Respected mentor Rob Sherman passes on his wisdom to Murray youth

Melbourne Victory’s General Manager of Technical Coaching Rob Sherman ran an interactive training session at La Trobe on Wednesday.

Born in Wales, Sherman played professionally for Cardiff City, Swansea City and Hull City.

He has worked as the Wales national under-16 coach, mentoring the likes of Gareth Bale.

More recently, Sherman held the position of Technical Director with Football New Zealand and was Head of Coach Education for Football Federation Australia, where he presented Pro and A Licence courses.

Sherman welcomed the opportunity to spend time with some of the Border’s top talent.

“In essence, we’re looking at making sure we form very solid relationships across the whole state.

“It isn’t just about player ID, it’s about helping grow the game.

“I believe coach education is a fundamental.

“There’s no secrets in the game, it is about sharing and the only thing that benefits from that is the game.

“With Murray United being the NPL club here, that should be the conduit for the talented players.

“The NPL was designed to set the tier up, which took some responsibility for youth development.

“That’s not to say people weren’t doing it previously, but the aim was to make it a little bit clearer.”

Sherman admitted there is no shortage of talent to unearth in regional areas.

“I come from quite an isolated area in Wales and in some respects the challenges we faced living in a rural community held us in good stead,” he said.

“You have to play with older boys, everyone gets a game, you make it work and by and large you survive because of it.”

Sherman is working on a structural overhaul of Victory’s academy, and with FFV undertaking its competition review, the A-League club could have the full age group contingent in the NPL system by the 2020 season.

Victory’s youth teams currently play NPL under-15s, 18s, 20s and seniors.