It’s still not three years since Airton Andrioli led Adelaide United’s Under 21s to South Australia’s senior NPL Championship. Arriving at the finals in third position, they then blazed their way to the trophy with sixteen goals in four matches, capped off with a 7-2 hammering of Modbury Jets in the final.
Andrioli is now in charge of the Reds’ senior side, and will be hoping for similar success as he prepares for his first A-League Men’s finals series. What’s more, he’s relishing that a number of those former youth players are now leading the charge.
Luka Jovanovic scored a brace in that 2023 NPL final, just as he did against Melbourne City on the final day of the regular season thirteen days ago. Those more recent heroics shot Adelaide to second and earned them a week off; today they meet Auckland in the first of a two-leg semi-final.
‘We did something special a few years ago, winning the NPL. I always had this feeling that we could do something [more], because we know each other so well,’ Andrioli told Box2Box.
‘I knew these players for such a long time and coached many of them through the youth system, from a very young age. It’s just a matter of them maturing, getting better, a bit more experienced. At the end of the day, that’s becoming a realisation now.
‘We finished second [this season], something that many people wouldn’t put any one cent on us doing before the season started. But we did believe in the work we did behind closed doors.’
Johnny Yull, Luke Duzel, Fabian Talladira and Panashe Madanha were the other names on the scoresheet against Modbury, while Ethan Alagich was captain. Yull, Alagich & Jovanovic have been fixtures in Australia’s underage national teams in recent years while developing into consistent senior footballers, and look to be the next crop of United youngsters to be sold abroad.
Andrioli has spent years as a quiet contributor of South Australian youth development, which has become the envy of the nation. His eclectic resume includes time as Football SA’s technical director; perhaps little known outside his adopted state, the Brazilian national has stepped into the national spotlight to take his first senior men’s club role this season aged sixty.
He doesn’t have a perfect formula for developing young footballers, but generally errs on the side of conservatism – unless they are truly special cases. Two such players in Mohamed Toure and Nestory Irankunda may this summer reach the pinnacle, favourites at this stage to play up front for Australia at the World Cup.
‘I’m a big believer that players stay here as long as possible, to get a consistent couple of seasons in the A-League and develop all aspects of their game. I think in general, there’s a tendency of players that want to go [too] early. It’s sometimes not just the players but a number of combinations, a lot of things, agents,’ said Andrioli.
‘Generally, there are some players that probably look good when they’re here, but as soon as they get put outside their comfort zone they might struggle. Also [Clubs] often don’t need to spend a lot of money to get Australian players overseas so if they’re not doing well, the clubs probably don’t care – they will just get the next one.
‘But I also like to say that it depends on the individual, and if you ask me the question about somebody like Nestor, [I’d say] he had to go overseas, because he needs that challenge to learn. Nestor had some attributes that needed to be challenged, and he could only get that overseas in my opinion. So for him, it was beneficial to go early.’