxham couldn’t have joined the Melbourne Victory at a better time. He signed for three years at the end of last season and featured in a number of Victory games, culminating in the big one: the Grand Final.

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